ESPN Freshwater

Like the rest of the nation, I sat in stunned disbelief last Aug. 30 watching the tale of Hurricane Katrina's devastation unfold out of the central Gulf Coast.

What really caught my attention and brought home the scope of the destruction, however, were the televised reports from the Big Easy showing the tattered remains of the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown New Orleans sitting next to the Super Dome.

Official headquarters of the 2001 CITGO Bassmaster Classic, the hotel was the luxurious base from which I had covered Kevin VanDam's march to his first Classic triumph.

But late last summer, it was hard to imagine that facility as I had known it with windows blown out and draperies' fluttering in Katrina's dying breezes.

And that was before we began to learn that the levees had failed, filling the fish bowl of New Orleans with horrifying floodwaters and bringing almost unimaginable death and destruction to this historic city.

Now, months later, the floodwaters are gone, most of the dead have been counted, the rebuilding slowly continues, and the coffee and beignets are once again being served at the French Quarter's Café Du Monde.

Which leads me to wonder: What became of the Delta's amazing bass fishery, a stunningly beautiful and diverse ecosystem that provided the backdrop for Davy Hite's 1999 win; KVD's first Classic crown in 2001; and Mike Iaconelli's amazing last-minute 2003 triumph?

The answer, according to Joe Shepard, the research programs manager for the inland fisheries branch of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, is somewhat mixed depending upon which part of the state one wants to chase bass in.

In the southeastern region near New Orleans and Venice, the bass fishery is showing its first signs of life.

"Katrina came up basically just east of New Orleans and pretty much devastated everything east of the Mississippi River as far as freshwater fishing goes," Shepard said.

"Around the mouth of the river and the Plaquemines Parish area where much of the last classic (was contested), that area was totally inundated by saltwater from the storm surge."

Shepard says that the 15 to 20 foot storm surge of saltwater basically destroyed the fishery.

But that was then, what about now?

"We're seeing the fishery coming back somewhat now, especially around the mouth of the river," Shepard said.

Part of the reason is because Shepard says that the gates to the Caernarvon Freshwater Diversion Project have been open much of this year, something that allows the pumping of water from the Mississippi River into the Delta's marshes.

"We're noticing that some fish are coming back in those areas," Shepard said.

"When we originally sampled those areas (with electroshocking) after Katrina, there was virtually nothing there.

"But after they started pumping sometime in January, we recently started to find some fish in those areas."

In addition, he says that the LDW&F released nearly 100,000 Florida strain largemouth bass fingerlings and nearly 100 brood fish in recent weeks to help boost the bass' return to the Delta.

"But one of the problems we've had over the last year is a lack of rainfall," he said. "Since there has not been a lot of rain, while the freshwater fisheries are starting to come back, it's still pretty salty (there)."

North of the New Orleans area, Shepard says that many of the region's short-course rivers that dump into Lake Pontchartrain were swamped by the salty storm surge.

Following that, the decomposing of the vast amount of organic material downed from the storm has created water that is nearly devoid of oxygen in many cases.

As a result, these waters are virtually devoid of freshwater fish life and will take years to recover.

"It's a vicious cycle in those areas until it ends," Shepard said.

In southwestern Louisiana, where Hurricane Rita's wrath poured out in September 2005, the story is much the same.

Salt water intrusion from a storm surge that pushed miles inland and was 15 feet high — or more — along with tons and tons of organic matter that is decomposing in the marshes has left the region with not too much in the way of bass fishing at the moment.

Add in fish kills occurring in the warm temperatures of spring and summer along with the loss of water control structures that help put freshwater where it belongs and Shepard forecasts that it will be a number of years before this region of the state has fully recovered too. In between the hard-hit southeastern and southwestern corners of the state, the bass fishing news is somewhat more encouraging from the Atchafalaya Basin.

"We lost about one-third of the freshwater fish in that area (including bass), but the fishing is great right now," Shepard said. "Fishermen are still catching fish, even though we still lost a lot of fish."

With water quality back to near normal in the Atchafalaya Basin — and since forage species are present — Shepard says that Florida strain largemouths can now be stocked back into the fabled swamp.

So is bass fishing in the Sportsman's Paradise on life supports after Katrina's and Rita's ruthless visits last August and September?

"Absolutely not," Shepard said. "The loss of fish is just in certain areas.

"But in other parts of the state, especially in central and northern Louisiana, the fishing has been great this year.

"Places like the Red River and Toledo Bend are fishing really well and they are catching a lot of bass in the Atchafalaya."

For the hurricane-ravaged southeastern and southwestern coastal marshes, Shepard reminds anglers that eventually, the fisheries will come back.

"These areas will eventually recover, but it will take a lot of work to recover (to where we were)."