Any good fishing within 30 miles of Ruston: Updated

Lake Darbonne, head to Farmerville and you’ll cross it.

You actually have 3 really good lakes to choose from, Darbonne to the NE, Claiborne to the NW, and Caney to the South. All have good fishing available.

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Lake Darbonne, head to Farmerville and you’ll cross it.

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Holy hell!! Completely forgot Darbonne was that close to Ruston.

Dad used to love fishing there. My brothers and I only went a handful of times but don’t remember much. I know some of my dads biggest bass came out there in the mid 70s before I was born.

They still catch good fish up there? I’ve heard it’s went down but I’m sure it’s still good. With it being summertime it may be harder to catch some of the larger females but I know I can catch numbers. I should be able to anyway.

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Caney is on absolute fire. The weekly 3fish weeknight tourney has been won with 20+ lbs every week for what seems like two months

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Damn. That’s awesome.

Not asking you for specific baits but what colors do good up there?

D'arbonne is a straight shot up hwy 33 about 25 miles, there's a bait stand right as you leave Ruston on the left Cranford's North Side.

Do you have a boat ?

D'arbonne bass fishing is tough in the summer but you can catch bass, early and late with a frog or big worms on the channel edge during the day. I like to fish it at night, black worm around lighted boat docks. Or a big black buzz or spinner bait on dark banks

You could probably catch a good mess of bream right now if you could find a bed.

If you've never fished there, be ready to hit stumps..

If you see clear water that looks perfect to run wide open, don't go there... Stay in the channels

If you want somewhere quick and easy, go to Lincoln parish park. Just a pond but was always a quick place to go to and fish from the bank. When you pull in, the bank to right with all the submerged rocks is the spot. Specifically with the drain pipe sticking up about 1-2ft out of the water and about 15-20 yrds off the bank. Use a lizard with a 1/8oz weight or twitching shade with no weight as well. Been quite some time I last went but couldnt see why it would have changed that much.

Claiborne is getting a lot better. Couple of weeks ago they released 80,000 tiger bass fingerlings on year 4 of a 5 year stocking program. The lake commission is doing a great job on reinvesting in the lake.

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2nd vote for Darbone!

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3rd vote for D'Arbonne just cause it checks his box for being within 30 minutes of Ruston. I got on a kick fishing there for a while. Mostly fishing the cypress trees on Stowe Creek in the early mornings with a Rouge or some other topwater.

I spent most of my time in the Monroe area though. Black Bayou, Desiard, Batholomew, and the river, especially on D Bayou or DeLoutre.

I fished them all but we were some of original people on Claiborne. Our camp was on the Shallow side by pixleys landing. You could always catch strippers by the damn in the summer, but I lived in the shallow waters.

In the summers I would hit the flats in am with soft plastic jerk baits, or smithwith double jointed minnows, then hit the deep holes off main channel with worms (purple, motor oil etc). Night fishing was always good too. I could always catch half a dozen bass or so, a day and a few jackfish a week.

My grandfather used to catch massive white perch in the spring, but hated the lake because he was avid bream fisherman and called it a bass lake.

We used to catch huge flatheads there too. Both Claiborne and Darbornne are full of stumps and you have to be careful