The Sportsman’s Paradise is dotted with great outdoor resources and opportunities. There isn’t a city or town in the state that doesn’t have some type of great hunting or fishing at least a short drive away.
We are all fortunate, but some folks have it better than others.
There are communities that are just smack dab in the middle of a local outdoor paradise that makes them special places to live and visit. Louisiana Sportsman takes a look at eight of those lucky towns from one end of the state to the other that claim excellent outdoor opportunities right at their doorsteps.
Before we name the great eight, we’d also like to point out there are unique places around the state. Towns like Rayne (The Frog Capital of the World) , Des Allemands (The Catfish Capital of the World), Gueydan (The Duck Capital of America) and Breaux Bridge (The Crawfish Capital of the World) that make Louisiana special.
But the following towns “kick it up a notch,” as famous chef Emeril Lagasse says.
They are Bastrop, Farmerville, Grand Isle, Holly Beach, Madisonville, Many, Morgan City and Venice; outdoor havens that transcend the norm. If you live there, count your blessings. If you are looking for a special place to visit, get out your bucket list. Their resources and opportunities provide elite outdoor recreational opportunities all year long.
Here we go, in alphabetical order.
1 Bastrop
For a town that survived and thrived on two huge paper mills for nearly 100 years, but then lost that industry to changing global business conditions, you’d expect the outdoors to NOT be at the top of the list. But it was those very mills that are partially responsible for the community being on this list today. International Paper constructed Bussey Brake as an emergency water supply and Wham Brake as the final stage of wastewater treatment. They were always popular outdoor fishing and hunting destinations, but today they have been reborn and are thriving. Both were donated to the state by International Paper, a value of about $7 million. Bussey has become one of the top trophy bass fishing lakes in the state. Wham Brake offers unbelievable public duck hunting.
But there is lots more. Duck hunting also brings people from around the country to the Morehouse Parish rice fields around Bastrop, to places like Bartholomew Club and Megabucks Duck Guides near Jones and countless leases and clubs from Oak Ridge to Mer Rouge. Bayou Bird Hunts north of town also offers guided quail hunting trips.
The eastern side of the massive Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge is just outside town. The Chemin-a-haut State Park is one of the state’s most popular, especially attractive to kayak enthusiasts who paddle the meandering Bayou Bartholomew to see the historic giant cypress Castle Tree.
Simmons Sporting Goods isn’t just a sporting goods store, it is a destination for outdoorsmen from across the south. The store, complete with the Duck Blind Restaurant, offers 70,000 square feet of outdoor products.
There are also several other long-established eateries like Slayden’s and P.T.’s Eat-A-Bite that are favorites among local and visiting hunters and fishermen.
2 Farmerville
Talk about location, location, location… Not many towns have a highly productive 16,000 acre lake that is actually partially in the city limits. This town in central Union Parish does.
And it’s a doozy. Lake D’Arbonne is sixty years old, but because of a huge influx of fresh water through its watershed each year, it has remained a fertile fishing ground. It boasts some of the best fishing for whatever you want to call them — white perch, crappie or sac-a-lait. True two pounders and big stringers are the norm. It is a destination for pro crappie tournaments and everyday fishermen.
Bass fishing is good and while it doesn’t boast lots of fish over 6-8 pounds, the occasional 10 pounder does show up on local scales. Bream and catfish are abundant and make the lake family friendly.
Portions of two huge public hunting areas, the D’Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge and the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge are a short drive away. The Upper Ouachita area is also home to the Finch Lake and the Fish Lake complex. Union Parish is also always in the running for the state’s top deer harvest area and if the state ever comes set on a reasonable bear season, it will be a go-to destination for that.
Farmerville is also blessed with an amazing resource in the Lake D’Arbonne State Park, which offers everything for the outdoors, including several long fishing piers out into the lake. Fishing is also great on D’Arbonne Bayou below the lake and the nearby Ouachita River, accessible by the Alabama Landing.
The town has one major sporting goods store, Cooter’s. Popular spots to eat include K&M Coffee, Corks and Camo (also a sporting goods store), D’Arbonne Diner and Sevin’s.
3 Grand Isle
There are only a handful of towns in America that focus just on fishing…and great fishing, at that. Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish is one of them. Mother Nature provides and she also takes away on occasion as hurricanes and storms batter facilities there. But fishing and the gateway to great duck hunting is always open for business.
It’s easy for this island paradise to back up any claims it has on being a top outdoor destination. It may very well be historically the most written about, most broadcast about and most talked about outdoor destination in the state.
Fishing is fabulous in any direction you go from the island, even along the side of the highway into Grand Isle. That’s why more than 20,000 visitors hit this spot every year. Some are just fishing for fun on their own. Others hire one of the dozens of successful fishing guides and still others hit events like the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo or the Ride the Bull kayak redfish tournament each year, or dozens more special events. Redfish, speckled trout and flounder are common catches here.
A big target for anglers here is just south of Grand Isle, where the deep, deep waters of the Mississippi Canyon area offer a shot at the biggest gamefish around — blue marlin, swordfish, tuna, red snapper, wahoo and more. And it’s a relatively short 40 mile boat ride from Grand Isle.
The entire island got hit hard by Hurricane Ida in August of 2021, but it made a grand return. The Grand Isle State Park is adding new features and approaching full operation again. There are lots of things to do, places to eat and places to stay. Several major full-service marinas include Grand Isle Marina & Motel, Hurricane Hole Marina and Bridgeside. Popular eating spots in addition to the marinas include the Starfish, Yum’s and the Lighthouse Restaurant.
Grand Isle’s outdoor recreation resources are among the best and most numerous in the state.
