Bayou DeSiard Fishing Guides

About the Bayou DeSiard

Bayou DeSiard is an abandoned course of the Ouachita River that curves through Monroe and Ouachita Parish before rejoining the modern river below town. A control structure holds it at a stable level, so what functions as a long narrow lake is still shaped like the river bend it used to be, with the deep outside turns and shallow inside points that geometry implies. The University of Louisiana at Monroe sits on its bank, and much of the shoreline is residential.

The fishery is the reason it matters. Largemouth bass are the headline, and the bayou has produced good fish consistently for decades because of the combination of stable water, heavy shoreline cover and abundant forage. Crappie, both black and white, are the other draw and are fished hard from the piers and around the standing timber through the cool months. Bluegill and redear sunfish are dense, channel catfish work the deeper channel, and bowfin are common enough that anyone fishing soft plastics will meet one.

Cover is the defining feature. Cypress along the older sections, boat docks and seawalls through the residential reaches, laydowns on the outside bends and aquatic vegetation in the shallower upper end all hold fish. Because the level is controlled rather than flood driven, that cover stays where it is from one season to the next, which rewards anglers who learn the bayou and keeps productive water productive year after year.

Access is genuinely easy, which is unusual for good bass water. There are public ramps on the bayou, the city park frontage allows bank fishing, and the water is small enough that a kayak or a jon boat covers it comfortably. Because the surroundings are developed, the practical constraints are docks, private yards and boat traffic rather than the permission and landowner questions that govern fishing on most northeastern Louisiana water.

Seasonally it fishes like a southern reservoir on a small scale. The prespawn and spawn in late winter and spring are the best bass fishing of the year, worked with soft plastics and shallow moving baits along the wood. Summer pushes fish to the deeper channel bends and to shade under the docks, and topwater at first light is the pleasant way to fish it. Fall brings a shad oriented bite, and winter concentrates crappie in the timber.

Access

Monroe - the city the bayou runs through, with public ramps and park frontage.
Forsythe Park - the riverfront park on the Ouachita nearby, the usual town reference.
University of Louisiana at Monroe - the campus on the bayou bank with walkable shoreline.
Bayou DeSiard control structure - the works holding the bayou at a stable level.
Ouachita River - the parent river the bayou was once part of and still drains to.
West Monroe - the adjacent city across the Ouachita with lodging and tackle.
Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge - the public water north of the city.

Seasons

Spring: the prespawn and spawn, the strongest bass and crappie fishing of the year.
Summer: warm stable water, fish under the docks and on the deeper bends, best at dawn.
Fall: cooling water and a shad oriented bite along the shoreline cover.
Winter: clear cool water with crappie concentrated in the standing timber.