Amite River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Louisiana

About the Amite River

The Amite rises in southwest Mississippi and runs south through the Florida Parishes past Denham Springs and Port Vincent to Lake Maurepas. Through its middle reaches it is a sand-and-gravel river with wide bars, clear water when it is low, and cypress and hardwoods along the banks, which makes it look and fish more like a Gulf Coast pineywoods stream than the swamp water most people associate with south Louisiana. Below Port Vincent it slows, deepens and becomes tidal.

Largemouth and spotted bass are the primary sport fish, holding on the cut banks, the gravel bar drops and around the woody cover. Bluegill and redear sunfish, called chinquapin locally, are abundant and are a major part of the spring fishery. Black crappie, or sac-a-lait, stack in the deeper bends and the slower lower river in late winter. Channel and flathead catfish work the holes, and striped bass and other Gulf species move up into the tidal reaches from Lake Maurepas. The upper river is a paddling and wading fishery; the lower river is boat water.

The Denham Springs gauge reads the lower-middle river. This basin floods dramatically, as it did catastrophically in 2016, and the gauge can go from a quiet reading to a record in a couple of days when a stalled system parks over the Florida Parishes. Moderate readings mean clear water, exposed gravel bars and excellent fishing; high water floods the bottomlands, scatters fish and makes the river dangerous with floating timber. Low late-summer water is very clear and the fish get spooky.

Denham Springs, Port Vincent, Watson and Magnolia give access, and Baton Rouge is twenty minutes from the middle river.

Access

Denham Springs: town access near the gauge.
Port Vincent and Head of Island: lower river ramps toward Lake Maurepas.
Magnolia Bridge and Grangeville: middle-river gravel bar access.
Darlington and the Mississippi line: upper river paddling reaches.
Comite River confluence: the main tributary, with its own fishery.
Bayou Manchac: the historic channel toward the Mississippi.
Lake Maurepas: the tidal bottom end.

Seasons

Spring: high water early, then the best bass and bream fishing of the year on the falling river.
Summer: low clear water, gravel bars exposed, early mornings and shade lines.
Fall: comfortable weather, clear water and good bass fishing on the bars.
Winter: crappie in the deeper bends and catfish in the holes; watch for flood events.