Lake D'arbonne Bass Fishing Reports

[kjv]

hairdaddy, thanks for the great info. you posted for fern.  i pre-fished two days, thursday  and friday and finished fourth on the boater side with 3-fish for 8-13 pounds.  darbonne lake fished tougher everyday because of  the fishing pressure from the 115-- boat tournament field pre-fishing and the two big tournaments that fished the weekends before us. i started the  tournament morning in the small cove  when you go left a forks ferry on the right side.  i caught two solid keepers on the right side of the pocket on boat docks the fish were positioned on the last pilings of the docks closest to the bank.  i caught both keepers  on a zoom watermelonseed  ultravibe speed craw, 3/16 oz. tungsten weight and 5/0 gamakatsu straight shank heavy wire  flipping hook .  my co-angler caught a 6-2 pound big bass on a 3/8 oz. black/blue slam dunk jig with a zoom flippin blue super chunk trailer.  he caught the big fish on one of the five stumps on the left side of the cove in that second little pocket before the peninsula you talked about .  i guess i didn't throw on the right stump that big  fish would have really helped my stringer but i was happy for my co-angler he told me that was the biggest bass he had ever caught in a tournament.    he placed third stringer and  also won big bass on the co-angler side.  there was six boats who started there that  morning  everyone was  pitching jig and pigs.  i feel that smaller profile  zoom ultravibe speed craw was something the bass hadn't seen before. we left the cove around 9:30 a.m. and ran to the bridge at stowes creek i proceeded down the left bank after i went under the bridge and caught another keeper on a watermelon-red zoom brush hog  on a boat dock.  i lost another keeper around 2 pounds at the boat on the same  brush hog.  we  left around noon and ran to bear creek.  all the way in the back of bear creek  after the channel markers end to the right there is a little pocket behind a bunch of outside cypress trees.  on the left side of the pocket there is three or four stumps under the water way out off the bank in about 3 feet of water.  i had another keeper about 5 lbs. on a lucky craft rc 1.5 black/chart. crankbait that hit   off of one of those stumps that came unbuttoned at the boat before my co-angler could get the net under it.  losing fish in a tournament is hard to overcome  especially when the fishing is tough.  i burned around 2-gallons of gas the day of the tournament i deciced to fish really slow and only fish those three areas instead of running all over the lake which i did in practice you can't catch them with the outboard motor running.  i will post my two days of practice sunday night because i have to go and tend to my easter bunny duties.  god bless and good fishing.  thanks again,  hairdaddy for posting some good info. on lake darbonne.   kjv

[Mike Cork]

kjv Awesome informative post, thank you. Congrats on your 4th place finish on what appears to be a very tough day of fishing. Looking forward to your prefish reports as well. Thank you for all the detail in your fishing report. Do you remember what the water temp was?

[kjv]

me and a friend of mine who registers as my co-angler left at 9:00 a.m  for the 5 1/2 hour drive to lake darbonne.  we arrived around 3:00 p.m. at the darbonne lake motel it was cold, cloudy, windy and raining.  the local news reported farmerville had set a record for that date with the lowest high temp. on record. we stayed in wednesday.   thursday morning we launched from the motel landing and i went to forks ferry took a left turn  then idled to the right into the small pocket i went to the peninsula on the left bank.  i passed up the second little pocket with the four or five stumps because i didn't  want to fish it until the tournament.  i started off slow-rolling a 1/2 oz. chart./white  tandem willow terminator spinnerbait  when whe went into the little pocket on the other side of the peninsula there is a home with a boat shed dock and a new dock just built  my friend caught a keeper around two pounds on the outside piling on the inside of the boat storage dock on the ultravibe speed craw.  i kept slow rolling the terminator there was  a lot of outside grass in the back of that pocket and towards the back end of the creek but no takers on the spinnerbait.  i was now on the opposite  bank and decided to try a watermelon/red zoom brush hog there is two white pvc pipes off of the bank about twenty five feet out .  i threw the brush hog between those pipes and bounced off an underwater stump between the pipes and my line set sail i hooked and landed a 5-pounder.  we continued down the bank and into a little dead end pocket which has three cypress trees right together on the right bank my friend tossed that ultravibe speed craw on the middle tree and caught a 2 1/2 pounder.  i told him it was time to go and try something else we didn't pre-fish the docks going back out where i caught my two keepers in the tournament.   we left out and took a right to cypress lane and went to the island in the back fished for about an hour with the spinnerbait, brush hog and speed craw my frien caught a 10'' bass on the speed craw.  there was eight boats besides us in cypress decided to leave and run to the darbonne bayou area where the channel markers end.  we continued to idle for a ways until there was a small pocket to the left with a cut and a shallow lake at the end of the cut the pocket was stained but the cut and lake was clearer.  i threw the spinnerbait in the pocket with no luck the switched to a gold, black back, orange belly floating rogue there's about five or six cypress trees in the middle of the cut going into that lake on the fourth tree i hooked and landed another bass close to five pounds.  stayed in the lake until it was only a foot deep fished  out with the rogue couldn't get another bite.  we was back in the main drag went towards the back passed up a small boat landing on the left bank kept going aways the there was a 25 foot wide slough maybe a 100 yds. long caught a 15 incher on the grass on the right bank on the spinnerbait.  came out into the main bayou went left until it opened up into a lake went left  and right fished for about three hours with nothing.  that lake was beautiful two other boats were back in there one was another angler i know well and he told me he had launched at the landing back there and that he had caught two nice fish on a spinnerbait and one on a senko.   we left and ran all the way back to forks ferry and took a left and idled a good ways under the bridge at dozier creek there was two other boats in there we tossed brush hogs, jigs and the speed craw with no success.  we idled back out under the bridge and started fishing the left bank by the houses my friend hooked another 2-pounder on a cypress tree on the speed craw  we worked that bank for ever  but no takers.  it was 5:00 p.m. so we headed into the landing.     kjv

