What happened to the grass/bass?

Anyone been catching any bass in the cataouatche/upper salvador area? Seems like its been a horrible spring in that area. Is the lack of grass growing to blame?

The tropical storm last year brought in saltwater which killed the grass and many freshwater species. Delacroix, Venice, Segnette, and some areas around the Basin were hit with the storm surge. It is sad because the bass fishing was very good last spring and summer. Now, some events are being won with ten pounds where it was over twenty pounds last year. There are some bass left but the levels are about 20% of last year's surveys. I just hope we do not get a storm for many years.

Grass has been gone for years now. Different opinions on the real reason. Probably a little bit of all of them, but no grass no bass.

I had the best spring of my life last year there with no grass.

I seem to recall a bunch of people saying that that area could withstand all of the pressure it has gotten over the years and that keeping egg-laden females would not hurt it one bit. Wonder if those people still think that?????
I am not saying that that is the sole reason for the decline in bass, but I PROMISE it didn't help.

It was only about 3-4 years ago that cataouatche was nearly completely grassed over. It was only 2 years ago that easy limits were caught in bay badeaux on almost a daily basis. Last year it was a decent spring and summer, but this year completely sucks. The only thing i can think of is the complete nonexistence of any grass. They dont even have lilies around anymore...

kev666 - Of course no grass = no bass. Without grass, the bass have nowhere to hide. Everybody and their momma can put a bait in front of their face.
I'm not saying that people keeping what they catch is the sole reason for the decline in fish but the typical south Louisiana attitude of 'The state says I can keep 10, then by God I'm gonna gets mine!' is not helping!
Places like Catouachie are good BECAUSE of the grass. One of the reasons is because the fish can get in the grass where they can't be disturbed and hit in the head with 20 baits everyday.

If you don't like the current grass situation just wait its coming there will be willow trees growing out of ten feet of water lol..

viney - if that happens, let's hope the Corps is smart enough to run the pumps wide open and flush the whole area.

Do y'all really think that b/c the grass is gone the fishermen can find the fish easier causing them to catch them easier, eventually depleting the population? Not the case... The grass attracts bait, provides cover, and filters dirty water, ALL attractants for bass which cause them to stack up around the grass. The fish are still in the lake and surrounding areas, just not stacked around the giant grass beds like they were before....

Good luck!

I don't think this area is any different than most areas in south Louisiana. Fish are hard to find when the water is high, like it is now. The water at Pier 90 is nearly in the store. The better fish I believe are in the marsh/ponds. The landing at Segnette is flooded. Less than 9#'s won the WES tourny out of Segnette Saturday. Was fishing a slough in practice, a flat boat came out. The guy said he caught 20 to 25 keepers. Top 5 going 11# or 12#. I caught several non keepers out of the slough. The majority of fish are just in the marsh. Plenty of grass in the canals. If there are decent size fish in the canals, they are not biting during the day.

I was raised on the bank of this lake in the early 60's, fished it almost every day. It was a great area back then, but in the 70's, 80's, and 90's it became just another mud hole. We caught more specks out of the lake in the late 90's than bass. When they opened that diversion, it was like a new lake again. The grass grew everywhere, and the bait and the bass had ample areas to hide...that's why they had so many 8 + lb. bass in there until 2 years ago. It was a combination of the grass disappearing and people just going overboard removing way too many bass. If you think there are a lot of bass in that lake now, you are mistaken. I talked to the folks in the shocking/survey boat a couple months ago. The bass per acre has been going down, down for the last couple years compared to the bass they shocked up in the previous 6 years. The last shock survey was absolutely pitiful...you can't catch what's not there. That's why I am in favor of leaving the 14 inch limit on the basin, or the very least, a 13 inch limit. The spillway is full of bass, and that's the way you want an area to stay. When a hurricane starts killing the fish, it is better to have a high population, and have enough to quickly rebound that survived. When that Hurricane hit last August, it didn't have to kill a lot of bass in the Cat. to get the number of bass left in a critical situation. It will take that lake a while to rebound, if ever---that will depend if the grass ever comes back.

You can thank the corps of engineers for the grass kill. They're dropping pellets and spraying the grass to kill it. Supposedly their reason is so the diversion carries the settlement through Cat/Salvador area and not back up. Well thank you corps of engineer, you're destroying a great fishery, on top of a fishery that has catch and release problems.

Chevy - There is no way the numbers of fish are the same now without the grass. All of that grass held more food for predator fish and provided a nursery for the young predator fish. Witout the grass, the area cannot sustain the amount of fish that were there 5-7 years ago.
An area can only carry what it can feed. It is called Maximum Sustained Yield. It works in any body of water or parcel of land. It even works in aquariums. If you have 3 fish in your tank and only enough food for 1 fish, guess what happens? Same thing with Catouachie. If grass does not grow, it will NOT be able to sustain all of the predatory fish because there will not be enough food to sustain them.

No grass = no bass. I, like most people from around here, watched Lake Cat rise to glory then fall off the map even faster. As long as there is no grass Lake Cat will never be the same. You can't catch what isn't there. The fry have no chance of survival without it. I think you will all be amazed at how low the population is in there now. When the grass was there it was nothing to catch your limit and have a few 3's,4's & 5's mixed in with an occasional lunker. I have documented trips where I went fishing twice a week from May till August and never caught under a 16 lb. 5 fish stringer with the best stringer going 22.5 lbs and all of these weights are after the spawn during the summer months. Any serious bass fisherman that has fished there consistently for the past 10 years knows what I'm talking about and will vouch for what I'm saying. A friend of mine caught and released 3 bass over 7 lbs. in one day during the spawn. It was like bass heaven. You could catch fish from the diversion all the way out to Bay Bardeaux & Lake Salvador.I can't even catch 5 fish on most trips now. Have you paid attention to the weights of tournaments out of there over the years? If you think that high population of bass is still there and nobody is catching them because they aren't concentrated then you are sadly mistaken. The fishery recovered quickly after Katrina and Rita because of the high population of fish and the grass came back with a vengeance the following years which made the fry survival rate skyrocket. Until the grass returns that place will never be the same and you can take that to the bank.

The Salvania will give plenty places for them to hide unfortunately you want be able to access them.