re: Lafayette Area Fishing (Public Launches, Bayous, and Lakes)

Ok, so here's my report. Kinda long and pic heavy.

Coming from 190, almost immediately when you enter Sherburne you will see a sign for the self-clearing permit area. Take a left and go fill that out. The green box to the right has the permits and you drop them in the slot. There's also some bathrooms nearby in case you need to empty out


Then you'll have to drive a couple more miles down the shell road before you get to the shooting range, Big Alabama launch, and a tad bit further for the Little Alabama launch. It's clearly marked with a sign.


The ramp is in great condition. However, it's a little too steep of a grade for my liking. But as long as you are confident your truck can pull your boat out of the water, you could easily launch a big bass boat. The water in the bayou is actually fairly deep. About 15 feet, +/- a couple. So you could even run a little in there. There are some sunken trees, but you can see any water hazards pretty clearly. There were a couple boats out there running on plane.



As far as fishing goes, there was no shortage of activity. Bream were biting everywhere. Throw next some trees or bushes near the bank and there was a good chance your cork was going under. The only problem was 90% of them were tiny. There were a couple of decent sized bluegill and goggle eye.


The bass were a little less aggressive but they were definitely biting. I caught around a dozen total. But not many were keeper size. They were biting on senko or speed craw. Didn't seem to matter which one I threw. But the pattern to catch them was quite frustrating. They were shallow and up in the trees. Cypress and willows seemed to be where they were hanging out. And I mean all up in the roots. Which left me hung up A LOT! If you go, bring plenty of plastics and terminal tackle. I had a few bites that as soon as the took the bait, they swam straight into the roots and trees under water and hung me up.




Final thoughts. I will absolutely go back. It's beautiful out there. I caught some fish. Including a choupique and a gar. And I only fished about 1.5 miles of the bayou. In the kayak I fought the strong south wind all afternoon. You'd probably be protected pretty good from an east or west wind. But north or south will blow straight up and down the bayou. Between working the anchor, getting my lure free from a hang up, and re rigging, a lot of time was ate up. So I probably could have paddled further and possibly caught more fish if it weren't for that.

I brought my GoPro. I didn't record the whole time in order to stretch out the battery. But I should have some pretty decent footage. I'll go through that tomorrow.