For the love of fishing
Couple turns fish camp into a business that’s really a hobby
Bella Vistans Fred Crenshaw and his wife Julie have a hobby that they enjoy sharing. Although they usually practice their hobby in Boothville, La., they share it with neighbors from Bella Vista.
“My wife loves to fish,” Crenshaw told the people who attended a recent meeting of the Bella Vista Fly-Tyers. She couldn’t attend the meeting because she had another appointment. “She sits in the bow where she can smell a fish and catch it quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen,” he said.
When he retired from a career in manufacturing, they moved to Bella Vista to be close to their grandchildren. But Crenshaw had also spent years fishing in bass tournaments and 18 years in the Army reserve. He is also a pilot and a parachutist. When he sold his last plane, he looked around for something else to do and decided to learn about saltwater fishing.
He worked closely with a fishing boat captain in Pensacola, learning everything from knots to boat maintenance. Then he bought a 25-foot fishing boat that was too big to fit in his driveway. It was time for him to share what he learned.
When the couple isn’t in Bella Vista, they are in the Mississippi Delta, south of New Orleans, where they operate Crenshaw Fish Camp. The camp is made up of an RV, a covered picnic area and a bunkhouse with air conditioning that sleeps six and has a private bath.
They now own two boats in which five or six people can fish comfortably.
But the fish camp isn’t really a business. It’s not open to the public, he said. He only accepts customers he knows and many of them come from Bella Vista.
When his guests are in camp, the Crenshaws provide all meals and all the gear they need. They can also pack the catch for transport.
He can take his guests to fish in the almost fresh water of the Northern Delta, or go out into the bay. He has different gear for different types of fishing. He prefers top-water fishing.
“You never know what you’re going to catch,” he said.
His clients have caught everything from redfish and speckled trout to flounder and sheepshead. He sometimes takes groups out to fish for tuna, but tuna is difficult to catch because the fish are always moving.
He likes to use fresh shrimp as bait, but he cuts them into small pieces.
Safety is always Crenshaw’s first concern, he said. He’s certified in CPR and first aid and knows the rules of the road for watercraft. It’s important, he said, because the traffic on the Mississippi River where ships can be so large they can run over a fishing boat without even knowing it. It can also be so foggy you can’t see where you are headed, so he had radar installed on both his fishing boats.
Besides life jackets — two different types for fresh water or saltwater — he always carries a hypothermia kit. He was once knocked off his boat into 40-degree water, so he knows hypothermia firsthand. Your muscles shut down first, he said, making it difficult to save yourself. The pack contains dry clothes and heating pads.
His camp is built on land that was flooded by Hurricane Ka- trina. When they built the fish camp, they decided they would never bring anything down there they couldn’t afford to lose.
One thing the couple takes with them is something they will probably never lose — their love of fishing.