Southern Hooks, through the Grace of God and beautiful, calm waters has slowly become more than just a way of life over the last four years since the inception of The Bite Me Bar on the banks of the Cypress tree laced banks of Caddo Lake. What I originally thought of as quite possibly the best man cave retreat in Oil City, Louisiana, showed it’s true self to me after a relocation to another of the South’s fine Gulf States.  It was never just the "Bite Me Bar", as I called it.  It was this whole way. This whole mindset.  This whole location.

The move back to Mississippi, with its many quiet lakes, tall pines, and white silver sands, showed
another side of the lifestyle I’d been living; another facet in the entwining love of the Southern 'diamond' of life. Casting my lines in the wispy Mississippi mornings was just as enticing and just as awe inspiring as it had been in Louisiana.  It was after this move that I realized The Bite Me Bar was more than just my place to be or a great idea for a single T-shirt. Southern Hooks was born and it was realized that this is a people brand. A culture of both salt water and fresh, music laced with steel drums and rum, and fine southern cooking. A culture of people who share similar backgrounds and love of all things Southern and Coastal that hold their families and friends close.

Southern Hooks. A way of life. A mindset. A location.

Pull up a seat, cast a line, and have a smile.
-JD

Someone asked me why this adventure in exploring a lifestyle was called “Southern Hooks.” Seeing as we were sitting in a boat on a lake near the home I share with a true Southern Wife/Mom and our kids, I figured I had as captive of an audience as I was going to get. That is unless they wanted to swim.  I simply stated that a hook is used to catch an object. Be it a person, a memory, a fish, or a way of life.  The hook is used to catch and hold. The Southern lifestyle is that way. There are hooks embedded in that lifestyle. We in the South are a different sort of person…we are “hooked” in the traditions and ways of the South. My friend thought a moment. I could see the line get tight in his mind and I knew he was “hooked.”

I then explained there is also another side to the name. We as Southerners are the hooks. We retain
what we have learned and grown up with and “hook” the next generation. We “hook” them on the
Southern way of life. My friend obviously didn’t know what to say as he had never really seen so deep a thought issue from my pond shallow mind. I could tell that he was a bit perplexed and obviously wanted to ask a question, but was afraid to seem less than intelligent.

I said next, “And yes it’s about fishing too.”

We are all Southern Hooks.
Pull up a seat, cast a line, and have a smile.
-JD