Like an unfit mother, the Mississippi River abandoned Lake Bruin, and the state’s bass anglers are so glad she did.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of a 12-part series exploring the best bass-fishing areas in the Bayou State.It’s a good thing for Louisiana bass anglers that water has a penchant for seeking the path of least resistance. Without this scientific phenomenon, Lake Bruin, an oxbow lake located in Tensas Parish, would have never been born.
Like all oxbow lakes, Lake Bruin was once an actual river channel. In this case, it was the Mississippi River channel.
Once at the mercy of the mighty Mississippi, this 3,000-acre oxbow lake is now considered a dead oxbow lake since it is entirely landlocked. The Mississippi River no longer influences Lake Bruin, and, like a child maturing into his own identity, Lake Bruin now stands on its own.
Bass anglers in Northeast Louisiana have long known why Lake Bruin is considered one of the treasures of Tensas Parish. They are there on the windy spring days when bass beat each other up for a mouthful of spinnerbaits. They are there on the warm winter days when a Trap is the ticket for sacking up heavy limits. And, they are there during the summer when largemouths are lured by the whirring and squeaking of a Lunker Lure.
The problem for the rest of the state is that “they” aren’t talking very much.
Like all other oxbow lakes, Bruin was created over time as erosion and deposition of soil changed the Mississippi River’s course. The river slowed more significantly on the inside of a bend, leading to the deposition of silt.
At the same time, the water on the outside of the bend flowed faster, thus eroding the outer banks, making the meander even wider.
Through the years, the loop of the meander widened until the neck vanished altogether. Then the meander was removed from the river’s current, and the horseshoe-shaped oxbow lake was formed. Without a current to move the water along, sediment built up along the banks and filled in what we know today as Lake Bruin.
Bass bounty
While Lake Bruin has had its share of ups and downs in the fishing cycle over the years, there are plenty bass in the lake, according to Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Dave Hickman. There are so many bass in Bruin that you have only yourself to blame if you get skunked.
“We conducted a population sample in 2004, and it looked really good,” said Hickman. “In fact, Lake Bruin turned up the highest number of bass per hour of any lake we cover in our district — that’s a total of seven parishes.”
The last sample conducted by Hickman and his staff turned up 164 fish per hour. One hundred of those were more than 12 inches long. These numbers are impressive by any standards.
But not only is there a tremendous population of bass in the lake, their growth rate is even more impressive. During the last sampling, there were about 25 fish per hour collected over 15 inches.
“We did some genetic testing back in 2003,” said Hickman, “and we found a 1 percent pure Florida Strain population, a 5 percent hybrid population, and a 95 percent native largemouth population.
“The lake was stocked with Floridas in 2003, 2004, 2005, and we plan on stocking again in 2006. We haven’t stocked Bruin as heavily as we have a lake like Concordia, but with the stocking we have done, we hope to get enough Floridas in the lake to make an impression.”
Hickman added that he had collected some bass tournament data during 2005, and it showed an average winning weight of 13.3 pounds for a five-fish limit. The average big bass during 2005 was 4.8 pounds.
Even though Hickman’s tournament data doesn’t prove it, there are quite a few 5- and 6-pound bass in the lake. A local angler caught a 7-pound fish during late 2005, so the fish are there. You’ve just got to figure out how to catch them.
Coverage
Lake Bruin is not a typical southern lowland lake with numerous, winding creek channels and expansive underwater humps and ridges. The basic layout of the lake is the same as a typical river bend with a shallow inside bend and a deep, bluff-bank outside bend. Everything else in between is basically a nondescript, bowl shape from a cross-section perspective.
The structure consists mainly of shallow flats on either end of the lake, a gradually sloping sandbar-type structure on the inside bend, an island positioned just off the shallow side near the middle of the lake, and a dramatic drop-off along the outside edge of the lake.
It’s not the structure that attracts anglers to Lake Bruin; rather it is the cover that is positioned on the structure. And Lake Bruin is full of cover.
There are four basic kinds of cover in the lake — docks, cypress trees, brushpiles and grass. The docks line virtually the entire bank of the lake, as do the cypress trees. The brushpiles can be found anywhere, but are most often off the ends of the docks near the drop-off. And the grass grows on the shallow flats between the docks and on either end of the lake.
“We’ve got some good vegetation,” said Hickman. “The primary grasses are pondweed, naiad and coontail. There is also a lot of lotus (pads) at the ends of the lake.
“The bass use all of the grasses, but they are most frequently found in the pondweed and coontail. And of those two, I believe the coontail is more beneficial to the bass, because it grows out a little deeper, giving them a broader range.”
Hickman said the LDWF placed a few fish attractors in the lake recently. These mats are constructed from PVC, and are designed to last for years. There were a few smaller ones placed near the fishing pier at the state park, but most were placed offshore in 15 to 20 feet of water.
“There’s a big one by the state park located at N31 57 41.5 and W91 12 10.7,” said Hickman. “There’s one by the island at N31 59 58.4 and W91 14 22.5, and one on the Osceola end at N31 58 21.9 and W91 15 4.2. They were all marked when we put them in the water, but it’s helpful to have the coordinates in case a buoy is gone or blown off the mat a little.”
Grass equals bass
It takes a lot to impress Ferriday bass pro James Davis. He has traveled across the nation the past several years trying to make his mark in professional fishing. Within the span of a couple of months during 2005, Davis left an impression on the fishing world by finishing second in a Texas Tournament Trail event on Lake Armistead and winning the co-angler division of the Wal-Mart FLW tournament on the Ouachita River.
