With an influx of fresh water, river systems should see their fish populations recover quickly. While the hurricane destroyed the fisheries in the lower parts of the rivers, such as the Pearl, Tickfaw, Amite and others streams, survivors in the sweeter upper reaches can move down to restock empty available habitat.

"We're starting to see some improvement in the rivers of the Florida Parishes," Rogillio said. "Usually, it takes two to three years for fish to recover in an area. Nature will do a pretty good job of restocking the waters, but we'll try to aid the recovery by supplementary restocking of bass, bluegill, catfish and other species. Before the hurricane, people caught some 10- to 11-pound fish in the Caernarvon area. I know of some 9-pounders that came out of Bayou Lacombe and Pearl River.

"With more Florida bass in the system, the potential for producing a 10-pound or better largemouth bass greatly increases. In a few years, some of those areas restocked with Florida bass might start producing some really impressive fish."

The same should occur along the rivers in southwest Louisiana. The state recorded severe fish kills from salty water and low oxygen levels as far as 50 miles upstream in the Sabine, Calcasieu and Mermentau rivers. A wall of salt water covered everything for more than 20 miles from the coast, destroying most freshwater marshes and impoundments in southwest Louisiana. Sabine National Wildlife Refuge between Calcasieu Lake and the Sabine River closed to boat traffic because of debris in the water.

"All freshwater fish populations in southwest Louisiana took a severe hit from Hurricane Rita," said Bobby Reed, an LDWF biologist in Lake Charles. "The coastal marshes were hit particularly hard. In November 2005, we sampled, and it was zeroes across the page. The Calcasieu had fish kills as high as Oakdale; the Sabine had no fish all the way up to Deweyville and Starks, almost up to Toledo Bend. The Sabine didn't have a lot of saltwater intrusion, because most of the storm surge was to the east. Most of the salt water went up the Calcasieu to above White Oak Park and up the Mermentau as far as U.S. 90 at Lake Arthur."

Because the storm surge moved eastward, and because the salt water could spread through vast tidal marshes along the Sabine River, the lower portion of the river suffered less damage than had been originally thought. Water with low oxygen levels, not salt water, destroyed much of the Sabine River ecosystem north of Interstate 10, because high winds blew leaves into the river. These decaying leaves robbed fish of vital oxygen. In the treeless marshes, though, more bass survived.

"In the spring and through early fall of 2006, fishing was wonderful on the Sabine River south of Interstate 10," said Ron Castille, a bass angler and fishing outfitter in Lake Charles. "People could catch all the small bass they want.