While many bass anglers are trying to beat the summer heat by fishing at night, there are lots of lakes in Louisiana that offer a strong daytime bite for those willing to bear the stifling heat.Lake D’Arbonne near Farmerville in Union Parish is one such lake. This water body is loaded with offshore channel holes that produce lunker bass during the middle of the day.
The channel bite typically turns on in late May, but it was delayed just a little bit this year. The fun began about a week before the annual Majestic Big Bass Classic, a 24-hour bass marathon that awards hourly big bass and total weight.
“It took an 8-pounder to win it this year,” said tournament director Dale Taylor, “but the average was an amazing 2.99 pounds. There were 25 fish over 5 pounds, and the smallest fish to earn money was 3.08. We also had four five-fish stringers over 20 pounds. All this in the middle of June.”
While some of those bass were caught at night, a large majority were sacked off the channel during the day. The “Big Lake” holes, those below the Highway 33 Bridge, were particularly productive.
“Those fish get out in the middle of the channel and suspend for a large part of the day,” Taylor said. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to catch those fish for most of my life … that’s a tough bite. At some point during the day, though, they will move up on the lip of the channel to eat. That’s when you’re going to catch the really big fish.”
Bass congregate around irregular features along the channel. Anglers should look for places like outside or inside channel bends, ridges along the edge of the channel, sloughs or creeks dumping into the main channel and stumps or brushpiles that have been strategically placed near feeding areas along the channel.
“Once you find a few good holes,” Taylor continued, “you need to fish them in a round-robin manner until you connect with the fish. If the fish have pulled up to eat, you should get a bite or two soon after you start fishing. If you don’t get bit within 20 minutes or so, move to another hole. It’s all about timing: If you’re there when the fish are pulled up, you’ll catch them.”
Crankbaits and Carolina rigs dominate the channel fishing at D’Arbonne. Norman DD22 crankbaits are among the most productive on the lake. The bite starts in the early summer on bream colors like firetiger and blue/chartreuse – those are the hot colors right now. Later, after the bass switch to a shad bite, whites and shad colors produce best.
The Carolina rig fishing has been best recently with watermelon/red and watermelon/blue Baby Brush Hogs, centipedes and finesse worms. Anglers looking for a big bite on a Carolina rig can try fishing the large Brush Hog or a Super Fluke. A good way to get bit when it’s tough is to get on the flat and throw into the middle of the channel rather than sitting in the channel and throwing to the flat.