[kjv]

we launched today around 6:30 a.m. from the darbonne lake motel landing and went under the bridge to stowes creek went all the way to the back looking for hairdaddys duck blind with the bright green tarp on it.  we found it as did about 10 other boats we  pitched brush hogs, v&m bayou craws, rattleback jigs and the speed craw for about two hours without a bite.   i then idled up to the channel markers and went to the left bank looking at the bridge.  threw the brush hog and speed craw caught a 2-pounder along a patch of grass fished all the way to the bridge.   went across to the other side and fished for a mile maybe and i caught another keeper on a stump on the brush hog and my friend caught a nice 2 1/2 pounder on the watermelonseed speed craw.  he had two other fish roll at a white zoom trick worm on top.  we left stowes creek and headed to bear creek  we followed the channel markers in until they ended.  we went to the right bank and fished boat docks i threw a brush hog and my friend decided to throw a 200 series bandit chartreuse with black stripes and black back crankbait he had tied on.  on the docks he caught a 1 3/4 pounder off of a boat dock.  towards the back there is a 100 feet or so little ditch about 25 feet wide that ends by the road i caught a nice 2-pounder on the brush hog on a boat shed piling on the right bank about midways.  we fished back out and towards another nice looking boat dock and down towards the clump of outside cypress trees i talked about with no success we then proceeded to go behind the clump of trees in a little pocket where my friend caught a nice 2 1/2 pounder on the bandit crankbait  on one of those underwater stumps to the left side of the pocket  we then fished around the other side back to the channel markers with no success.  we left out of bear creek back to the hwy. 33 bridge instead of going under the bridge we went to the left and fished the bank along the highway thinking we might find some release fish from a previous tournament.  we fished until 3:00 p.m. with no luck by the highway bank.   for the tournament i   decided to start in the cove by folks ferry first thing and to make three or four passes in there and then run to stowe creek bridge and fish the left bank and then go to bear creek  and then finish up back in the cove by folks ferry if i had enough time. i also figured i had to fish very slow with the speed craw and brush hog in the folks ferry cove and stowes creek areas.  then throw the crankbait and brush hog in bear creek.  i decided not to go back to the little bayou darbonne area because of the long run and all the idling involved in slowing down for the thirty or so crappie fishermen in the main channel.  hope this  lake info. helps someone on lake darbonne since i  will not be back until next year if the bfl returns.  god bless and good fishing.  kjv

[kjv]

i dont know i fished out of a 17 foot new alumnium boat and my garmin 240 bow fishfinder was wired wrong and it would beep and turn off saying it was receiving to much voltage.  i had it fixed when i returned.  i can tell you it reached 73 degrees air temperature the day of the tournament. it warmed up everyday we were there. but was really cold when we arrived, sorry i couldn't be more help on the water temp.  kjv

[Mike Cork]

Thats cool, I hate it when my equipment won't work correctly. Thanks for the indepth reports on the lake 

[Hairdaddy]

KJV,
  Congrats on the BFL.  I'm glad I could help some.  I really enjoyed your indepth report, and am always glad to see that my spots were a "little" good.  Guess its the next best thing to being there  .  See you on the Red.

[mjp79]

My club fished a tournament on the 2nd, sorry so late....I've been busy.  I pretty strong cold front had just come through so fishing was lousy.  9 boats, 18 anglers, 3 boats had fish to weigh.  I was 3rd with 2 fish that went 1.96 lbs......together!  2nd place was won with 3 lbs and some change, however 1st was over 10 lbs.  I know the guys that won it very well and got some info from them.  They caught them at D'arbonne Village(hwy 2)  were the actual channel runs to the nw corner.  Back there by some camps there is a type of grass that I don't know the name of.  It's a very green, thick leafed floating grass.  When the wind gets up on D'arbonne, you'll see alot of this grass floating throughout the lake.  The fish were under this grass and only this grass...it was the only grass that I didn't fish.  They caught them on a white fluke.  Sorry so late..Good fishing
mjp79

[Mike Cork]

Better late than never, thanks for the report. If you ever find out the name of that grass I would love to know so I can do some research about it and get familar with it.

