Click here for a list of more than a dozen available boat launches in Iberville Parish.

Spring 2012 Fishing Update by:
John James Clark, Environmental Manager
Iberville Parish Council, jclark@ibervilleparish.com

Spring 2012 Fishing in Iberville Parish
Freshwater fishing is picking up early this year. Last year’s record flood flushed the Atchafalaya Basin creating ideal habitat and water quality conditions. The crawfish season was all but lost leaving more crawfish for bass and blue cats to eat. Expect some fat and hungry “Large-Mouth Bass” this spring making easy catch limits. An eight pounder was landed last spring from the spillway if that is not promising enough. Vehicles with bass boats are already trekking to Iberville Parish heading down LA 1 and LA 75 heading to the “spillway” (Atchafalaya Basin). Good stringers are being reported regularly. A subject of controversy for “subsistence fishermen”, which within the Atchafalaya Heritage Area there are many, is the 14” size restriction on bass in the Spillway.   This size limit regulation has been in place since 1993 after Hurricane Andrew.   These fishermen claim that most of the bass they catch are 13.75” and fatter than ever leading, but they can’t keep them to eat. There is even speculation the size restriction is evolving a new subspecies of bass…shorter and fatter.  When it’s time for bream fishing, you’ll know by the droves of fishermen heading in route to their favorite bream hole. During spring, it is game on for catching Blue-Gill bream and Chinqupin (shell cracker, or red-ear sunfish) that are spawning and feeding. Iberville Parish has its share of bream holes such as “Pat’s Bay”, “Ramah Borrow Canal”, “Bay Natchez”, and of course “Bayou Sorrel” and “Bayou Pigeon” in the Spillway. Just south of Iberville Parish are long time favorite bream fishing spots “Bayou Corne”, “Grand Bayou”, and “Lake Verret”. Most bream fishermen like to keep it simple using a cane pole, line, and hook baited with live crickets or night crawler worms, which ever they are biting on that day. Gulp recently came out with artificial crickets that I hear are the bomb. The parish has several live bait shops along the trek to the boat landing ready to supply you with all the fishing bait, gear, food, beverages, and ice.