All year long, Louisiana sportsmen can find great fishing opportunities across the Bayou State. It offers some of the country’s best angling for bass, crappie, catfish and bream. And that’s not to mention what’s arguably the finest saltwater action in the nation — excellent offshore fishing for tuna, marlin, king mackerel, cobia and other species.

In any month, Louisiana anglers can catch a record-book fish throughout the state and in adjacent waters. No list could adequately detail all the fabulous fishing opportunities found in Louisiana, nor does this one; it merely samples high points among the various fishing opportunities available in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

JANUARY

Lake Claiborne Crappie

Some like it cold, especially crappie anglers at Lake Claiborne, a 6,400-acre lake near Homer. Many anglers fish in 20 to 35 feet of water near the dam. They use depthfinders to locate schools of threadfin shad. When they find shad, they drop live shiners or tube jigs near them. Most crappie average about a pound, but some exceed 2 pounds.

The state created artificial reefs here in the fall of 2002. Made of plastic pallets, these structures resembling Christmas trees now provide habitat and cover for crappie and other species in the deep, clear reservoir.

Other Choices

For rod-bending action, vertically jig a chrome spoon near the dam on the 186,000-acre Toledo Bend straddling the Louisiana-Texas line. The striped bass, some of which exceed 40 pounds, like to stay in the current when water flows through the dam generators. In water 20 to 45 feet deep, anglers dropping chrome spoons might also catch largemouths, yellow bass, crappie or white bass.

Bass anglers might consider Kincaid Lake, a 2,000-acre impoundment west of Alexandria in central Louisiana that produced a 12-pounder in 2001. Iatt Lake, a 7,100-acre lake in Grant Parish, and Indian Creek Reservoir, a 2,200-acre lake in Rapides Parish, can also produce bass exceeding 10 pounds.

FEBRUARY

Caney Lake Bass

Caney Lake, a 5,000-acre impoundment near Chatham, produced eight of the current top 10 Louisiana bass. Many big bass hit the scales in February, including Greg Wiggins’ 15.97-pound state record and Tommy Foster’s 15.54-pounder.

“We still catch double-digit bass, but just not in the numbers that we used to catch,” said Tommy Chatham of Tommy’s Tournament Guide Service. “It’s improving tremendously, but it’s still not nearly as good as it was. I know of one 14-pounder that came out of Caney in 2003. We still get a lot of 10s and 11s.”

Other Choices

Hydrilla overtakes Spring Bayou, a 5,000-acre lake near Marksville, in warm months, but in winter, anglers find more room to fish in this fertile lake.

In February 2000, Ed Stellner twitched a gold and black suspending jerkbait in a creek off Lake D’Ar­bonne and landed a 15.31-pound bass. The 15,000-acre lake near Farmerville can produce quite a few bass in the 10-pound range.

MARCH

Caddo Lake Bass

Among the oldest and largest natural freshwater lakes in the South, 26,810-acre Caddo Lake, northwest of Shreveport, ranks as one of the best lunker lakes in Louisiana. In fact, the lake record — a 16.01-pound bass, landed by Bobby Shaver in 1992, that was put on the scales in Texas — outweighed the Louisiana state record.

Other Choices

Every spring, Toledo Bend anglers land double-digit bass. Stretching about 65 miles along the old Sabine River channel, the lake ranks among the top bass fisheries in North America. Abundant weeds, standing timber, dropoffs, humps and other cover create an excellent bassin’ venue.

At the south end of the Sabine River, anglers pursue big flounder. Sabine Lake produced Texas’ state-record southern flounder, a 13-pounder. Vast marshes on the Louisiana side offer excellent flounder habitat.

APRIL

Lacassine Pool

During the 1999-2001 drought, Lacassine Pool, covering on average an area of 16,000 acres, shrank to just a few hundred acres. Since then, massive stockings of Florida bass have helped the impounded marsh in Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge near Lake Arthur. In the past, it produced bass exceeding 12 pounds. Now, anglers catch quite a few bass in the 5- to 8-pound range, some breaking 10 pounds.