[mjp79]

Mike, I'll try to find out the name of it, but in the mean time what I can tell you about it is that it has a very thick, rigid leaf kinda like a lily pad.  The leaf is about the size of a regular ivy plant(the kind you see hanging in people's houses) and it's very green.  Oh yeah, and it floats, like I said, after a storm, you'll see it floating throughout the lake, especially on the Corney end.  I'll see what I can dig up on it.
mjp79

[Red Ranger]

Fishing a tournament on D'arbonne in July.  Any info on summer patterns, baits, locations, etc. would be appreciated.

[Chris]

Fishing a tournament on D'arbonne in July.  Any info on summer patterns, baits, locations, etc. would be appreciated.

Red Ranger
How soon is this tourney?  I have a buddy over there who will give you some good info. I wish I could get over there and fish with him more but its a little too far.

[Scott K.]

Red Ranger

I fished a tourney there in early May and I used a 4.25 YUM vibra king tube in Black/Blue.It worked very well for me as I had bites all day long and won the tourney as well. I fished solely in the Corney creek area along the banks. I was warned by the locals that the banks would be a prime target for most anglers and I would probably have no luck there. I stayed on that pattern anyways and caught a 6 lber and several 4 lbers.

Scott

[Red Ranger]

It's the NELBA tournament on July 16th.

Congrats on the win in May.

[mjp79]

I'll be fishing the NELBA tournament also.  I fished a tournament on D'Arbonne on the 9th.  It was a night tournament and not alot of fish were caught.  I'm the weighmaster for our club so I happend to have some #'s.  1st -- 12.34 lbs (4 fish) All I know is on the spillway side of the hwy 33 bridge.  2nd and big bass -- 11.59 (5 fish) waaaaaaaayyyyy up Corney.  Big bass was 4.74.  I didn't do so well....2.26.  But I think there is a good chance that I caught West Nile Virus....the mosquitoes were definately biting!!!  Like I said, that was a night tournament......for what it's worth.  See ya' there, I'll be in a grey home made bass boat.
Good Luck and God Bless   mjp79

[Mike Cork]

mjp79, thanks for the update What is the name of your bass club?

[Red Ranger]

I'll look for you mjp79.  First time to fish Darbonne or the NELBA.  We'll have some others from our group there also.   Maybe stating the obvious, but look for a red ranger - I'll have on a white shirt with a Broadmoor Baptist Anglers logo.

[Mike Cork]

Red Ranger have you concidered getting your club their own forum on the site for doing club business, having polls and posting your standings? Really it is wide open for what you want to use it for

[kw4570gov]

Mike,

I am in the same club as RedRanger, what is the process to set up a club forum? It sounds like a good idea.

Kent

[Mike Cork]

It is really easy, just drop Laurie a PM with your club name and a little info about it and she can set you up as soon as you are ready.

Looking forward to getting your club on line

[Trey]

Fished the NELBA tournament this past Saturday.  12+ #'s won with only two fish.  He had a 9.6 kicker!    She sure was pretty.  I had three fish that went 5.59.  There was only 1 team out of 82 that had a five fish limit.  It was a slow bite all day.  I caught all my fish in Stowe Creek on cypress trees in 3-4 ft of water.  One bit a redbug ringworm and the other two hit a sweet beaver.  Did have a few bites and one dink on a Yozuri Bannana Boat.  Water temps were 82-89 depending on what section of the lake you were in.

Trey   

[kw4570gov]

Fished the same touney as Trey on Sat. We had two fish that went 3.04, one on a 5/8oz white spinner bait, and one on a BPS rattle trap copy. Both in Stowe Creek. Hard day of fishing but won a A/G 5500 c3 as a door prize.

Kent

[Mike Cork]

Thanks for the update guys

[Red Ranger]

Fished the NELBA too.  Caught a couple of fish for a total of 2.78# in Corney Creek area - one on 3/8 oz white spinner bait and another on white buzz bait.  Both were in about 4' of water close to grass.  Had a few more strikes at a buzz bait and horny toad, but they didn't take it.  First time to fish the lake and was impressed with it - wish it were closer to Shreveport.

Congrats to Trey, of our local group he was top gun......as usual .  Another good weighing fish and he is in the top ten again in the tournament.

For $40/boat the tournament is the best deal going.  The entry fee includes a Friday night fish fry, an opportunity to meet, hear, and talk to a professional circuit bass fisherman, a good lake to fish, and great door prizes for drawings after the weigh-in (see KW4570GOV's post for winning a 5500C) .  Shaw Grigsby spoke at the fish fry Friday night (got the autograph).

Next year Trey is going to have company in his spot .

[Trey]

Red Ranger,

Thanks for the accolades; I am undeserving.    I had a great time fishing with everybody this past weekend and I look forward to Saturday on BB!

Trey