Great Fishing Near a Great B&B in North Louisiana

The Huffman House Bed and Breakfast (a luxury micro- inn) is located in North Louisiana off of the main interstate in our area, I-20. This area is called the sportsman’s paradise due to the abundant natural resources. North Louisiana has multiple, lakes in streams for freshwater fishing. To say fishing is good is an understatement. The top 10 fishing spots as listed in the Shreveport Times are:

1. TOLEDO BEND _ About a 2 hour drive from Huffman House Bed and Breakfast to a great fishing spot.

The Shreveport Times stated that the task of selecting the 10 best of the best was simplified by Bassmaster’s release last week of the Top 100 lakes in the country. Since Toledo Bend Reservoir made Bassmaster’s list at No. 1, they said it made sense to post it in the same position on their top ten places to fish in north Louisiana .

“Toledo Bend is in a class by itself, not just in Louisiana, but across the entire country,” said Shreveport’s Skip Peel, who keeps a boat on the south end of the lake. “Toledo Bend is a bass angler’s dream come true. You can fish just about any type cover or structure with a wide range of techniques. In fact to be competitive on Toledo, you have to master a wide range of patterns and presentations. Now that the bass population contains a sufficient level of the Florida gene, we can add double-digit bass in large numbers to the mix.”

2. LAKE BISTINEAU – Located only a couple miles north of Huffman House Bed and Breakfast just outside Minden, LA

Also making the Bassmaster list at No. 27 this 15,550-acre fishery offers cypress trees aplenty along with a continuing battle with salvinia. It’s also a home-away-from-home for folks like veteran tournament angler Jeff Pate who has spent at least 40 years in its every nook and cranny.

“That’s the place I cut my teeth bass fishing. Both my mom and dad worked, so they would drop me off in the morning at the Shady Landing at our boat. We had a 1970 Tidecraft with stick steering and a 40 horsepower motor,” Pate said. “I would spend the entire day on the lake throughout the summer and probably even skipped school some.”.

3. CANEY LAKE – Located only 4.5 from Huffman House Bed and Breakfast and your record wining bass.

This 5,000-acre lake ho
lds the state record for a largemouth bass thanks to a 15.97-pound fish caught in 1994 by Greg Wiggins. Even though it was almost unfishable for several years due to hydrilla, it is making a strong comeback after carp laid waste to the grass.

“If you want really quality bass, it’s hard to beat Caney Lake,” said veteran outdoor writer Glynn Harris. “At one time, it had seven of the top 10 bass in the state and there was a 13-pounder caught this year.”

4. BLACK LAKE – Offering approximately 7,000 acres of quality fishing, Black Lake in Campti has been a favorite haunt of anglers since the 1930s.

“It’s a cypress tree lake offering multiple spots for bass to hide in the root system and ambush their prey,” said Sid Havard, who calls the fishery his favorite. “They can attack shad, bream and bullfrogs or whatever happens by. I’ve always heard people say that bass are like a tiger in the bush – they dictate what happens. The lake also has multiple depths. It has deep holes and shallow areas along with ledges and grass.”

5. GRAND BAYOU – Small in size (2,700 acres), but big in production, Grand Bayou has already produced 20 bass weighing in the double digits this year, according to lake expert Jerry Hester of Martin.

“There’s not a lot of structure on the lake. It’s an open water reservoir, and the average depth is five feet with some 25 foot pockets by the spillway,” said Hester, who has fished it since it opened in 1996. “As far as a trophy lake, I don’t think you can do better than Grand Bayou in North Louisiana.”

6. LAKE D’ARBONNE – Located just a short drive north of Ruston, D’Arbonne was built in 1963 and has gone through its fishing ups and downs since. It’s a 15,250-acre reservoir where the size of your catch isn’t always what matters.

“D’Arbonne is a quality fishery and a good lake to catch three to five pounders,” Harris said. “It has a lot of those. It has the channels, sloughs, cover and shad that bass need to reproduce.”

7. CADDO LAKE – Were it not for the slot limit, this 26,810-acre lake, spanning the Louisiana-Texas border, might rank higher. It produces lots of huge bass in the spring along with quality bream and crappie throughout the year for guides like Randy Deaver, a Shreveport fireman who fishes the lake about 200 days per year.

“It’s a pretty consistent lake, although weather usually dictates the bite. The worst time to fish it is post-spawn (late April or early May). Best time is February, March or the first of April,” Deaver said. “Fishing the trees is good early in the year, although they move into the grass later.”

8. OUACHITA RIVER – Another regular stop for BASS and FLW events, along with the Ronald McDonald House of Northeast Louisiana’s big bass tournament, the Ouachita has been a turbulent mess over the past month. But that doesn’t detract from its past success.

“It’s out of its banks right now just like the Red River,” Phillips said. “All the fish are on the banks up in the trees, so it’s got to come down before there will be effective fishing there.”

9. RED RIVER– An easy 15 mile drive from Huffman House Bed and Breakfast

Echoing the sentiments of the Ouachita, the Red is currently unfishable. But it has hosted two Bassmaster Classics and will likely host a third in the not-too-distant future.

“In the past it’s been one of the best fisheries we’ve ever experienced in this area,” said Red River guide Russ McVey. “That’s because it’s fairly easy for the novice to the professional to fish due to not having to fight cypress trees – there’s casting accessibility. There is an abundance of bass, bream, crappie and catfish.”

10. LAKE CLAIBORNE –Lake Claiborne has plenty of open water with 6,400-acre lake is also easy to fish for the novice. Solid stringers of crappie and striped bass are the norm.

“Claiborne is a good lake to fish at night because there are hundreds of docks and most of them have brush piles and lights,” Havard said. “The lake is loaded with stripers, if you like to catch them.”

 

Check out this great link -Outdoor Sports Paradise 

Huffman House B&B Great Spring Fishing Rates

If you like what you’re seeing call us a Huffman House and let us design a special package rate for you and your friends. Where else can you stay, spend time fishing and then come back clean your catch; then kick back poolside while frying up or grilling your fish.

A great site for hotel tips – Hotel-Opinion.com