Hurricane Gustav effects on fishing in the Atchafalaya Basin are going to be felt for some time. the damage is pretty widespread the wildlife and fisheries still does not know how bad it will be but from the smell of it it's pretty bad.There are  fish dead by the hundreds. some 4 and 5 pounds. the biologis are tring to get the corps of engineers to increase the water flow by 30 percent but the corps are just giving up 3. Now the western part of the state and Texas have Ike's aftermath. I wonder how their fishing will be effected. it's not something you think about while you are trying to rebuild but it's effects last years. after Andrew the fishing didn't come around for 5 years.

Mother nature, she's brutal sometimes.  What is the main enemy here, salt?  I know around here, after a hurricane, many of the trees are "burnt" from all the salt water in the air.  What hurts the fisheries the most?

Man I know how it feels I fish in carnaven and we had 6' of the gulf in here. It just started to come back after Katrina. Looks like I better start redfishing for awhile.

There are three main factors.the debris from the tree leaves and limbs that are decomposing. all of the rain turns up the bottom. the third is the basin itself it fills up and has nowhere to go no fresh water coming in or going out there is some salt water damage around Morgan City but that part of the basin is brackish water. the upper part of the basin depends on the corps to send water though it and if they let it drain itself it could take weeks if not months and the longer it takes more fish and the wildlife that feed on those fish die.

yea Marsh Master you took a good hit to looks like it will be reds and specks for a while I was just looking forward to some good fall bass fishing it's beautiful in there in the fall

I know here in Southwest Louisiana marshes which have no freshwater flow other than run off it took 3 years after Rita for the bass to naturally start a come back. The tidal surges from Rita and Ike actually helped clean out the marshes by removing floating turf, some choking vegetation and bottom silt. After all of the floating turf, choking vegetation and bottom silt were removed the marsh areas were larger overall and deeper.

Two days after Rita my brother, nephew, & myself made a trip down to the Miami Land Corporation (Big Burns)/Little Pecan Island area and what we found was a completely dead marsh with no living micro organisms. The year we were catching bass, speckle trout, and red fish all in the same marsh; the duck hunting was beyond that of the past 50 years.    

Catt how did you make out? hope everone is ok.I had a camp at little chenier on the Mermentau and loss it with rita.I have photos two days after the storm and it is amazing how that marsh came back that storm helped some of it but  washed a lot away  the basin is a little different the corps stopped the natural flow to control flooding but it also stopped the swamp from healing itself a little more water thought it would help

Since Ike OEP is still going house to house in Cameron Parish; the storm surge with Ike was higher than that of Rita with flood water stopping just south of the Lake Charles Regional Airport.

Creole / Oak Grove Street flooding near South Cameron High School. Friday, September 12, 2008, 11:22am. Estimated storm surge at this time was only about 8 feet above sea level.

Catt, you fishin'????  I knew I liked you for a reason,...... ;D

The bad part is that we have these pumps that releave the river when it gets high but for the tidal surges they reversed these pumps. I had a freind thats with the police depatment and he saw thousands of fish going threw them into the river.

I was wondering if the salt water comes in does the fresher water sit on the bottom in the deeper parts?

wow.  and I get mad when the neighboring farmer takes water out of the pond behind my house!

Been wondering the same thing around here. Some of the lakes and ponds are low on oxygen and with the 3-7 inches of rain we got from Ike, we could get some nasty fish kills.