Toledo Bend Lake Association

Re-stocking Program

The Toledo Bend Lake Association has involved itself in the preservation of the quality fishing at Toledo Bend Reservoir by enabling an annual bass re-stocking program. The TBLA has been doing a fish release at least once a year for the last sixteen years,” said Jack Vermeire, president. “This year 2007, as last year, we put 23,256 Florida-bass fingerlings into the lake. Most of them were five to seven inches long and will have a good chance of survival. In the past, we put smaller fish into the lake but we’ve learned it is more cost effective to buy the bigger fish.” Vermeire said the bill for this year’s event was $20,000. “It was worth every penny of it. I got a kick out of seeing the families that came with dogs and kids. There were some wide-eyed little people when they saw all of those fish swimming in plastic bags.” Dunn’s Fish Farm from Fittstown, Oklahoma delivered the more than 23,000 bass fingerlings to the shores of Toledo Bend.

Ricky Yeldell, lead biologist of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) for Toledo Bend Lake, and his team were there to inspect the fish as they were dipped from the tanks and placed into the bags. Thanks to Villis Dowden, Sean Kenny, Jarrett Thaxton and Ricky for all of their hard work in keeping undesirable fish from entering Toledo Bend Lake.

Several TBLA members spent more than seven hours assisting in the bagging operation. Davis praised J.C. Ashford, Bob Cowart, Mike Davis, Fred Furst, Larry Gary, Phil Medine, C.J. Monlezon, Charles Pilcher, Shelby Rogers, Larry Slocum, and Jack Vermeire for their tireless efforts. “Not only do the fish have to be dipped from the holding tanks, but they must be placed in large plastic bags. Then, the bags are pressurized with oxygen and tied off. That’s hard to do with cold hands, wet shirts, and soaked feet, but these guys were troopers. We were supposed to end at noon, but we still had people waiting in line and fish in the tank more than two hours after!”

In all, 117 people came to Cypress Bend Marina on that miserably cold morning to help TBLA with this important conservation program. On the Louisiana side, folks came from as far north as Converse to as far south as the South Toledo Bend State Park area. Participants on the Texas side were from Huxley Bay to Six Mile Creek. All the bags of Florida strain bass fingerlings may be released in any area of the Toledo Bend waters. “It’s for certain that these people had a lot of pride in what they did. They helped us disperse the fish in virtually every part of the Lake. We’re very grateful to everyone for taking their time to help. It means a lot,” said Phil Medine, TBLA’s vice president. We have funded these efforts through our Bass Unlimited Banquet which raises about $75,000 annually, with our concession stand at the annual Top 6 Tournament, via donations from major bass tournaments, and from private donations.

It is only possible for the Toledo Bend Lake Association to have this annual re-stocking because of the many lake area people that support our yearly fund raising events. The re-stocking program’s success is due to the many generous volunteer hours from the TBLA members that year after year help make the fingerling release event such a success.

A special thanks goes out to Frank Davis who took the challenge to be the director of this year’s fingerling release.