"Lake D'Arbonne has a bright future," noted the LDWF's Wood, who's in charge of this lake too. "Since D'Arbonne is not one of our designated 'trophy' lakes, we can't put as many Florida bass fingerlings in here as we can the lakes that qualify as 'trophy' lakes. However, we're releasing some 125,000 Florida bass fingerlings into the lake every year, and because of the other two elements, age and habitat, the bass fishery is steadily improving."

The fish ranking seventh in the state's big bass records is a 15.31-pound D'Arbonne bass caught in February 2000 by Ed Stellner. Reports of big bass -- double-digit specimens -- being caught at D'Arbonne are more common than they once were.

"The lake has an abundance of aquatic vegetation," said Wood, "and added to that, much of the lake is timbered, with cypress trees and button willows, giving the fish excellent cover for avoiding being eaten and as ambush points for foraging bass.

"Our department has an excellent working relationship with the Lake D'Arbonne Watershed Commission, and because we're able to work together, we're seeing lots of positive things taking place on D'Arbonne." Lake D'Arbonne has several public launch ramps, including Stowe Creek, the ramp adjacent to the Highway 33 bridge, the D'Arbonne State Park landing and the Corney Creek landing off Highway 2.

CAERNARVON
As popular as these north Louisiana lakes are with largemouth fans, bodies of water in the southern tier of parishes vie for top positions as well. One prime area that bass anglers will be visiting this spring is a complex collage of water-diversion canals, lagoons and ponds called Caernarvon.

The Caernarvon Project lies east of the Mississippi River and south of New Orleans along the St. Bernard/Plaquemines parish lines. Completed in 1991, the project involved building structures to divert fresh water from the Mississippi River into low-lying lands to the east of the river. As a result of this introduction of fresh water, nutrients and sediment from the river flow over the marshlands and into the bays, serving as a shot in the arm to this area once threatened by loss of habitat and saltwater intrusion.

The project controls the salinity of over 16,000 acres of marshland; in total, 77,000 acres of marshes and bays benefit. According to reports by fisheries biologists, largemouth bass production has almost doubled since the project's inception. Of interest to anglers is that largemouths here tend to be heavy, with some catches in the 11-pound range reported.

There's nothing conjectural about Caernarvon's weighty bigmouths -- just ask Covington resident and professional angler Sam Swett. He's caught plenty of big bass there by targeting the numerous canals along Lake Lery with jigs, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. "It's one of the best places for big fish," he said.

Howard Rogillio, the LDWF District 8 Inland Fisheries supervisor working out of the La Combe fish hatchery, reports that Caernarvon's bass fishing has really taken off. "Prior to the implementation of this project, bass fishing here was just fair," he observed. "There was rather high mortality in bass because of relative high temperatures, which results in high metabolism of bass. This, plus the low oxygen levels typically seen in warm months here, resulted in a short life span for bass here. They didn't live long enough to grow to trophy size.

"Once fresh water was introduced to the marsh, water temperatures cooled and oxygen was replenished. As a result, these fish have taken off, and should provide some of the best bass fishing in the country in years ahead.