About 25 miles northwest of Baton Rouge in Pointe Coupee Parish, the "U-shaped" False River stretches over 3,212 acres. Other oxbows include Lake Bruin, a 2,342-acre lake in Tensas Parish, and Lake Providence, a 1,380-acre lake in East Carroll Parish. Just north of Lake Concordia, Lake St. John covers about 2,100 acres, much of it in flooded cypress.

CLECO Lake
Central Louisiana anglers can find summer-like conditions all year long at Lake Rodemacher. Also called "CLECO Lake" (after the power company that owns it), it provides water to cool equipment. The hot-water discharge heats water in the 3,200-acre lake near Boyce.

The son of a CLECO employee, Pittman grew up fishing Lake Rodemacher. The discharge channel runs for about a mile or two from the power plant to the main lake. A barricade keeps anglers from approaching too closely to the discharge area, but anglers can approach within a few hundred yards.

"There are some creek channels that are just phenomenal." Pittman said. "No doubt, it will produce some double-digit bass this year. I've fished there when I've had ice in the rod guides and the water temperature was 82 degrees. It's not uncommon to hear someone say they caught a bunch of fish on a topwater bait in January."

SOUTHERN OPTIONS
With little deep water, sportsmen in south Louisiana generally spend January scanning the skies for ducks, but a few places in the coastal parishes can produce good winter bass fishing. Although Hurricanes Rita and Katrina caused massive fish kills in parts of southern Louisiana, affected areas came back, at least in terms of numbers. Never known for holding double-digit bucketmouths, the southern marshes can again produce fish in the 3- to 5-pound range, along with plenty of smaller fish.

Southeast of New Orleans, a siphon diverts water from the Mississippi River at Caernarvon to freshen brackish marshes and rebuild vanishing wetlands with river silt. This water now flows through myriad canals and numerous unnamed sloughs near Lake Lery or Big Mar. In the past, this area could produce 150 bass a day with an occasional fish weighing close to 10 pounds.

"It's coming back," Pittman said. "In the winter, the cold river water coming down the Mississippi from the north can kill water hyacinths, but even the dead ones can still hold heat. Bass migrate to the hyacinths and suspend under them. The best technique for fishing hyacinths during the winter would be to punch through them with a heavy jig. I use a 3/4-ounce jig and a craw worm or a 1-ounce tungsten weight attached to a brush hog for punching through hyacinths."

Most people only consider "punching through hyacinths" in the summer, when bass seek shade under canopy cover. However, hyacinths can hold fish all year long. For punching, Pittman recommends using a stout 7.5-foot flipping rod and Power Pro braided line.

North of New Orleans, Katrina wiped out the freshwater fisheries in the Pearl River delta near Slidell, but the area again produces numbers of small fish. Anglers may find better fish in other rivers of the Florida Parishes, including the Tangipahoa, Tickfaw and Tchefuncte. During the winter, fish jigs along the deeper outside bends in these streams. Deep canals along Interstate 55 near Manchac can also offer good fishing.

North of Slidell, the Pearl River Navigation Canal looks more like an impoundment than anything else in southeast Louisiana. Known locally as the "Locks Canal," the abandoned navigational channel separated by several locks produced bass exceeding 8 pounds in the past. Although salt water from Katrina never entered the system, the storm did kill fish because decaying organic matter blown into the system consumed dissolved oxygen.

"The Pearl River Locks Canal is probably the most stable place in southeast Louisiana," Pittman said. "People are catching some big stringers. I've seen a lot of 4-pounders come out of that canal. All those trees that went into the water from the storm helped the fishing tremendously by giving the fish much more structure to congregate around. Also, the canal has a lot of lily pads and hyacinths now."

With a little patience, Louisiana bass anglers looking for something to do during the winter can still find good fishing just about anywhere in the state. If the state experiences a mild winter, the action might start early.