Russ McVey’s Guide Service

Russ McVey guides Lake Bistineau out of Doyline, Louisiana, working a lake covered in thousands of standing cypress trees. His fishing centers on that timber and its edges: tree points, cypress thickets, isolated trees and leaners as primary cover, with boathouses in four to ten feet of water, channel bends and slough mouths as secondary targets. In spring, as water temperatures climb out of the 40s into the 60s, McVey works tree edges, points and flats with a Texas-rigged lizard, and follows bass spawning in around nine feet of water with shallow-diving crankbaits. Summer fishing shifts to soft plastics, topwater baits and schooling largemouth, with a white/blue or white/black Bandit crankbait as a favorite search bait. In fall he targets dead wood, stumps, timber and docks with chrome/blue crankbaits and Texas-rigged worms, and in winter he works deep jigs around standing timber. Bass on Bistineau commonly run three to five pounds, with McVey’s clients occasionally boating fish up to seven pounds. He also guides for bream and crappie on the same lake.