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added. “The spill was like the Energizer bunny. It just kept going and going and going. And now, with all the flooding in the Midwest and along the Missis- sippi River, that’s going to impact our client base even more.”


The shrimp are plentiful and the


trout are averaging a quarter-pound heavier than before the spill.


gave stocks an unintended boost. When I was there again in March for this year’s Bayou Blast, the boats all caught good numbers of redfish and flounder every trip, along with trout and jacks. The seasonal trout bite had- n’t quite turned on yet, but it has since picked up to impressive levels. “Fishing is awesome,” Capt. John Falterman, Jr., who specializes in the Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Borgne areas, reported in May. “It’s been crazy. The shrimp are plentiful and the trout are averaging a quarter-pound heavier than before the spill. I recently had a trip where we caught 75 trout in an hour and they averaged 2.5 pounds apiece. We’re also catching lots of black drum, flounder and sheepshead. Red-


are still off from peak highs. The annual event, which runs from the Memorial Day through Labor Day holiday weekends, is a big source of membership and fundraising for the state chapter. It awards $500,000 in prizes to the winning anglers in sev- eral divisions. “There was just a general malaise in our world last year,” David Cresson, executive director for CCA Louisiana, explains. “People were just not in a fishing mode and the majority of the coast just shut down for the summer. The attitude is much more optimistic this season, though.” Cresson and his staff worked tire- lessly with state and federal officials, plus British Petroleum, to monitor and


THE FISH ARE BACK


The world-class light-tackle fishing Louisiana is known for is certainly back to normal standards, however. It may be even better than before the spill, if that’s possible. Large sections of the marsh and back bays were unscathed. That, combined with the lack of pressure during the closures,


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fishing has been great, too, in the Biloxi Marsh. If these numbers hold, it’s going to be an incredible year.” CCA Louisiana wasn’t spared


from the spill’s impacts last year, either. The association’s annual STAR tournament was off by nearly 5,000 entries or nearly 40 percent of the annual total. Early numbers for 2011 showed a rebound, although those


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mitigate the effects of the spill. With the support from the state, they have applied to the National Resources Damage Assessment program (funded by BP) for a grant to boost stocks through a marine science center and hatchery. “We’re hopeful and optimistic that will happen relatively soon,” Cresson says.


TIDE


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