Sportsman’s Paradise finds its niche in South La.

Cocodrie Connection Inc. appears on the business license, but owners Connie and Blaine Townsend said locals know their Chauvin motel/restaurant/marina as the Sportsman’s Paradise, just like Louisiana.

Townsend and her first husband Stu Scheer, former defensive end for the Richmond Roadrunners, a minor league football team out of Virginia, bought the motel and restaurant in 1974 after Scheer was forced to quit playing football due to injury.

The Richmond Roadrunners were part of the Atlantic Coast Football League. The team had been a farm club for the New Orleans Saints before the league folded in the early 1970s.

“Stu had fractured his elbow and could not play anymore,” Connie Townsend said. “We were running charter boats out of New Orleans as a hobby, but he opted to do it full-time.”

Back in 1972, Townsend recalls, Scheer would bring fishermen and tourists from New Orleans to Cocodrie to fish for $85 a day.

At that time there were no limits on speckled trout.

“It was nothing for the people to come down and catch 300 to 500 trout a day,” she explained.

Scheer stumbled upon a little restaurant/motel establishment in Chauvin that was up for sale. The two discussed expanding into Chauvin and purchased the business.

Townsend said they did a complete overhaul of the restaurant and motel, adding 28 new boat sheds in the back, upgrading the boat launches on the bayou side and incorporating a charter boat service.

“We basically pioneered charter boat fishing in Terrebonne Parish,” Townsend said.

“Stu said he would run it and I didn’t have to quit my job as a travel rep for Estee Lauder Cosmetics. I did promotional work for them. I had 15 states in the Southeast region.”

Unfortunately, 30 days after purchasing the business, Hurricane Carmen wiped out their operations. To get things back online, Townsend had to quit her job and become the restaurant’s cook and the motel’s housekeeper.

But Townsend loves being in the business. She said, “It’s the excitement of watching the boats coming and going. Fishing has become a big part of the way Terrebonne Parish is operated.”

The Sportman’s Paradise, according to Townsend, was instrumental in helping to start the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, which assists charter boat captains with getting their licenses as well as helping them get grant monies for various projects.

“Charter boat fishing is a big part of Terrebonne Parish,” she said.

Townsend and her current husband Blaine bought out Scheer in 1991. Eighteen years later, she is still a cook and a housekeeper. Their 18 employees help out too. Blaine runs the fly-fishing side. Connie and Stu’s son, James “Cuda” Scheer, has an offshore fishing boat. And Townsend has her own boat that goes on speckled trout fishing trips.

Hurricanes still remain a threat to the Chauvin area. Sportsman’s Paradise has flooded 13 times since 1974. In the past six years, Chauvin’s been hit by six different storms.

Every year, Townsend gears up for hurricane season hoping that Mother Nature gives the marina some reprieve from any storm damage.

“We are still repairing the bayou side from Rita. And we lost all 28 boat sheds in the back during Ike and Rita,” she said. “But that comes with the territory.”

Luckily, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department has a grant program that helps marina owners with repairs. Townsend said marina owners pay extra money for saltwater fishing licenses to fund the program.

But why not move the business more inland where it would be less vulnerable to hurricanes? Townsend said that is not an option.

“There is no better fishing in the U.S. than where we are,” she said. “That’s what keeps us here. There is no other place like Terrebonne Parish’s estuary system. So when people say, ‘Why don’t you move?’ I say, ‘Tell me where I can move to and still have the resources like Terrebonne Parish.'”

Townsend said the proposed Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection system offers residents and business owners in Chauvin some hope.

“As many years as it takes us to put things back together, we look forward to having some safe protection from Morganza,” she said. “This place is a historic site. It is the first motel in the area and it’s a great spot for charter fishing aside from places like CoCo Marina and Boudreaux’s Marina. We have to preserve our landmarks, and Morganza is just the thing to do it.”

Townsend said Terrebonne’s estuary system has evolved in the last 35 years into the world’s greatest area to fish. Back in the early 1970s, it was hard to make $20 a day in this area because there was not enough emphasis on fishing. Townsend said their peak months were between April and November.

Now, fishermen can saltwater fish from Chauvin all the way to the Intracoastal Waterway all year long. In recent years, new camps have been erected in the area, Townsend said.

“Look at the amount of camp revenue that is coming into the area because of fishing,” she said. “It’s phenomenal. The tax base and the economic development just exploded over the last 30 years.

“You can find good fishing all the way from Fisherman’s Retreat to Pointe-aux-Chenes. There is no better area than right here in Terrebonne Parish. This is it, we have it all.”

Sportsman’s Paradise co-owner Connie Townsend prepares freshly-caught trout for a meal at the restaurant. Despite flooding 13 times in its 35 years in business, Townsend wouldn’t consider moving inland. “There is no better area than right here in Terrebonne Parish,” she said. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF