It’s not unheard of for people to walk, jog, bike or even play frisbee golf out at City Park in New Orleans and have had a run into … wait for it … me, Gary Alipio fishing.

Come every February to late fall September or October, you’re likely to see my social media posts about my casual run ins with largemouth bass in New Orleans City Park while fishing morning, mid-day or at dusk (my personal favorite).

However, 2023 was a bucket list year I hadn’t even thought of.

The bucket list?

I started a fishing club (along with Coach Philip) at an all-girls high school where I work at Academy of the Sacred Heart, and we then competed in the City Park Big Bass Rodeo High School Battle for the Bass competition.

I thought maybe 1 or 2 students might be into it. For the club, we had as many as 17 in meetings. For the team, we fished with as many as 7 as a team.

As it turned out, in Sacred Heart’s first New Orleans City Park Big Bass Rodeo, on Saturday, March 25, 2023, we fished two teams of three (max for each team is 5 participants). So we divided up, and both fishing teams of three competitors each weighed in largemouth bass on the day. Rumor on the day was that as many as ten teams didn’t even catch a bass.

Better yet, one Sacred Heart bass was caught 20 minutes just before the weigh-in bell, courtesy Isabelle D ’24. The biggest bass on the day for Sacred Heart … 2.69 lbs. and is a school record … so far. 

Overall on the day, 30 High School teams from around southeast Louisiana competed, and Sacred Heart’s all-girls team finished in the Top 10 (1 lb. away from third place in our first year). Congrats, Cardinal anglers !!!

The one-day event, hosted by City Park Conservancy and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), is a family-friendly freshwater fishing competition – the oldest tournament of its kind in the United States.

“It’s been a whale of a ride watching everyone catch their first largemouth bass … and right here in City Park,” said Coach Gary. “The look on their faces when they realized there are actual fish, and not just any fish, but largemouth bass in City Park. Priceless.”

Until next time when I’ll put a fishing pole in your hand and revel when you catch your first City Park Largemouth Bass … Fish on, PEACE!!!!

It’s spring in NOLA. For many it means festive parades, blooming flowers, long low humidity evening walks, breezy kite flying weather or the gaze forward to daylight savings time and the spring forward of longer evenings.

But for me, it means totally something different … IT’S BASS SEASON.

And the season I’m most excited about is fishing out at City Park New Orleans.

Spoiler alert: while I don’t give away “ALL” my City Park Bass fishing secrets … um, a true fisher never will … I do give my Top 5 Fishing Spots for Kids in New Orleans as well as the basics on the what, where and how to start and catch something.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll get “HOOKED” on bass fishing, too.

Click here to listen to the interview (I’m at 6:00 til the end) by Thanh Truong of WWL Radio “Why one of the largest urban parks in the US offers easy access to fishing” >

Until next time when I’ll put a fishing pole in your hand and revel when you catch your first City Park Largemouth Bass … Thanks, Thanh!!!

I totally missed talking #kidlit books with kids at book festivals, especially those who are inventing stories of their own.

One girl, barefoot and about ten year old, engaged me on a story she was writing about saving another girl of her age from a house fire. The details were so clear that I asked her if she had ever witnessed or experienced a house fire. It was all in her head. Wow, such vivid storytelling at such a young age. We continued talking for about ten minutes … spooky stories, funny stories, fishing stories (well, I had to do my lil book plug). But in the end, I made sure she walked off with a copy of The Craziest Fishing Tale on the Bayou … on my nickel : )

So why do I write? Because I wish I had someone to listen to all of my overactive imaginative tales in my youth. Days like today make all the hours of ‘butt in chair’ worth it.

On the day, my recent book signing visit at the Louisiana Livingston Parish Book Festival in (you guessed it, Livingston Parish, Louisiana) featured keynote speaker and recipient of the 2015 Newbery Medal for The Crossover, Kwame Alexander. But I was also joined by other fellow SCBWI Louisiana/Mississippi book selling creators Denise Gallagher, Karen Konnerth, Michael Verrett … and my good friends who came to visit Pat Hefler, Phina Schloegel and Marti Dumas (as pictured in the collage above).

Thanks @mylplinfo for a great book festival today. Until 2023 … #keepwriting #keepreading #yall