Local outdoorsmen who have concerns about the status of the Atchafalaya Basin and its bass and sac-a-lait populations, well, it’s time to talk about them.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has scheduled a public meeting to be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, in the Joe Herring Room of the LDWF building at 2000 Quail Drive in Baton Rouge. State department fisheries biologists plan to present current and past data about fisheries trends, particularly bass and crappie populations in the Spillway.

An LDWF prepared statement released at 2:17 p.m. Monday indicated topics of discussion include the stocking of bass in the Atchafalaya Basin, regulations and a brief description of the state agency’s pilot Tournament Information Project.

Most importantly, the public is invited to ask questions or express concerns after the presentation.

That’s where we come in. The LDWF must hear about the concerns we’ve been talking about for the past few years, especially this year, concerns that something’s really wrong with the great swamp between the levees.

We need to go on record about what we’re seeing out there this year after the Atchafalaya River stage at Butte La Rose plunged from the 14s to the 6s in less than two weeks in late June into early July. The water quality, the siltation, the invasive plants covering shorelines bank to bank, and an apparent dropoff in the harvest of our favorite gamefish, bass, sac-a-lait and bream, are the main issues. Perhaps others see more problems and should bring them up, as well.

If people can’t attend the meeting, contact LDWF. Let them know.

Also, inform elected officials, our respective senators and representatives if you have the chance. (While we’re at it, we must bring up the sorry situation at Taylor’s Point, which needs dredging to allow safe egress and ingress to a natural waterway, Charenton Lake.)

That’s what this meeting is. A chance. An opportunity.

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While we’re on the subject of bass, or the apparent lack of them, in the Atchafalaya Basin, here’s a reminder to circle the date July 25 and attend the 3rd annual Every Fish Matters Conservation Banquet.

The doors open at 5 p.m. at the Assumption Parish Community Center in Napoleonville, where the founder of the Every Fish Matters Foundation, Cliff “The Cajun Baby” Crochet of Pierre Part, scheduled the event to be held for the second straight year because it outgrew the site of the inaugural fundraising banquet in his hometown of Pierre Part — St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church.

His project, funded entirely by money raised at the previous two fundraising events, has paid for 15,000 2-inch long F1 “Tiger bass” fingerlings to be stocked in and around the Spillway in April 20, 2023; 50,000 F1s in May 2023, and 82,000 pure largemouth bass fingerlings in May 2024.

The Cajun Baby, a former Bassmaster Elite who qualified four times for the Bassmaster Classic before moving over to the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour, told me something in April 2022 that struck home as someone who loves to fish in the Atchafalaya Basin.

“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.”

Earlier this year, when the baby bass were distributed from Veterans Park-Assumption Parish District 2 in Pierre Part to eager outdoorsmen and outdoors women of all ages, he told WAFB-TV, Channel 9, “The whole focus of the project is conservation and giving back to the resource. Our first goal is to get to 1 million.”

Banquet tickets for the fast-approaching third supper cost $50. Doors open at 5 p.m. and a live auction is scheduled for 8 p.m. LEO and EMS workers have free admission.

Go to the event. Let Cliff know you’re there to represent the western side of the Atchafalaya Basin. It’ll go a long way to opening the door for more bass fingerlings to be stocked on this side of the Atchafalaya River from Catahoula to Verdunville.

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At the recent IR&GC Saltwater Fishing Rodeo, weighmaster Dusty Hulin let me know the Coastal Conservation Association-Louisiana’s Sugar Chapter has scheduled its annual banquet for Aug. 15 at the Cade Community Center. Make plans to attend that Thursday night.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.