re: Swimming across the Mississippi River in south Louisiana

Interesting thread. I've crossed the Mississippi on a ferry and been in it's lower reaches (fishing). Don't think I would want to mess with it.

I do have a fair amount of experience with the little rivers of south Alabama -- Conecuh, Pea, Choctahatchee, Yellow. If you combined all those rivers and dumped them into the Mississippi, it probably wouldn't raise the level, but even little rivers are to be respected. They make look beautiful and benign. They may provide good fishing and great fun, but danger always lurks from below.