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Home › Waters › Louisiana › Bayou Courtableau
Bayou · South-central Louisiana, St. Landry Parish on the northwestern edge of the Atchafalaya Basin · Louisiana

Bayou Courtableau Fishing Guides

A historic navigation bayou at Washington on the rim of the Atchafalaya Basin, gathering the Bayou Cocodrie and Boeuf drainages into basin water.

A slow bayou channel under overhanging live oak and Spanish moss
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Bayou Courtableau

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About the Bayou Courtableau

Bayou Courtableau runs past the old river town of Washington in St. Landry Parish, gathering the drainage of Bayou Boeuf, Bayou Cocodrie and the prairie streams above them before delivering it into the Atchafalaya Basin floodway. Washington was a steamboat port well into the nineteenth century, and the bayou is wide and deep through town for exactly that reason. Its drainage area at the gauge is a little over seven hundred square miles.

The fishery is basin fishery in character. Water level governs everything: when the Atchafalaya rises, fish move out of the bayou and into the flooded batture, and when it falls they pull back into the channel and stack. Experienced anglers here fish the fall rather than the rise. Largemouth bass hold along the banks and around any wood, and the bayou produces good fish in the cooler months when the water clears.

Crappie are heavily fished, particularly around the bridge pilings and the deeper bends near Washington, and spring draws steady local pressure. Catfish are abundant and varied, with channel and blue catfish through the main channel and flatheads in the timber. Bluegill, redear sunfish and warmouth fill the shallow margins, and bowfin, spotted gar and freshwater drum are common incidental catches on almost any bait.

The bayou is navigable by small boat for a long stretch, and the town landing at Washington is the natural starting point. Current can be surprisingly strong during basin drawdown, and floating debris is a real hazard after heavy rain upstream. Crawfish season shapes local traffic on the water through late winter and spring, and the boat ramps are busy accordingly. Local guides work the bayou and the adjacent basin together, treating them as one system rather than two, which is the sensible way to fish falling water here.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Bayou Courtableau.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Washington - the town landing at the gauge, the main access on the bayou.
Port Barre - the lower end where Courtableau meets the Atchafalaya system.
Highway 103 crossing - roadside and small-boat access above town.
Bayou Boeuf confluence - reached by boat, a productive junction on falling water.
Opelousas - the nearest city for supplies and guides.
Krotz Springs - access to the main Atchafalaya channel downstream.
Leonville - access on the Bayou Teche side for anglers working both systems.

Seasons

Spring: crappie in the bends and bass on the falling water as the basin drains.
Summer: catfish through the deeper channel, with bream along the shaded banks.
Fall: the clearest water of the year and the best bass fishing.
Winter: cold but productive for crappie and catfish in the deep holes near town.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Bayou Courtableau?

As of Sep 17, 5:45 am, the USGS gauge Bayou Courtableau at Washington, LA reads 154 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Bayou Courtableau?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Blue Catfish, Bluegill, Bowfin, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Freshwater Drum, Largemouth Bass, Redear Sunfish, Spotted Gar, Warmouth, White Crappie on the Bayou Courtableau in Louisiana.

Where can you access the Bayou Courtableau?

Washington - the town landing at the gauge, the main access on the bayou. Port Barre - the lower end where Courtableau meets the Atchafalaya system. Highway 103 crossing - roadside and small-boat access above town. Bayou Boeuf confluence - reached by boat, a productive junction on falling water. Opelousas - the nearest city for supplies and guides. Krotz Springs - access to the main Atchafalaya channel downstream. Leonville - access on the Bayou Teche side for anglers working both systems.

When is the best time to fish the Bayou Courtableau?

Spring: crappie in the bends and bass on the falling water as the basin drains. Summer: catfish through the deeper channel, with bream along the shaded banks. Fall: the clearest water of the year and the best bass fishing. Winter: cold but productive for crappie and catfish in the deep holes near town.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Bayou Courtableau?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Louisiana agency site: https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/recreational-freshwater-finfish-and-crawfish