PIERRE PART – If you buy them, then bag them, people will come.

Cliff Crochet, also known as “The Cajun Baby”, was counting on people in the community to distribute 40,000 “Tiger Bass,” a cross between two pure largemouth bass strains, and on April 15 they delivered … delivered them to area waters, including the Atchafalaya Basin.

Dozens of pickup trucks with boat in tow and other vehicles picked up 211 water-filled bags containing up to 75 F1 largemouth bass fingerlings each after 6 a.m. at Veterans Park in Pierre Part. The fingerlings, which have a higher survival rate than fry, mostly were released in and around Lake Verret and the east side of the Spillway.

Crochet, a Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour veteran and four-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier, was a proud papa as he walked back-and-forth around the filling and bagging tables to the bag and distribution point in the parking lot on an overcast, drizzly morning. Through his eyes, it was a bright day for the future of bass fishing.

His Every Fish Matters project got off to a great start with a wildly successful fundraising banquet in July 28, 2022. That event raised more than $84,000 that enabled Crochet to buy bass this year with two release dates, March 26 out of Doiron’s Landing, Stephensville, and April 15.

“The plan to stock the water(s) was the easy part. That was the goal from the start. The tricky part was how to fund it, how to get that ball rolling. That was friends, family, community, fishermen. That’s who stepped up, the banquet, to raise money. This is just another great example of the people of south Louisiana. I might be a little biased but Coonasses in south Louisiana are the best people in the world,” Crochet said.

“This is unheard of throughout the country in the amount of money raised. This is a huge step forward for us, for Assumption Parish, Atchafalaya Basin, Lake Verret, the whole system. This is a huge step forward for conservation. Conservation’s a big deal,” he said.

“It brings attention to how good our water is and how much room for improvement we have. We all like to catch. We all like to spend time on the water, but a focus on conservation never hurts.”

As traffic picked up after 7 a.m., Crochet said with a chuckle, “I don’t want to be greedy but there’s never enough (bass in the fishery).”

An American Sport Fish Hatchery truck from Montgomery, Alabama, delivered the F1s around sunrise last Saturday. The hatchery is the only facility licensed to produce and sell the first-generation cross between two pure subspecies, a special strain of aggressive northern bass and a pure strain of faster-growing Florida bass, which is why they’re called “Tiger Bass.”

Waiting for the truck were Crochet, his wife, Sara, her sister, Ragan Theriot, and about 20 of 22 members of the Assumption High School Bass Club and their dads, as well as Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists Kristi Butler, Director for Inland Fisheries in Louisiana; Ben Young, District 6 biologist from the Lafayette office, and Brac Salyers, District 9 Biologist Manager.

Butler, Young and Salyers coordinated the bagging of fingerlings dipped out of the hatchery truck by driver Kent Howell of Troy, Alabama. They also helped the high school bass anglers bag the small fish.

“We got here about 5:35 to try to get it staged as good as we could, trying to get an assembly line so we could hand out fish, so people don’t have to wait,” Salyers said.

Mitch Falcon of Pierre Part, 52, an instrument technician for Texas Brine Co., said, “This is great. That’s why I’m out helping Cliff. This is a great thing that Cliff does.”

Falcon also was proud of the local high school bass anglers on hand.

“Being affiliated with the fishing team, this is needed. You can’t have a bass fishing team without bass. I’m glad to see the whole high school Assumption fishing team helping out,” he said.

Major League Fishing Anglers Association supported his project all the way, Crochet said. The Alabama hatchery was chosen because it sponsors Crochet’s friend, Louisiana native Keith Poche of Pike Road, Alabama.

MLFAA contacted the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for permits and other guidelines to follow in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Butler said the LDWF’s role is to ensure a coordinated, safe release of the fish and to prevent non-target species from out-of-state hatcheries entering state waters.

“This is a great effort. We’re happy to see any community effort,” she said.

Butler also explained the blue tint to the water in the bags. The water has salt added to it that equalizes the salinity inside and outside the F1s to reduce stress. Blue dye was added to let volunteers know the water was treated.