Thursday’s stocking of 80,000-plus Florida fingerling bass in LakeDauterive-Fausse Pointe remindedme of previous efforts to put bass in thelake systemfrequentedby somanypeoplefrom in and around the Teche Area.
There were some great volunteer efforts in the 1990s after Hurricane Andrew decimated the entire fish population in the lakesas wellas in the Atchafalaya Basin. That was in 1992. In the followingmonths,adult-sized bass were brought here by bass anglers as far away as Houma and Gonzales to help us replenish the bass population in Lake Dauterive-FaussePointe, an effort spearheaded by, among others, Malcolm Crochet of Loreauville.
Those were the days. Later, with the nation’s great overflow bouncing back quicker, Elvis Jeanminette of Grand Marais and others started the Big Shot bass tournaments in the Atchafalaya Basin that raised money for the next several years to buy Florida bass fingerlings from private fish hatcheries in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Apparently, we did something right then, as did the state biologists who stocked baby bass in borrow pits on the lake side of the West Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee after more hurricanes in the 2000s. The past two springs have been phenomenal as far as the number of 5-pound plus bass caught in the lake, more so in 2013.
Iknow at least one concerned outdoorsman who would like to see private dollarsused once again to stock the lake withbaby bass. Ricky Watkins of New Iberia expressed his feelings about that a few months ago and was hopeful some kind of volunteer project(s) could accomplish that.
Thursday’s stocking of bass, though, was courtesy of the dedicated biologists with the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The state agency, by the way, whole-heartedly supported our public efforts to restock the lake system via the adult bass that were given to us by generous and unselfish bassers and the highly popular Big Shot events.
The LDWF’s District 6 biologist manager and biologist supervisor drove to our lake to release the Florida bass fingerlings despite heavy rains at times Thursday. They met the delivery truck at Lake Fausse Pointe State Park.
The future of bass fishing in those waters looks good after seeing all those fish stocked from the aforementioned borrow pits to Marsh Field Boat Landing.
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The management of bass apparently is excellent at Toledo Bend, as well.
Dinah Medine, coordinator of the Toledo Bend Lake Association’s Lunker Bass Program, announced recently a record number of lunker bass replicas were handed out to anglers during the Sealy Outdoors Big Bass Splash at Cypress Bend Park on the Louisiana side of Toledo Bend. Sixty-one bass 10 pounds or heavier were entered in the program, one that returns the fish to the lake with the lucky angler getting a free replica.
Thirty-nine were in the 10-pound class; 14 in the 11-pound class, and six in the 12-pound class. Wow.
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DON SHOOPMANis outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.