NEW ROADS, La. (AP) — State fisheries officials rolled into New Roads with some 6,000 Florida-strain largemouth bass fingerlings, releasing them into False River as part of the effort to return the ailing oxbow lake to its former distinction as a fishing paradise.

Officials say Thursday's bass stocking effort is just one component of a much larger plan to restore False River to what it had been, or at least close to it, during its glory days more than 20 years ago.

Mike Wood, director of Inland Fisheries for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, tells The Advocate Florida-strain bass have the genetic potential to be larger-sized fish.

State law prohibits fishermen from harvesting bass from False River until the fish are at least 14 inches long.

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