FERRIDAY — Off U.S. 84 down by the levee sits Lakeview Lodge, a fisher’s haven filled with cabins, campgrounds and, of course, fish.

But the little lodge run by Paul and Angel Rogers was also named Campground/RV Park of the Year by the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association in September.

Angel Rogers said she was shocked when he heard he had won.

“It was a shocker,” she said. “There’s a lot of campgrounds in Louisiana and we’re smaller.”

Paul Rogers said members of the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association who presented the award told them it was the reviews and experiences of people who frequent their camp that helped them win.

The lodge, Paul Rogers said, has come a long way since he and Angel first came to town.

Paul Rogers said they first came to Lakeview Lodge in 2000 with a friend and each time they returned, the same thought plagued them.

“In the back of our mind, we always thought, ‘Man, what could we do with this place?’” Paul Rogers said. “Little did we know, the following year, April of 2011, we found out the place was for sale.”

When the Rogers bought Lakeview Lodge, the building and grounds needed repair.

“It’s been six years of blood and sweat, putting everything we make back into the place just to get it cleaned up again,” Rogers said.

Rogers and his family have refurbished, repainted and remodeled much of the campsite, most of it by hand.

“I love projects, I love tinkering. I’ve become an electrician, a plumber, a maintenance man,” Rogers said. “I’d rather work for myself than work for somebody else. I don’t fish as much as I used to, but I have a pole on the back.”

The office is filled with bait and fishing supplies, a crackling box of crickets, a cat, a Chihuahua and sometimes, a 1-year-old grandchild, Owen Paul Rogers.

“We like to collect old things,” Paul Rogers said. “We pop into a flea market from time to time and if something catches our eye, we get it.”

There are bass, bream, chinquapin and catfish swimming around Lake Concordia in the backyard and a loading dock ready for the campers.

Each spring Lakeview Lodge is host to several bass tournaments, and Paul Rogers said the bream breeding season in early spring keeps the cabins full.

Many of their patrons are repeat visitors. Paul Rogers said he sees many people every fall and spring, when the weather is right for fish.

A large part of what keeps his regulars coming back, however, is the relationship his family has with their patrons, he said.

“On the weekends, I’m cooking a big pot of something,” Paul Rogers said.

Most weekends, he said, the grounds are filled with the smell of sauce piquant, pastalaya or coubion.

“They ask me, ‘What are we cooking?’” Paul Rogers said. “Somebody might bring bread; somebody might bring a side dish or some sweets. Sometimes they cook for us, too.”

Paul said they had become so close with some regular patrons that from time to time Paul and Angel will travel to Alabama to visit.

“It’s been a fun journey,” Angel Rogers said.

As many improvements as he’s made in the last six years, Paul Rogers said he is not ready to quit.

“We are enjoying it, we really are,” Paul Rogers said. “We do it all.”