John Hoover’s ties to Lake Maurepas run deep. A crabber by trade, Hoover has been drawn to the lake ever since his toes submerged its brackish water when he was two years old.
In his mid-50s now, Hoover can be found most mornings before the crack of dawn prepping his custom-designed boat, itself old enough to join the army and purchase liquor, to cast at least 350 traps a day. Since he became a full-time, self-employed fisherman at 18, he’s battled the elements and the tides as he’s pulled crab from Maurepas and its larger sibling, Lake Pontchartrain.
His handiwork has made possible countless meals in his native Louisiana and throughout the country – even in places like Maryland, whose fabled crabbing industry has suffered its own setbacks, due in part to pollution.
Hoover is, in short, living his dreams. After disembarking from his dock near Port…