Outdoorsmen who love catching bass here in the heart of the Sportsman’s Paradise can give back to the sport in a big way on July 20.

That’s when pro bass angler Cliff “The Cajun Baby” Crochet’s second annual Every Fish Matters fundraising banquet is scheduled to be held at the Assumption Parish Community Center in Napoleonville. Crochet has put his heart and soul into the project because of his love of bass fishing and effort to grow the sport.

Last summer’s inaugural fundraiser took in more than $84,000. The cause was so popular and the turnout so large the event had to be moved this year from Pierre Part, Crochet’s hometown, to a larger site for the second banquet.

Admission is $50 at the door of the community center in Napoleonville. Doors open at 5 p.m. and a live auction is set for 7 p.m.

Crochet, the father of five young boys who also love chasing bass, used the money to buy F1 largemouth bass fingerlings to stock on both sides of the Atchafalaya Basin. Bass anglers who live all around the nation’s last great overflow swamp volunteered to release the first delivery on March 26 out of Doiron’s Landing, Stephensville, then again on April 15 when they picked up the second delivery at Veterans Park in Pierre Part.

Forty thousand “Tiger Bass,” a cross between two pure largemouth bass strains, were released during the second stocking event in the Atchafalaya Basin and along the east side of the East Atchafalaya Basin Protection Levee.

At that event in mid-April, 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.”

Crochet, a fun-loving Cajun who was a four-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier before joining the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour, was proud to point out the MLF Anglers Association supported Every Fish Matters. The MLFAA contacted the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for permits and other guidelines that must be followed to stock fish in Louisiana.

Tiger Bass are a first-generation cross between northern bass and Florida. They are known for being more aggressive than other hybrids, a development that appeals to bass anglers in and around south central Louisiana.

The fingerlings were delivered via a special truck to Stephensville and Pierre Part from the American Sport Fish Hatchery. The hatchery is the only facility licensed to produce and sell the Tiger Bass.

It was quite a sight that drizzly morning in Pierre Part to watch the biologists work with the volunteers to bag the tiny bass to hand out to the people who showed up to put them in a new home either on the Lake Verret side or in the Atchafalaya Basin. It was coordinated well starting before sunrise when the hatchery truck arrived.

It was a dream come true for Crochet, one of the most personable bass pros on any circuit.

“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 that morning.

He’s very passionate about the endeavor. He wants to ensure the future of bass fishing in this special region for his children and their children, for all future generations.

With an even greater turnout tomorrow evening in Napoleonville, next spring’s concerted stocking effort(s) should be even bigger and more widespread. After all, Every Fish Matters.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.