Black Lake
Black Lake is a beautiful 13,800-acre body of water laced with cypresses and tupelo gum trees, and crappie fishing here in March can be good, according to Moses.

“Fishing jigs or shiners or jigs tipped with grass shrimp in water 3 feet deep or so will produce some fine crappie here in spring,” said Moses.

Saline Lake
This lake, much like its neighbor Black Lake, features great springtime crappie fishing around brush and trees in the shallows. “This 8,400-acre lake has some really big crappie,” noted Moses, “and most of them are black crappie.”

CLECO Lake
CLECO Lake’s 3,070 acres, just outside Alexandria in central Louisiana, offer some big black crappie during the spring spawn.

“The lake has had a bad aquatic vegetation problem, and grass carp were introduced. While the carp removed the grass, bass fishing on the lake declined,” Moses said. “However, the crappie apparently weren’t affected because you can catch a bunch of them here.”

Saline Lake/Larto Lake A little to the east of Alexandria, this system of lakes, bayous and streams has long been known as one of the best crappie fishing spots in the state. According to Mike Ewing, fisheries biologist with the Ferriday district LDWF office, this area continues to be quite good for crappie anglers.

“It’s probably one of the most consistent crappie fishing lakes anywhere,” said Ewing. “It’s located in one of the few areas where the bottomland hardwoods remain, and when it floods, it creates some super spawning habitat in the flooded timber.”

Old River-Deer Park And Old River-Vidalia These are two active oxbow lakes that are affected by the rise and fall of the Mississippi River.

“Barring too much rain upstream, these two areas are prime fishing spots for crappie fishermen in spring,” Ewing said. “They continue to undergo falling and rising water, which introduces nutrients into the lakes continually. This makes for some really big crappie.”

Lake Louis
This lake near Sicily Island was impounded when a lock and dam was constructed on the Ouachita River.

“Now that a system has been installed to allow river water to flow into the lake during certain times, the lake is constantly the recipient of fresh water, which makes for some good (crappie) fishing,” said Ewing.

SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA
Vernon Lake
This 4,200-acre lake near Leesville has long been known as a good crappie fishing lake.

“It’s like a smaller version of Toledo Bend, having some of the same characteristics as the big lake,” said Bobby Reed, fisheries biologist in the Lake Charles LDWF office.

“Lake Vernon is known for the size of crappie that are caught here in spring,” he added. “There are some really impressive black crappie that come out of here every spring.”