Photo by Ron SInfelt

Bass anglers may need to head north this spring to land limits, as Hurricane Katrina's brutal assault of last August ripped up large tracts of the Louisiana Delta between Houma and Slidell. Its salty storm surges leveled marinas and devastated bass populations across much of southeastern Louisiana, but for the most part spared areas of the state north and west of Baton Rouge, which largely escaped the destruction.

Ironically, while New Orleans flooded, many lakes and rivers in the state suffered from low water: A drought baked much of Louisiana in the late summer and early fall of 2005. Still, the oxbow lakes along the Mississippi River have excellent potential for producing lunker largemouths this spring.

"Bass populations are improving across the board in my area," said David Hickman, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist in Ferriday. "We had a drought from 1999 through early 2001, and we had a largemouth bass virus in lakes Concordia and Bruin in the summer of 2000, but the bass are coming back very well. Overall, this area is looking better every year. We are continuing to stock Florida largemouths, and we're starting to see some benefits from that, especially in Concordia."

Lake Concordia, an ancient, highly fertile oxbow near Ferriday, can produce fish exceeding 13 pounds. In 1990, the state began stocking the 1,000-acre lake with Florida-strain largemouths. The state also managed it as a "trophy" lake with a 15- to 19-inch slot limit until 2002.

The slot limit built up the number of smaller fish, almost to the point of overpopulation. Consequently, fishing suffered for years, but it began to come back strongly in 2005. Now anglers must only follow statewide regulations and need observe no special size restrictions.

"Lake Concordia has been phenomenal for big fish in 2005," Hickman said. "We are not quite seeing the numbers like before, but we're seeing as many big fish in Concordia as we've ever seen. We had quite a few bass over 10 pounds in 2005. The biggest I know about is a 12 1/2-pounder caught in March of 2005, and I heard about another 12-pounder caught in 2005. With the population thinned a little, the rest of the fish are growing faster and are healthier."

In one 2005 bass tournament on Concordia, the winner landed four bass weighing more than 38 pounds for a 9 1/2-pound average, Hickman said. In another tournament, the five fish making up the winning stringer weighed 37 pounds. The second place stringer weighed about 33 pounds with the third-place team catching 27 pounds.

Although no longer attached to the Mississippi River, this rain-fed lake still resembles the old river channel. About six miles long, narrow and relatively shallow, the lake remains largely devoid of structure except for shoreline docks, some grass patches and cypress trees. It averages about 10 to 15 feet deep, but some holes drop to more than 55 feet deep.

Grassy flats at either end attract big fish, especially during spawning season. Many bass anglers pound these flats with soft plastics, spinnerbaits or topwater baits. Since the bass feed heavily upon shad, lures that resemble baitfish work best.

Hickman also recommended Turkey Creek, a 3,000-acre impoundment about 15 miles south of Winnsboro, as an improving bass lake that produces excellent catches of bass up to 9 pounds. Flooded cypress trees and grass provide ample cover for growing bass. In the spring, flooding from the Boeuf River can make the reservoir muddy, but when the water recedes and clears, fishing improves greatly.