Ah springtime and an angler’s fancy turns to bass.
Yes, spring sprung Friday, and it should be the time we can expect most bass calling south Louisiana waters home to be moving to places they can make lots of little bass.
It’s been a frustrating past few weeks. Rain has led to a series of extra-windy cold fronts. The rain has kept water levels fluctuating and the shifting south to north to south ... have kept spawning banks muddy.
If there’s one thing a mama bass doesn’t like it's muddy water. She needs clear water and sunshine to warm fertilized eggs for several days to produce the fry we hope will grow into adult spawners one day.
What all this means is male bass, the ones preparing the spawning beds, move in to the shallows on post-cold front days only to have to repeat the process after another front.
So the mama bass are hanging around in prespawn areas waiting for their partner to usher them to a perfectly prepared spawning area. For the most part, these females continue to be in prespawn mode.
For Saturday coming, the folks throwing their hats into the ring for the annual City Park Big Bass Rodeo in New Orleans hope there is enough action along the banks of the miles of the park’s lagoons to make for another successful morning.
It’s the 76th time folks will gather for this event, making it the oldest freshwater fishing competition in our country.
Better even, it’s for more than bass. There is a category for bream and both have adult, youth and team divisions. There’s competition for school students in what’s called the Battle for the Bass, and a Kayak/Canoe Boats on the Bayou contest in nearby Bayou St. John.
Oh, and the event’s title is completed by adding a Fishtival with games, music, exhibits and kid-friendly activities near the park’s Casino (not that kind of a casino, the one where long-ago parties and dances were held near the bandstand).
If you fish, and you’re 18 and older, you need a basic fishing license.
Organizers would like participants to register in advance. That website:
More on waterfowl
Ducks Unlimited published its annual postseason report last week and its staff posted some interesting results.
With avian flu grabbing daily headlines, DU’s biologists reported the biggest impact appears in ring-necked ducks and several goose species, and, “while mortality events in southern areas faded as winter progressed, outbreaks increased in northern states during February and March,” and they suggested the virus “has relatively small effects on overall populations.”
Also cited was 2024’s early spring led to an early migration and ducks found little water in the prairies which led the ducks to fly farther north into the Boreal Forest area. The breeding areas in the U.S. were wet, but Canada’s May pond count hit a 20-year low.
The report further stated, “The combined effect of below average duck populations and variable habitat conditions set the stage for an average or slightly below average fall flight.”
Then, there was something most all Louisiana hunters experienced. Unusually warm conditions from September into early December delayed the migration and it wasn’t until Arctic cold came in late December and even colder fronts in January that ducks pushed hard into the Deep South.
As for this breeding cycle, DU’s staff expects, “the 2025 breeding population to be similar to last year ... and widespread spring and summer rain will be needed to improve conditions across the Prairie Pothole Region.”
You can find the complete report on DU’s website:
The survey
State Wildlife and Fisheries sent an email last week to selected waterfowl hunters to direct them to a site for an updated Harvest Information Program survey to selected waterfowl hunters.
The survey is conducted every five years in advance of the state’s next plan for a five-year plan (through the 2030 season) LDWF must submit to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service outlining zones and other details for waterfowl seasons. This survey has 37 questions.
If you need more information, email Jeffrey Duguay; jduguay@wlf.la.gov or state Waterfowl Program manager Jason Olszak: jolszak@wlf.la.gov.
