Come one, come all to pick up F1s, a cross between pure northern bass and pure Florida bass, to release in the Atchafalaya Basin or other public waters on either side of the Spillway.

The free event is scheduled for Saturday, May 11, at Veterans Park-Assumption Parish Recreation District 2, where Pierre Part bass fishing pro Cliff Crochet’s Every Fish Matters Foundation has scheduled its lone stocking of the baby bass for 2024. Crochet and his wife, Sara, have encouraged parents to bring their children to the event, which she called “a really cool experience.”

“This year we’ll do one release. It’ll be like 82,000 fish that we release May 11,” Crochet said recently, noting hours are from 6 a.m. to Noon.

There’s a reason for only one stocking in 2024, he said. Simply, the foundation he created will save money for a rainy day, so to speak.

“We’ll create a hurricane account so, if a hurricane hits,” funds will be available to restock any decimated bass population in a stricken area.

Based on last year’s two free stocking events March 26 at Doiron’s Landing, Stephensville, and April 15 at the scenic park in Pierre Part, Crochet’s program is a success.

The personable all-around outdoorsman who has fished five years on the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour got the idea in 2022 and held the first fundraising supper in late July at St. Joseph the Workers Catholic, Pierre Part. The overwhelming response raised $84,000 and it was apparent a bigger venue was necessary.

The 2nd annual Every Fish Matters conservation banquet held July 20, 2023, at the Assumption Parish Community Center, Donaldsonville, raised in an estimated $79,000, plus other donations.

The money from last summer’s fundraiser was used to purchase the highly sought-after fingerlings from the American Sport Fish Hatchery near Pike Road, Alabama, southeast of Montgomery. The hatchery is the only fish hatchery in the country licensed to produce and sell the F1s, also known as “Tiger bass.”

Tiger bass are the first-generation cross between two subspecies of largemouth bass –- northern largemouth and Florida bass.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists and many volunteers will be on site May 11 to oversee the transfer of F1s from the hatchery truck tanks to bags filled with treated water. The public can pick up a bag but needs an ice chest or a boat’s livewell to put it in.

Enjoy. Hopefully, Teche Area outdoorsmen from the west side of the Atchafalaya Basin will participate and release bass on this side of the Spillway or Lake Fausse Pointe.

***

With an exciting rollercoaster ride in the last Bassmaster Elite tournament April 18-21, New Iberia bass angler Caleb Sumrall got back on track to earn a berth in the 2025 Bassmaster Classic.

He’ll get his next chance to ascend the ladder against some of the country’s top bass fisherman starting Thursday when the 2024 Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray gets underway near Columbia, South Carolina. Competition days are May 9-12 with daily takeoffs at 6 a.m. from Dreher Island State Park with weigh-ins each day at 3 p.m.

Sumrall’s hard-earned 26th-place finish at the 2024 MAXAM Tire Bassmaster Elite tournament in April at St. Johns River in Florida pulled him out of a nosedive and left him in 50th place in the all-important Angler of the Year standings for ’24. He has 214 points through the first four tournaments with five remaining, including the regular-season finale Aug. 15-18 on the St. Lawrence River at Waddington, New York.

He renews his quest on Thursday to get back to the Bassmaster Classic for the first time since 2022. He missed the cut in 2022, when he was 46th in the AOY race, and 2023, finishing 73rd.

Sumrall was on top of his game last month on Day 1 on the St. Johns River. He culled to a five-bass limit weighing 28 pounds, 8 ounces, to take the first-day lead.

“That was the best day of fishing in my life,” he said during the weigh-in.

However, he slipped a little on Day 2 but still made the cut to fish Semifinal Saturday and finished 26th with 42 pounds, 11 ounces, to win $10,000.

It was by far his best finish in the first four tournaments of the year. Sumrall was 31st on the lake he guided on for a few years, Toledo Bend, in the opener Feb. 22-25. But he followed that up with a 60th at Lake Fork on Feb. 29-March 3, then posted an 85th-place finish April 12-15 at the Harris Chain in Florida.

Here’s hoping one of our own fishes all the way to Championship Sunday this week in South Carolina.

***

The numbers on the recreational red snapper harvest are in and the estimates are impressive for the first week of the season.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries released the first landing poundage May 2. LDWF’s near real-time landings data collection program showed 161,317 pounds, or 17 percent, was recorded through April 21. Louisiana’s annual private recreational quota is 934,587 pounds.

Dozens of avid red snapper boats and many anglers across Acadiana have sampled the 2024 season that began April 15, earlier than in the past several years with the added bonus of a four-fish daily creel limit per person. The season will remain open until the recreational harvest approaches or reaches the state’s quota.

The Sportsman’s Paradise has been allowed, thankfully, mercifully, to manage recreational red snapper fishing rules and regulations by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. The credit goes to the highly successful LA Creel program initiated by LDWF.

This year the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission modified the season-opening red snapper date to give anglers an opportunity to catch red snapper, greater amberjack and gray triggerfish the entire month of May.

Greater amberjack and gray triggerfish seasons both end May 30 after the gray triggerfish season started March 1 and the greater amberjack season opened May 1.

Our anglers were able to enjoy lagniappe catches like they haven’t been able to do in years. LDWF biologists urge them to participate in dockside, phone and email surveys to provide timely date.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.