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Home › Waters › Louisiana › Twelvemile Bayou
Bayou · Northwest Louisiana, the Caddo Lake outlet through Caddo and Bossier parishes above Shreveport · Louisiana

Twelvemile Bayou Fishing Guides

The channel carrying Caddo Lake south to the Red River above Shreveport, a large timbered bayou with heavy catfish and crappie fishing.

A boat idling past a stand of cypress on open bayou water
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Twelvemile Bayou

Twelvemile Bayou is the channel that carries the water of Caddo Lake and the Cypress Bayou system south through Caddo Parish to the Red River just above Shreveport. By the time it reaches the gauge near Dixie it drains more than three thousand square miles, which makes it one of the larger bayous in northwest Louisiana and gives it more the character of a slow river arm than of a creek. The channel is broad, deep in the bends and heavily timbered along both banks.

What the bayou does on any given week depends on the two ends of it. When Caddo Lake is high or the Red River is up, the bayou backs and spreads into the flats along its course; when both are low it runs as a defined channel with fish concentrated in the holes. Local anglers watch both, and a trip planned on lake level alone will often be wrong. The gauge near Dixie captures the combination better than either end does on its own.

Catfish carry the reputation. Blue and flathead catfish reach serious size in the deeper bends, and the bayou has a long history of producing heavy fish on rod and reel and on set lines. Crappie fishing is the other strength, concentrated on the standing timber and the mouths of the side sloughs, and largemouth bass use the same cover through spring and fall.

Access is good for a water of this size because Shreveport and Bossier City sit at the downstream end and the road network through the parish crosses the bayou at several points. Boat is the practical way to fish it, and most trips launch either from the Red River landings below the confluence or from the access points along the middle bayou north of the city.

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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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Posting to Twelvemile Bayou.

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

Dixie - the gauge reach, with bridge and bank access on the middle bayou.
Shreveport - the downstream city and the Red River confluence below it.
Caddo Lake - the upstream source of the bayou, with several public launches.
Mooringsport - access at the Caddo Lake outlet end of the system.
Blanchard - the nearest town to the middle reach, west of the bayou.
Red River landings - boat access to the lower bayou from the river below.
Louisiana Highway 169 crossing - roadside access on the upper bayou.

Seasons

Spring: high water spreads fish into the timber and brings the crappie shallow.
Summer: the strongest catfish season, with blues and flatheads in the deep bends.
Fall: falling water pulls fish back to the channel and concentrates the bite.
Winter: slow, with crappie and catfish stacked in the deepest holes of the bayou.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Twelvemile Bayou?

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

Where can you access the Twelvemile Bayou?

Dixie - the gauge reach, with bridge and bank access on the middle bayou. Shreveport - the downstream city and the Red River confluence below it. Caddo Lake - the upstream source of the bayou, with several public launches. Mooringsport - access at the Caddo Lake outlet end of the system. Blanchard - the nearest town to the middle reach, west of the bayou. Red River landings - boat access to the lower bayou from the river below. Louisiana Highway 169 crossing - roadside access on the upper bayou.

When is the best time to fish the Twelvemile Bayou?

Spring: high water spreads fish into the timber and brings the crappie shallow. Summer: the strongest catfish season, with blues and flatheads in the deep bends. Fall: falling water pulls fish back to the channel and concentrates the bite. Winter: slow, with crappie and catfish stacked in the deepest holes of the bayou.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Twelvemile Bayou?

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