| History of the Rodeo
City Park’s Big Bass Rodeo is believed to be the oldest continuously run freshwater fishing tournament in the country. After World War II, returning war veteran Paul Kalman conceived the idea of an annual fishing rodeo to celebrate the return of fishing to City Park. Growing up, his widowed mother had frequently herded him over to the park to fish, an urban angling heaven for kids with a hook, line and length of cane. From this, the love of fishing in City Park was born. After recuperating from injuries in the war, Paul returned to work at The New Orleans Item as a reporter. He persuaded his editors to sponsor the rodeo and in 1946 the first event was held. The “Big Bass Rodeo” used to draw as many as a thousand contestants annually. A meat scale borrowed from John Schwegmann’s original corner store was used to weigh the fish.
Paul Kalman died just weeks after the 40th anniversary Rodeo. In 1987, a year after his death, the Paul Kalman award was created to present to the angler 12 and under bringing in the largest bass. The tradition lives on today.
In 2005, The Big Bass Rodeo celebrated its 60th anniversary. The event was
expanded to include a festival atmosphere with exhibits, raffles, silent auction, food and music which is referred to as the Fishtival. There were 538 anglers who entered in the rodeo and lots of nice fish were caught. To commemorate the event everyone enjoyed a birthday cake and warm greetings from our lady in the BASS costume.
The fishing environment and City Park was devastated in Aug. 2005 when the levees failed during Hurricane Katrina. A report by Mark Schexnayder with LSU AgCenter/SeaGrant details actions taken to restore the lagoons and fishing.
Current Status:
Katrina flooded the lagoons with brackish water for almost 2 weeks. The shoreline vegetation was severely “burned” by the salt. Fortunately, the remaining park staff, hundreds of volunteers, LSU AgCenter/La. Sea Grant program and many recovery organizations have been working hard to bring the lagoon system back.
Utilizing a grant from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), a brand new 6” pipe and pump now brings water from Bayou St. John to the south lagoon system. The 300 gallon per minute pump delivers water through the waterfall @ City Park Avenue and Windsor Blvd... Because bayou St. John is occasionally too salty to maintain the optimum low-level salinity balance for the freshwater fish, brackish fish and shoreline vegetation that holds the shorelines in place, Operation Blessing donated $15,000 to drill a brand new, 750 foot freshwater well near the museum that discharges 100 gallons per minute. This allows the park to control excess salt levels for the very first time! The LDWF grant also paid for the 400 foot, 16” gravity flow drain to be completely cleaned out and a new screen installed. This water connection supplies the entire North lagoon system with brackish water. This low level salinity is vital to keep the water hyacinth in check and water quality high.
Many hundreds of volunteers have helped out to clear fallen trees, debris and do shoreline planting of Spartina alterniflora, Spartina patens, Seaside Paspalium, Louisiana Irises and other species. These plantings improve the estuarine and freshwater fisheries habitat by creating cover for juvenile fish, stabilize the shorelines by preventing shoreline erosion and improve water quality by sequestering nutrients. A wetland plant production center has been recently added to the Pelican greenhouse complex in the park to produce wetland plants for future plantings.
While some fish remained in the lagoon system during the Katrina flooding, most swam out and were lost. The LDWF started restocking last year with the release of 220 pounds of fingerling largemouth bass, bluegill and redear sunfish and other native fish species. They followed up this spring with 5000 fingerling Florida-strain largemouth Bass. In early October, 2007 channel catfish fingerlings were released into the City Park lagoons, and a shipment of bluegill sunfish (bream) heading our way this fall. Thanks you LDWF! Unfortunately, since the storm, a large population of Rio Grande Cichlid (Cichlasoma cyanoguttatum), are now established in the park. We are hopeful that the continued water quality improvements and restocking of native fish will out-compete the non-native Cichlids and keep them in check. They are good to eat and respond well to a beetle spin, so please help us thin them out at the rodeo and after the lagoons officially open for fishing. The juvenile bass are already catching size, too and have been known at times to have a weakness for purple worms with silver glitter.
On March 29, 2008 another old New Orleans tradition will return when we officially open the lagoons of City Park to fishing with the 61st annual Big Bass Rodeo and Fishtival. We’re back!!!!!
|  Record bass caught by City Park boatman Cecil Doiron in 1968. The largest fish ever caught in City Park, hauled in on July 21, 1976 by twelve-year-old Tommy Descant of Chalmette on an ordinary rig using artificial bait. This monster buffalo fish weighed fifty-two pounds.  Monster 44 pound blue cat landed by Ross Reboul, a junior at Jesuit High School, in Feb. 2005. It measured 42 inches long and 26 inches round-- biologists believe it had lived in the lagoons for approximately 21 years. |
