Fishing On the Louisiana Coast

A fishing paradise, the Louisiana Coast boasts a unique blend of freshwater and saltwater waterways that offer the top fishing in the world. With bountiful lakes, the Atchafalaya Basin, freshwater and brackish marshes, the Gulf of Mexico, bays, and reservoirs, Louisiana encompasses 41% of the nation’s coastal wetlands and 25% of all U.S. wetlands, making it one of the planet’s most outstanding fishing destinations!

Fishing Along the Louisiana Shore. In Louisiana, you can catch redfish, speckled trout, black drum, flounder, bass, crappie and bream without re-launching your boat. Enjoy offshore Louisiana fishing for tuna, wahoo, red snapper, amberjack, billfish and grouper just off the Louisiana coast. Louisiana’s fertile inshore lakes, marshes and the Atchafalaya Basin boast a variety freshwater fish, such as largemouth bass, sac-a-lait (crappie), bream and catfish. A maze of canals, bayous and ponds around Morgan City are alive with bass “hawgs”every spring.  [Top]

Fishing in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin. Louisiana's beautiful Atchafalaya Basin, the largest active river delta on the continent, is a prime destination for fishing, crawfishing, frogging, and hunting. A tributary of the Mississippi River, this expansive area of swamps, canals, bayous, ponds and lakes is Louisiana’s natural treasure and an angler’s heaven. Lake Verret, Grassy Lake, Lake Palourde, Belle River, Wax Lake Outlet, the Bayou Black, and the southern Atchafalaya Basin are brimming with bass, crappie, bream and catfish. A rich tapestry of cypress and tupelo gum swamps merging to marshes interlaced with bayous and canals create a fish-rich maze.  [Top]

Louisiana’s Amazing Fishing Lakes

• SLake Verret - East of the lower Atchafalaya Basin, southwest of Baton Rouge, Lake Verret is a beautiful system of waterways that is popular with Louisiana anglers. The huge, 15,000 acre, shallow lake, with its expanse of cypress tree-lined shoreline, and the myriad of pipeline canals and bayous, is a honey-hole for largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, bream and catfish. In the spring, anglers catch bass that are “hawgs.”
  
  
• Lake Palourde & Grassy Lake - A sport fishing utopia, Lake Palourde and Grassy Lake - included in the Lake Verret watershed - are full of largemouth bass, sac-a-lait, and catfish throughout the year. With Spanish moss hanging from bald cypress trees, Grassy Lake and Lake Polourde are magical waters to navigate and cast your lines for those “lunkers” you’ve dreamed about.
  
  
• Louisiana Fishing Licenses - For fishing licenses, call the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries at (225) 765-2800 or St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office at (985) 384-1622.  [Top]