The coastal community of Leeville was decimated by Ida
This past Sunday, Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with sustained winds of 150 mph, and reported gusts as high as 172 mph. As such, it tied last year’s Hurricane Laura which hit Cameron, Louisiana, as the second most intense storm to hit the state, only behind Hurricane Katrina. And the 5th most intense storm to ever hit the United States.
Over the next 24 hours, Ida moved slowly northward bringing destruction in the form of wind damage, tidal surges, and flash flooding to parts of southeast Louisiana, southern Mississippi and even as far east as the Alabama coast. Over one million homes and businesses were without electricity, and an estimated $15 billion in property damage.
Having grown up and lived in south Louisiana nearly my entire life, I can attest the resiliency of my fellow “Cajuns”. Depending on location, it will take weeks to months, but we’ll build back and hopefully, better.
And when we’re done building back, we’ll want to turn our attention to things we enjoy the most, like fishing. Except there may not be much to offer there. Like prior hurricanes Andrew and Gustav, it may take years for our freshwater fisheries to recover from post-storm massive fish kills.
The waterways of the Atchafalaya River Basin, as well as the Verret and Des Allemands basins to the east, are home to world-class warmwater fishing… and especially fly fishing. The past two years, fly anglers have had some spectacular trips to places like Bayou Corne, Lake Verret, Henderson Lake, Bayou des Gauches, Cow Island Lake, and many others. Large numbers of chunky bluegill and redear approaching one pound in size, and dozens of black bass. For fly fishers using “fluff butts” and other jig-like flies, crappie stringers have been consistent.
Now that’s probably all gone. Major hurricanes like Ida cause hypoxia in all these waters by a combination of wind-stirred organics, litterfall (leaves stripped from trees that consume oxygen upon decay), and backwater flooding. When the water recedes, it’s often dark tannic and with zero oxygen. Water temperatures in August are simply too high to overcome litterfall like they are in October and November. Fish require at least 2.0 mg/L oxygen. After Gustav, it was rare to find any water greater than 1.0 mg/L.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is monitoring closely and so far only a few spots like Killian and Gibson have reported kills. But if the historic trend follows, we’ll see more evidence over the next 3-10 days.
After Andrew and Gustav, there was a massive restocking effort by LDWF, but it paled to the size and scope of the waterways. Which means that we’ll have to depend on Mother Nature to rebuild the fisheries. Note that 3 years after Andrew, we were back catching bull bream at Henderson Lake.
The news for saltwater anglers isn’t as bleak. In fact, after most storms, there’s an influx of redfish deep into the marsh…even some bulls. The November following Gustav we had several double digit days on reds near Galliano.
The problem for salt anglers will be infrastructure. Just about everything past a protection levee was damaged or destroyed, including stores, motels, bait shops… even the roads themselves. It’s estimated that access to these areas may take months, and when it is accessible, don’t expect to find ice, food or other supplies.
