Louisiana Fishing Report: November 2026 to February 2027

Broken marsh east of the Mississippi River in St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes: ponds, bayous and canals behind Breton Sound and the Chandeleur Islands, with Lake Borgne along the northern edge. It is reached by boat from a handful of landings, and much of it is shallow enough that a strong north wind leaves a boat sitting on mud.

Who reports here. Todd Masson's weekly Marsh Man Masson videos, each with a short dated introduction on Louisiana Sportsman, covered Delacroix, Hopedale and Lake Borgne every week last winter, and the Great Days Outdoors delta podcast has added a weekly report since February. No landing or marina here publishes its own.

A big, shallow, brackish lake north of New Orleans, crossed by the Causeway and the interstate bridges and tied to the Gulf through the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass. The bridges, trestles and passes hold fish when the open lake does not, and rivers on the north side run down into it from the piney woods.

Who reports here. Masson's videos reached Lake Pontchartrain and the Rigolets, and the delta podcast has covered the North Shore weekly since February; nobody in Slidell or along the north side publishes a dated report. WWL's Saturday radio show with Don Dubuc ended on February 7.

Engine outlook

• Lake PontchartrainSpotted SeatroutToday's forecast
  Best: Thu, Nov 12, A+11 good hours74F measured Nov 3 at New Canal Station tide stationbest run 7h

The end of the road at the mouth of the Mississippi, where the river splits into its passes and builds land into the Gulf. River water and Gulf water meet across a few miles, so the fishing moves with every rise and fall of the river, from bass and redfish together in the roseau cane to deep Gulf water a short run from the dock.

Who reports here. Venice is in Masson's videos and, since February, the delta podcast every week; the marinas at Venice and Buras post only on social media. It is left out of the outlook below, because the nearest thermometers are a buoy in the open Gulf off Southwest Pass and the river itself at Pilottown.

One long estuary running from the swamps around Lafitte down through Barataria Bay to the barrier island at Grand Isle, with Port Fourchon and Leeville to the west. Inside it is marsh, oyster reef and canals; at the bottom the passes and the island's rocks and surf face the Gulf.

Who reports here. Nothing dated reached the web for Lafitte before February, when the delta podcast began covering it along with Grand Isle. Port Fourchon and Leeville had nobody at all.

Engine outlook

• Grand IsleRedfish (Red Drum)Today's forecast
  Best: Sat, Nov 7, A13 good hours76F measured Nov 3 at Grand Isle tide stationbest run 13h

Ridges of high ground running south from Houma, each with its bayou and its road, and between them miles of broken marsh and shallow bays opening onto Terrebonne and Timbalier bays. The land here is sinking and washing away, so the water on a chart and the water a boat finds are often different.

Who reports here. No publisher could be shown to report this stretch of the coast in winter, or at any other time of year.

Big, open, muddy bays west of the Atchafalaya's mouth, where the river's fresh water and silt spread across the coast. Marsh Island shelters them from the Gulf; the water runs fresher and murkier than the coast to the east, and clears and turns saltier as the river falls.

Who reports here. Nobody publishes a dated fishing report for Vermilion Bay, Cypremort Point or Marsh Island.

A shallow estuary lake south of Lake Charles, cut through by the deep ship channel to Cameron and ringed by marsh and shell reefs. Its mud flats and reefs are fished for big speckled trout, and the channel and the jetties at Cameron tie it to the Gulf.

Who reports here. Hackberry Rod and Gun posted three updates all last winter, and the American Press fishing report ended in 2021, which leaves the lake with almost no dated voice through the months it is most fished. A dredging spill in August 2025 left mud over reefs in the southwest of the lake, by an LDWF biologist's account in Louisiana Sportsman.

Engine outlook

• Calcasieu LakeSpotted SeatroutToday's forecast
  Its best day in this outlook has passed.

A vast river swamp held between levees, flooded and drained by the Atchafalaya every year: cypress and tupelo, bayous, canals and the borrow pits along the levees. When the river is low the fish pull out of the swamp into the deeper canals and pits, and when it rises they spread back out into the trees.

Who reports here. Nobody reports the Basin or Henderson Swamp in winter. The tighter black bass and crappie limits in the lower Basin, new on August 1, 2026, are this winter's first.

Hill-country reservoirs and river backwaters in the north of the state, some clear and deep, Caney for big largemouth, others stained and timbered, D'Arbonne for crappie. The Ouachita runs down through the middle of them with its oxbows and backwater lakes.

Who reports here. Glynn Harris's fishing report in the Jackson Parish Journal ran nearly every weekend last winter, water by water, built from the landings and tackle shops he calls. No other Louisiana fresh water was reported as often.

Cypress lakes and reservoirs around Shreveport, several of them choked with giant salvinia and drawn down on purpose to fight it. Caddo Lake, on the Texas line, is a maze of cypress and boat roads shared between the two states.

Who reports here. Nobody reports Cross Lake, Black Lake or Bistineau in winter, and LDWF's drawdown notices are the only dated word on them.

A huge reservoir on the Sabine, shared with Texas, with drowned timber across its flats and creek arms. Its level and its winter generation are set by the river authorities, and when the water drops the fish move off the shallow grass onto the creek channels.

Who reports here. TPWD's report, republished by KOGT, gave the lake's level and water temperature about every two weeks last winter and stopped in February. The Sabine River Authority posts level and generation, and the Lunker Bass Program logged eighteen bass of ten pounds or more over the winter.