One thing that does impress Davis, though, is his little home lake in Tensas Parish. Davis lives in nearby Ferriday, and fishes Lake Bruin regularly when he’s fortunate enough to have some down time on his family farm.
“Lake Bruin is kind of like a hidden jewel in the south,” he said. “When it comes down to strictly catching fish, I’ll rank it with any lake I’ve ever fished.”
Davis admitted that Bruin has had its shares of ups and downs over the years. Looking back, he has been able to determine that the cycle of fishing correlates with the growth of the grass.
“Take now, for example,” said Davis. “The grass is as pretty as it has ever been. And it’s no coincidence that the fishing is as good as it has ever been. In my opinion, it’s all tied to the grass. We had a stretch from about 1998 to 2000 when the grass was gone, and it was hard to catch fish. Now we’ve got grass, and we’ve got good fishing.”
Seasonal patterns
Davis has found that there are some distinct bass patterns that emerge depending on the season. Being Louisiana, it wouldn’t be surprising to see summer patterns show up during the winter, or to even miss a season entirely. Generally, however, the seasonal patterns Davis has developed are a good guide for getting on the fish.
• Winter
“There is one pattern that rises above the rest during the winter as long as there is some good grass in the lake,” Davis said, “and that’s throwing a lipless crankbait over any coontail growing between the docks during warm spells.”
This pattern has been a little difficult to execute the past few years because the coontail that normally grows between the docks has been replaced with pondweed in some areas. The pondweed holds fish, but it makes fishing the lipless crankbait almost impossible.
Some hot colors to try are chrome/blue, tequila sunrise and brown crawfish. Half-ounce lures work well, but some anglers have found that going down to a 1/4-ounce model produces even better results.
Winter is also a good time to find a few of the deeper brushpiles, and work them over with a jig-and-pig, Carolina rig or a big, fat, deep-diving crankbait. Stick with basic-colored jigs like black/blue and brown/orange, watermelon-based soft plastics and shad-colored crankbaits.
Davis’s cold-water secrets include fishing on days featuring the worst winter weather imaginable, fishing the windiest banks by placing the boat on the bank and targeting cypress trees by casting spinnerbaits into the wind, and to fish deep on sunny days and shallow on cloudy days.
• Spring
Spring is a no-brainer situation at Lake Bruin. According to Davis, all you’ve got to do is find some shallow water, and get after it. Power fishing is the name of the game this time of year.
“You can come out early in the spring with a spinnerbait, Texas rig, jig or lipless crankbait, and just go fishing,” said Davis. “You don’t have to spend a lot of time deep because most of the fish are up shallow and ready to eat. This is the time of year you can catch all you want because the bass are up and doing their thing.”
Bruin fishes a lot like every lake in the south during the spring. Concentrate on shallow cover such as cypress trees, logs or pier walkways if the water is normal.
If the water is low, Davis suggested paying particular attention to isolated cypress trees and seawalls.
“When we have a low-water spring,” said Davis, “I like to fish the first three pier poles that are in the water on the bank end of a walkway. This works really well when there isn’t enough water on the trees.”
• Summer
As good as the fishing at Bruin can be during the other seasons, Davis said he enjoys summer most of all.
“This is a time when you can go out and do anything,” he said. “One of the neat things about Lake Bruin is that it is one of the only oxbow lakes around that has really deep water. This lake is over 50 feet deep in some places, and I would imagine that if you look hard enough, you could find some 60-foot water.”
The reason Davis pointed out the deep water is that he loves dragging a Carolina rig to try and catch deep fish that aren’t used to seeing very many lures. Davis prefers dragging small finesse worms and centipede-type soft plastics.
“The trick is to try and graph some deep brush,” he said. “There’s been a lot of brushpiles put out over the years by anglers looking to make secret honeyholes. If you can graph a few of those piles, you better mark them on your GPS so you’ll always remember where they are.”
Davis also likes swimming big, fat, deep-diving crankbaits through the deep brush. The most productive brush for a crankbait is the piles positioned near the drop-offs on the deep side of the lake.
“Other than that,” he said, “I’ll fish a Texas-rigged worm in the piles off the ends of the docks. It’s a fun time of year to fish because you can pattern the fish doing almost anything you want to do.”
• Fall
If you’re getting the picture that every season is Davis’s favorite time to fish Bruin, fall isn’t going to change your mind. This time, however, the reason has more to do with the lack of fishing pressure than it does catching a ton of fish — even though he does catch a ton of fish during the fall.
“There’s been a lot of times when I’ve been the only boat on the lake during the fall,” Davis said. “I’ve got all those fish to myself.”
The key to catching fish during the fall is to fish the pads on the ends of the lakes. Davis recommended fishing topwater lures like Zara Spooks and buzz baits around the edges of the pads.
He’s also found that there is a strong topwater frog bite in the pads during the fall, so if the fish aren’t biting on the edges, kick you trolling motor on high, and bulldoze your way into the middle of the pads.
Sharing secrets
Davis shared two bits of information that are sure to help anglers who are unfamiliar with Lake Bruin. One is to plan a fishing trip during the fall when the lake is drawn down. The other is to remain patient and don’t give up.
“They don’t draw the lake down every year,” he said, “but when they do, the fish all move to predictable areas like the ends of the docks that still have water on them. They’ll also stack up on the Osceola end of the lake because that’s where the water runs out during the draw down.
“And never give up. I’ve had plenty of days where I didn’t catch anything for hours then hit the right combination. It gets pretty easy after that. Lake Bruin can be a hard nut to crack, but once you crack it, it can get really good.”
