Catfish Heaven Aquafarm And Campground is a nice little campground. The owner, Dave has recently taken over and made many improvements in a short time. He also has many plans for improvements for the future. They have 3 ponds, recently stocked with bluegill and catfish. He will be stocking bass soon.

They have a pool and hot tub, but of course, they were not open this time of year. There is a volleyball court, horseshoes, a playground, showers, laundry, and a huge pavilion. Dave has lots of plans to utilize the pavilion and to expand the campsites in the future. Both AT&T and Verizon had good cell reception. We did not use Catfish Heavens WiFi.

We were only at Catfish Heaven Aquafarm And Campground 2 nights 2/12/2020 – 2/13/2020, so I really only fished a little on the day we got there and the next day. This whole area in southern Louisiana has had so much rain since October, most of the grounds were like a swamp. I know that is just Louisiana, but even the locals were complaining about how wet and swampy the ground is.

I caught 2 nice crappies, 3 nice bluegills a few small bass, and 2 nice catfish, (one blue catfish, and one channel catfish.) Dave was thrilled that I caught fish. He said most people who camp there don’t know how to fish and claim there are no fish in the ponds. He wanted lots of pix for his web page. So when the crappie and bluegill quit biting from the cold front, I went catfishing. Oh, and I caught ONE FOUR FOOT ALLIGATOR!!!

I’m a Swamp People!

The 1st day there the owner told me to watch for the alligator in the back pond. He said I was probably OK, it’s been so cold and rainy he wouldn’t be on the bank sunning himself. I halfway thought he was just pulling my leg, but he insisted the gator had been hanging around in one corner of the pond, and they had been trying to catch him and take him to the bayou.

I asked him if I could try to catch him for them, to which they were happy to have me try. So they gave me 3 big stainless hooks and we taped them together to form a treble hook. I put our jerry-rigged treble hook on my heavy-duty catfish pole.

We spotted the alligator and I called Sherry to come and videotape the excitement. Dave had to go help a new camper move in, so he told me to go ahead and catch him and call him. I know he was thinking city slicker from Illinois has no chance of catching him. He didn’t realize, that I live to hunt and fish!

To catch him, I just threw the treble hook past him, reeled it up to him and snagged him. I hooked him and Sherry called Dave, but he got off and I actually hooked him 2 more times before I got him hooked good. I had to fight him for what seemed like 1/2 hour, but I’m sure it was just several minutes until Dave and his helper Jimmy showed up with a catchpole.

The one that got away

As you can see in the video, their catchpole was not very good. It was just a PVC pipe with a rope through it. So the rope didn’t lock when tightened around the gator’s neck. Someone had to hold the rope tight. Dave was putting the rope around the gator and Jimmy was supposed to pull the rope. I didn’t find out until later Jimmy had 3 strokes and didn’t have use of one arm. So we had the gator and got him 1/2 up the bank, but Jimmy couldn’t hold him and he got away.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hCy17gNmz9Du7fr68

I told Sherry, that wasn’t going to happen again. I went to lowes that night and bought everything I needed to make a good catchpole. It is 10′ long, made out of heavier PVC, coated aircraft cable, and it locks securely when tightened around the gators’ neck.

Unfortunately, that night it rained all night and the next day the high temp was 25 degrees colder, with a high of only 50. Since alligators are cold-blooded, he didn’t come out and we never saw him again. But I did give Dave the catchpole, so hopefully, they will get him. He claims they have caught alligators before with that catchpole, but the new one will make it easier for them to catch him and make Catfish Heaven Aquafarm And Campground a lot safer.

So we never did get him out of the pond, but I would consider it caught as far as I’m concerned. I hooked him, and we had him 1/2 way up the bank. And I have video evidence that I’m now officially a Swamp People!

Do you own a diesel vehicle? Save big at the pump! Join TSD Logistics Fuel Program. It's FREE and saves $.20 -$60 per gallon. Please give them my name and member number Tim Cooper 7198 https://tsdv.loadtracking.com:8443/im/fuelcardapp?fbclid=IwAR1NI0wLYkWrCzl9JC4perImW_Yw1EPObtPc_Pn-MMZksqNxkgaleEMatHc Click on the link below to get 15% off when you sign up for Harvest Host. Then you can boondock for free at Wineries, Breweries, Farms and Golf Courses across the country. http://harvesthosts.refr.cc/tdcoop616