Fontenot catches 11-pound bass at Chicot Park

By: TONY MARKS
Editor

What started out like a normal day on the water at Chicot Park turned into a day where a local fisherman hauled in the biggest fish he had ever caught.
“I just had got there and started going into a little cove where I normally fish,” said Ricky Fontenot, of Bayou Chicot. “I had caught a couple of fish as soon as I got there. I wasn’t there probably 30 minutes, and I caught that big one.”
What Fontenot caught back on March 22, of this year, was a bass that weighed 11.22 pounds and measured 26 inches.
Fontenot, an avid fisherman at Chicot Park, has caught several fish weighing between seven and nine pounds on the lake but has never caught one as big as the 11-pounder.
Upon catching the bass, he took it to the main entrance of the park to be weighed. Being the good sportsman that he is, he then took the fish back to the lake and released it.
Fontenot grew up fishing in ponds and bayous around his home. His uncle Bobby Helmer later got him started in bass fishing and would take him to Toledo Bend. Now, he enjoys taking his son, Weston, out on the lake at Chicot Park.
For Fontenot, fishing out in Toledo Bend is better than at Chicot Park because of the pressure. As he explained, “It’s a lot of fishing pressure on Chicot, so it’s tougher to me.”
The fishing pressure, according to Fontenot, is attributed to a lot of people being on the water on the weekends. “At Toledo Bend,” he said, “you have a lot more water and a lot more area to fish.”
Regardless of the location, and regardless of the size of the fish, Fontenot enjoys his time fishing. “I just like being outdoors in the peace and quiet and enjoying the scenery,” he said. “It’s the same as hunting. I enjoy hunting and fishing.”