Older anglers among us only have to look at catches some much younger folks among us brought to the scales during the past week to know how productive the Atchafalaya and Verret basins are.
Matthew Fontenot and Cole Billiot, members of the Lafourche Junior Bassmasters, won the Louisiana Youth BASS Nation Junior East Division qualifying tournament held from Doiron’s in Stephensville with a bragging-rights weight of 15.71 pounds on a five-bass limit.
It’s a catch worthy of landing a top-10 finish in big-money events especially when you consider these youngsters are still in grade school.
The celebration continued with the Denham Springs-based team of Noah Martinez and Wyatt Morales. This Junior Southwest Bassmasters team caught one fish, a whopper — 6.28 pounds — to lead that the parade, and all the veterans can relish the thought of a youngster’s excitement when that bass came into their boat.
The Louisiana Youth BASS Nation High School East Division qualifying tournament made Doiron’s an even busier place when 143 teams competed on the waters of the two basins — 28 teams entered the Junior tournament.
Central High School came away the big winner with the top two teams: Matthew Rome and Connor Dawson won with 14.45 pounds and their teammates, Cade Walock and Brady Smith ended up second at 13.69 pounds.
Central High’s Logan Patterson and Landon Patterson made it a clean sweep with their 4.78-pound big bass.
The action in the Atchafalaya appears to be better in the more northern reaches, say from Bayou Pigeon north, while the best stringers in the Verret Basin are coming from Belle River and canals off Verret and Grassy lakes.
Punching matted grass and working the edges of hyacinth with spinnerbaits and vibrating jigs are working in both basins.
And, now’s the time to get there because all that snow and ice up north has to go somewhere after the thaw and we know where that’ll be. The Atchafalaya River is unusually low for this time of year, and late winter-early spring rains usually fill up the Verret side.
The beauty of these two events is that all 446 fish caught were released alive, and the the average weight of each fish was 1.88 pounds.
Our share
It’s always amusing when federal bureaucrats announce how much our national government is doling out to the states from two funds labeled “Wildlife Restoration” and “Sport Fish Restoration & Boating Trust.”
Simply stated, these two piles of money come from federal taxes paid by manufacturers — and passed along to hunters, fishermen and boaters — to the Pittman-Robertson (wildlife) and Dingell-Johnson (fishing) restoration funds.
The piles of money are then apportioned to the states according to the number of hunting and fishing licenses sold in each state. What’s amusing is U.S. territories like Guam and American Samoa (among others) share in these funds, and so does that bastion of hunters and fishermen in Washington, D.C.
So, Louisiana’s share in the Wildlife Restoration Fund comes to $23,293,610 of the total pot of $1,115,157,974. That’s a pile of cash when considering hunters and the hunting community paid for that in addition to all the other expenses it takes to hunt these days.
Let’s compare that to neighboring states for fiscal year 2022: Texas, $51,053607; Alabama, $26,620,230; Florida, $20,563,568; Mississippi, $16,618,535; and, Arkansas, $18,896,545. Alaska was second on the list at $46,431,615.
From the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Fund, Louisiana’s share was $8,001,029 of a total $399,681,336.
Texas and Alaska took $19,983,067 each while our neighbors got a healthy share: Florida, $14,239,304; Alabama, $6,891,770; Arkansas, $6,381,774; and, Mississippi, $4,410,357.
All those monies went to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the task of every hunter and fisherman in our state is to see those funds are used wisely.
No complaints yet for work LDWF has done in places like False River, Lake Bistineau, Bussey Brake and artificial reefs along the coast.
And the hope is our state’s sportsmen understand why it’s important to buy licenses.
More warnings
The state’s Health, Environmental Quality and Wildlife and Fisheries reported updates to fish consumption advisories on five waterbodies.
The advisories are due “to unacceptable levels of mercury detected in the fish,” which can cause kidney damage and harm to your nervous system especially in women of child-bearing age, young children and developing fetuses.
All are in the northern parishes and include:
- Bayou Bonne Idee from its headwaters near Jones to the Boeuf River: no more than one meal per month of bowfin, flathead catfish, freshwater drum (gaspergou) and largemouth bass combined, or no more than two meals per month of channel catfish and yellow bullhead combined.
- Bayou DeSiard from its headwaters to the Ouachita River: no more than one meal per month of bowfin, or no more than two meals per month of black crappie (sac-à-lait) and largemouth bass combined.
- Black Bayou Lake (Ouachita Parish): no more than one meal per month of bowfin, or no more than three meals per month of largemouth bass.
- Lake Louis/Bayou Louis to the Ouachita River: no more than one meal per month of bowfin, flathead catfish and freshwater drum combined, or no more than three meals per month of black crappie, largemouth bass and spotted bass combined.
- Ouachita River from the Louisiana/Arkansas to the Tensas River and any lakes inside of the levee system: no bowfin, crappie, flathead catfish, freshwater drum, largemouth bass, spotted bass or white bass, and should limit all other species to no more than one meal per month.
Older adults and children have, for the most part, less restrictive advisories.
The complete list is available on the state website: ldh.la.gov/EatSafeFish.
