Lake D’Arbonne is located near Farmerville in north-central Louisiana, and there are several public boat ramps providing easy access to the stump fields in the Stowe Creek, Terral Island and Bear Creek areas of the lake.
Stowe Creek landing is located just off Highway 15 on the lake’s south side, while Jake’s Landing is at the north end of the Highway 15 bridge going into Farmerville.
The Terral Island landing is at the end of Terral Island Road off Highway 2 east of Farmerville.
To catch post-spawning fish consistently, one has to understand what motivates shad and white perch to make their annual migrations back and forth between deep water and more moderate depths.
According to Clark LaBorde, shad will move to whatever area is most comfortable in terms of oxygen and water pressure, and the white perch follow to feed on them.
LaBorde has learned that barometric pressure plays a big part in whether or not white perch will be actively feeding on those shad at any given time.
“Low pressure usually means the fish are going to be more active,” he said. “We can use ourselves to relate to this.
“Living in the south, if we were to travel to Colorado for a week, chances are we would feel a lot less active the first couple of days because the pressure is a lot different up there and that makes for lower oxygen levels.
“That’s a good way to think about crappie because of the many different depths we catch them in.”
So LaBorde always pays attention to barometric pressure when planning trips.
” Certain oxygen levels and pressure change their behavior daily,” he explained. “High pressure, such as occurs after a cold front comes in, makes them less active, while warm weather or a south wind brings low pressure, and that makes them more active.”
