See every public fishing venue in Louisiana on the map, with boat ramps, camping, parking and full rules for each one.
Red River is a public river in Bossier Parish, Avoyelles Parish, Caddo Parish, Rapides Parish, Natchitoches Parish and Red River Parish, Louisiana, managed by State of Louisiana (public / navigable water). You can fish it on a Louisiana licence, but bank access is only at road crossings, parks, LDWF access sites and other public land; riparian owners control the bank on non-navigable reaches. Public access confirmed via marquee water.
The Red River through Louisiana — the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway navigation pools below Shreveport (Lock & Dam 1-5) are a legitimately good largemouth and white-bass fishery, with stocked stripers and hybrids, sac-a-lait in the oxbows and cuts, and trophy blue and flathead catfish. Pool 5 hosted the 2012 Bassmaster Classic.
It runs roughly 264 miles through the North Louisiana region. Anglers here mostly fish for largemouth bass, white bass, striped bass, hybrid striped bass; white crappie, black crappie, blue catfish, channel catfish are also on record. Live flow and gauge height come from the Red River at Alexandria, LA USGS station shown below. The nearest other mapped waters on PiscaMaps are Saint Maurice Lake and Little Natches Bayou.
Species from LDWF fishery-management data.
Night fishing: No statewide night-fishing closure in Louisiana. Some state-park and municipal lakes gate at night or post hours; a few WMA impoundments are daylight-only. Yo-yos, trotlines, jugs, slat traps and hoop nets are legal on most fresh water for licensed anglers with the gear tagged (not on the LDWF trophy lakes and some others). Bow fishing for gar, carp and buffalo is popular at night.
Boats: Toledo Bend, Caddo, the Red River pools, Pontchartrain, Maurepas and the big natural lakes have no horsepower limit; idle / no-wake zones are marked near launches, camps and bridges. Many LDWF lakes and state-park lakes are electric-motor or small-outboard only, and the Atchafalaya Basin and the marsh are pirogue, go-devil (mud motor) and bass-boat country where the water level dictates where you can go. Louisiana requires a boater-education card for operators born after 1 Jan 1984.
Bank & bivvy camping: Camp at Louisiana state parks (many are on the best lakes — Lake D'Arbonne, Lake Bistineau, Lake Claiborne, Poverty Point Reservoir, North Toledo Bend, South Toledo Bend, Chicot, Lake Fausse Pointe, Bayou Segnette), Corps campgrounds on Toledo Bend and the Red River, and the Kisatchie National Forest, which allows dispersed camping across most of its five districts. The Atchafalaya Basin has primitive camping on the batture and spoil banks.
Tackle: Statewide black-bass daily limit is 10 (no statewide minimum), but the LDWF trophy lakes carry slots or minimums — Caney (8-12 in and 14-17 in protected), Poverty Point, Toledo Bend (14 in), False River, Concordia, Bruin, D'Arbonne and others each have their own rule. Sac-a-lait (crappie) is 25 per day on most waters, 50 on some; bream is generous; catfish and the saltwater species (red drum 5, speckled trout 15-25 by zone) have their own limits. Check the current LDWF regulations for this water.
Boat ramps: 6 mapped — Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Loading live flow & gauge height…
Live from USGS gauge 07355500 — Red River at Alexandria, LA. Full gauge data →
Anyone 18-59 needs a Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries fishing licence — since the 2022 licence overhaul the resident Fishing License (about $17) covers both fresh and salt water, and the non-resident annual is about $68 (short-term non-resident trips are sold). Louisiana residents 60 and older buy a reduced-price Senior licence, and residents born before 1 June 1940 are licence-exempt; anglers under 18 fish free. There is no trout stamp — Louisiana has no freshwater trout ('trout' here means speckled trout, a saltwater fish covered by the base licence). Buy from LDWF at wlf.louisiana.gov. A Louisiana fishing licence covers navigable rivers and bayous. The Mississippi River is fished on a Louisiana, Mississippi or Arkansas licence in the border reaches; the Sabine on a Louisiana or Texas licence.
Every water carries species, bank & boat access, current regulations and live water conditions — and members get Swim Mapper, Catch Logger and Trip Planner. It's the only US map with a dedicated carp-water layer.
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