Something old, something new and something sadly very blue this week.
The old is the continuing march of our state’s Hunters for the Hungry push into the early September start of the hunting seasons.
Yep, it’s coming soon and H4H has scheduled its annual Clean Out Your Freezer Day for Sunday, Aug. 23 at locations across the southeastern and Acadiana area parishes.
This drive is the first step in the 30-year-plus push to set its slogan in stone — hunters who care share.
It’s a chance to take what’s left from last season’s efforts afield and put this extra into the hands of folks in food banks and soup kitchens.
And, it’s a collection for more than game. Fish and other frozen meats will be accepted at 20 locations from Slidell west to Eunice and most points in between. The fire station on Brightside Drive in Baton Rouge is the newest location.
“We’re at a stage where we want to increase awareness of our collection,” H4H director Julie Grunewald said. “We want our outdoors men and women to know they can share with the less fortunate among us.”
Last year’s 18,500 pounds collected turned into what the receiving organizations like the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and Second Harvest estimated to be 75,000 meals.
The total 30-plus years drive stands at a little more than 570,000 pounds producing an estimated 2.25 million meals.
The H4H effort continues during the hunting season, accepting donations of freshly taken deer and hogs for processing at locations across the state, and a post-deer season effort called “Hogapalooza.”
“It’s a big help, and the organizations we support can’t wait for these donations,” Grunewald said.
All the organizers ask is that the donated items be properly labeled.
You also can contribute via a check-off when buying hunting licenses and by personal donations, which help defray the cost of processing deer and hogs into meals.
Big trout
The new is a personal record for Brad McAdam who knows how to beat the heat. He fishes Lake Pontchartrain at night, and what a night it was on Wednesday into early Thursday.
It started out to be a night, but turned out to be THE night that included some heart-stopping minutes near the U.S. 11 bridge.
Factored into the eventful hours working soft plastics around the bridges was Murphy’s Law, you know the thing about “if it can go wrong, it will.”
Seems a friend told McAdam about baitfish balling up around one spot on the Highway 11 bridge, a place a friend has limited out on keeper redfish. In what he said was choppy water (there was a 12-knot wind), he said he caught three white trout, a couple of catfish and ladyfish while his fishing partner hooked a near 24-inch redfish.
“When I went to net the fish, the net broke and the redfish went through the top rim of the net. We lost that fish, but managed to net an 18-inch redfish,” McAdam said.
A lack of action prompted a move to an unproductive spot, then a move back to the original location between the railroad tressle and the U.S. 11 bridge.
That’s where it happened: a strike on the offering, a Zoom Super Fluke Junior rainbow shad color with the tail dipped in chartreuse dye.
“I thought I’d finally hooked a redfish. There was bait everywhere and we hadn’t seen a trout, but when the fish came to the top it caught me off guard. It was a huge trout,” he said.
Ah, but no net.
“The trout jumped once, then twice and I made the mistake of trying to haul it in, but didn’t realize the weight of this fish,” he said. “I went to the back of the boat and tried to bring it in over the transom. The fish jumped again and I barely got it over the transom. You just don’t ever get that many chances with a big trout like that. When I went to weigh it, the hook fell out of its mouth.”
Turned out the massive fish measured slightly more than 27 inches long and the scales at Chagg’s Sporting Goods hit 8.33 pounds, easily the heaviest trout of the summer and, when certified, the Metairie angler will take the lead in CCA’s S.T.A.R. tournament.
Sadness
Friday morning, Aug. 14, 2026, a day of tears for more folks that we’ll ever know.
Skip Bertman’s death filled Facebook pages far and wide and became another chapter in a personal 42-year-long relationship with a man and his family.
Lots of you know I covered LSU and college baseball for Capital City Press sports for 22 seasons, the last of which was LSU’s first national championship in 1991. Years with LSU coaches Jim Smith and Jack Lamabe preceded the eight seasons covering Bertman’s teams. What a ride to writing about six NCAA regionals and five College World Series trips and the glory-filled highs and the few lows this man and his family brought to LSU and h.
There likely would be a debate for the four men to be immortalized on the Mount Rushmore of college baseball coaches, but there would be no challenge for choosing the first one — Stanley Bertman.
It was easy to come away from those eight seasons knowing Bertman was the best coach I’d covered if only for one reason — that he gave his teams and his players the best chance to win any game. That came from his depthless knowledge of baseball and the detailed work anyone who paid attention could see in his practices. And, he hired good assistants.
Heartfelt condolences to his family. He will be missed — mightily missed.