Feast on area’s full schedule
While national attention will be on Shreveport-Bossier City and this week’s Bassmaster Classic — and to find out if Kevin Van Dam can become the first angler to claim five Classic titles — Capital City area outdoors folks will have a full menu from which to feast.
Add in next week and there’s more than a full plate, including local top-drawer bass tournaments and saltwater, fly fishing and paddling seminars and expos.
Naturally with hunting seasons near over, the focus is on fishing and, this week, it’s the two Georges, George Shaheen and George Poveromo, who will take center stage.
Shaheen has a few spots open for next weekend’s Pro Bass Challenge with its $10,000 guarantee for Pro Division anglers and $2,000 for the Co-Angler Division winner. Both Saturday and Sunday weigh-ins are set for 3 p.m. at Academy Sports on Siegen Lane.
The first challenge years were spent in the early days of summer. Since Shaheen moved Baton Rouge’s biggest bass tournament to the late winter, heavy stringers taken by top local fishermen have brought headlines to this event.
The very name of Povoromo’s event, the Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series, should capture the other half of south Louisiana’s other fishermen — the saltwater guys and gals.
It’s the first time in the series’ 25-year run that it will stop in Baton Rouge, and Povermo intimated that the area and its ever-increasing number saltwater anglers was a natural choice for one of this year’s eight seminar locations.
“We have always wanted to combine a national approach to our teaching and instruction and combine that with the top local pros,” Poveromo said. “We know Louisiana fishermen fish for the same species the national pros, but just in different waters, and what we want to give the local fishermen are some different ways to catch those species.
“We know some of the tactics the national guys use to catch fish might not be in play in Louisiana, and we will cover everything from lures to natural baits, to trolling and talk about inshore species and offshore,” Poveromo said.
The local “pros” lineup will include inshore legendary anglers Dudley Vandenborre, Theophile Bourgeois, Chris Moran, Mike Frenette, Tommy Pellegrin, Rimmer Covington, Erik Rue and Gerald Bryant. The men cover inshore and offshore fishing throughout the Louisiana coast.
Saturday is also the kickoff for the first run of the Multiple Sclerosis Open Team Bass Tournament, False River Bass Trail and the FLW/BFL Cowboy Division.
The Reel Paddling Film Festival and fly-tying fill the schedule for the five days after Mardi Gras.
All events and contacts are listed in the Outdoors Calendar.
Acadiana Fly
Acadiana Fly Rodders’ 25th-annual Fly Fishing Seminar headlines next weekend’s calendar in the Lafayette area. There’s no fee for the 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. event at Grace Presbyterian Church. 518 Roselawn Blvd., Lafayette.
In addition to the usual tackle and fly-tying info, AFR has lined up guest lecturers like Diane and Richard Blair of Dallas, Fred Dupre of Colleyville, Texas, along with award winning south Louisiana fly tyers Mark Pinsel, Kyle Moppert, Mike Racca, Beverly Vidrine, Bob Bose, Ray Boudreaux, Barry Dauphin and Paige Babineaux.
Special speakers and seminars include: Larry Offner, Urban Fly Fishing Tactics; Ron Begnaud, sight fishing for redfish in Louisiana; Pete Cooper, Louisiana saltwater fly fishing; and fly-rod maker Cameron Mortenson, on fiberglass fly rods.
AFR’s annual banquet is
6 p.m. Saturday at Abacus, 530 W. Pinhook Rd., Lafayette.
The next weekend
Bass and fly fishing dominates March 3 when the Children’s Hospital Bass Classic, presented by Cabela’s, competes across south Louisiana water (and weighs at Doiron’s in Stephensville) and the Red Stick Fly Fishers holds its annual day-long Red Stick Day at Waddill Wildlife Education Center on Flannary Road in Baton Rouge.
The CHB Classic will offer $12,500 first-place money with team catching the heaviest bass taking home $1,250.
Entry fee for the pick-your-partner tournament is $250 per team. Organizers plan to pay 15 teams with the heaviest stringers
Entry forms have been mailed and are available at Cabela’s in Gonzales, Doiron’s and Children’s Hospitals in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette.
A total of 15 places will be paid in the tournament.
Donaldsonville’s Peter Matassa and Vic Calvaruso are the defending champs after toting in 20.4 pounds last year. Plaquemine’s Eric Gilchrist and John Hudnall of Denham Springs were second at 19.48 pounds. The top five teams had 19-pound-plus stringers.
Renovate Slidell marina
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will use $1.5 million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Boating Infrastructure Grant Program to renovate Slidell Municipal Marina.
“This project garnered the largest award of all projects funded by BIG Program, Tier II dollars this fiscal year,” LDWF secretary Robert Barham said. “The renovated facility will benefit the citizens of Slidell and those who visit the waterways of St. Tammany Parish for many years to come.”
Partnered with the City of Slidell, the LDWF plans to repair and improve existing bulkheads, construct 42 more floating dock spaces and install walkways Some $1 million in nonfederal matching funds will cover the project’s $2.5 million cost.