4 Holly Beach
If you asked Alexis “Where am I?” or check your car’s GPS as you ride down Gulf Beach Hwy 82 in Cameron Parish, it would likely inform that you are “in the middle of nowhere” with a heavy cajun accent. If you Google the top 10 things to do here, TripAdvisor would pretty much say “huh?”
But that wouldn’t mean you were lost. In fact, for most folks, it means you have found paradise. And shhhhh! Don’t tell anybody else. It’s a little bit of heaven on earth just about as far south as you can go in the state without a boat. It’s not fancy, but it’s real.
Welcome to Holly Beach, a dot on the map that is lovingly referred to as the Cajun Riveria. There are a few rental properties and spots to park a camper, but little else besides private camps. The three main camper spots are Holly Beach RV, Pickled Pelican RV and Lighthouse RV. Hotel? Nope. Restaurant? Nope. Big sporting goods store? Nope.
So how did it make the list? For starters, the 30 miles of public beach is one thing that makes this place special. Accessible by four-wheel drive vehicles only, it leads to some of the state’s top surf fishing for reds, speckled trout and flounder that roam the shore. You can also tent camp on the beach.
The crabbing right down the road in the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge is superb. It is laid-back, quintessential small outdoor town south Louisiana. Having almost nothing, yet being something special, is what makes it Holly Beach.
The beach itself is generally not extremely busy except on holidays. At low tide, it is also a great place to look for seashells, especially after storms.
If you want it on your trip, you better bring it with you. There are a few places to eat, like The Anchor’s Up Grill in nearby Cameron, but you have to ferry across the river to it. There are a couple of quick stops up and down Hwy. 27.
It’s also a great place for duck hunting on the nearby Sabine NWF and neighboring marsh. The world famous Hackberry Rod and Gun Club is also a short trip from Holly Beach.
5 Madisonville
Some people think of Madisonville and the Northshore as “New Orleans North.” A lot of folks that work and do business in New Orleans do live here, but that’s about the only thing the two have in common. Everyone knows what New Orleans is. But Madisonville, in the heart of the Northshore of St. Tammany Parish, is an outdoor escape from the noisy and not so pristine big city life.
Madisonville not only lies on the northern border of Lake Pontchartrain, but it is also bordered by the Tchefuncte River. Both of those open up a world of possibilities for fishing and boating, including kayaking, some of the best in the state. The Fairview Riverside Park is top notch.
Numerous boat launches allow fishermen into the lake and river with a variety of freshwater and saltwater fish available to be caught, depending on tides and the salinity of the water. You can even fish off the bank in several locations.
The Northshore Tourist Bureau even published a comprehensive guide for fishing the area called “Fish On.” You can download a copy at their website. Freshwater fish like bass, crappie, bluegill and catfish are popular catches here. But the massive structures of Pontchartrain offer the most opportunities for speckled trout, redfish and flounder. You can also fish the shores and piers for crabs.
The Joyce Wildlife Management Area is just to the west and the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge is to the east. More importantly, you can stay and play at the Fontainebleau State Park on the city’s southern border along the big lake. Hiking and biking the Tammany Trace, an old railroad line is also a nearby favorite.
The Tchefuncte River Lighthouse and Maritime Museum is here and Mandeville also hosts two outdoor-themed festivals, the Wooden Boat Festival and the Krewe of Tchefuncte Mardi Gras Boat Parade. Good south Louisiana cuisine is everywhere, but two favorites are the Crabby Shack and Morton’s, featuring a deck overlooking the river.
6 Many
There are 180,000 reasons that Many is on this list. That’s how many acres make up massive Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Louisiana-Texas border right down the road. Many is a hop, skip and jump from the foot of the bridge that connects the two states and spans one of America’s greatest waterways. Many doesn’t have an official nickname, but could be considered the Louisiana gateway to Toledo Bend.
Freshwater fishing is king here. Largemouth bass over 10 pounds are so prolific that the Toledo Bend Lake Association sponsors a special Lunker Bass program giving anglers who catch double digit bass a free replica of their catch if they properly document their bass and release them back in the lake. Crappie fishing here is superb twelve months a year. Guides are readily available for fishermen who want help catching them. But the majority of anglers go out on their own to fish.
Sabine Parish is also home to the North Toledo Bend State Park and the Cypress Bend Resort. The fishing and the facilities there have made it a magnet for professional bass fishing tours and local/state bass fishing circuits. Cypress Bend also has huge meeting facilities and an 18-hole golf course.
For folks looking for hunting opportunities, the area around Many is full of deer leases, which are also full of big deer. The Sabine Wildlife Management Area is also a favorite for hunters.
Two of the local spots for satisfying the appetite of anglers are the Fisherman’s Galley on the lake and the Many Smokehouse in town. When it comes to fishing supplies, numerous stores offer sporting goods, including Toledo Town and Tackle on Hwy. 6. Numerous marinas, campsites and overnight lodging are available on the lake near Many and all up and down the Louisiana side of the lake.
7 Morgan City
Here’s another Louisiana town that has seen good days and bad with the fortunes of its largest industries. Decades ago, the marshes around Morgan City were the site of the beginning of the petroleum industry. It’s a historic gateway to the shrimping fortunes of the Gulf as well. Today, it still celebrates those with the annual Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival.
But no matter the ebb and flow of those businesses, the city sits smack dab in the middle of the Atchafalaya River’s massive and productive fisheries delta. Fishing for bass, crappie, bream and catfish is superb and the supply of wild crawfish seems unending.
The 15,500 acre Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge is at the heart of that, consisting of bottomland hardwood and cypress tupelo swamps. A mix of bayous, oxbow lakes, swamps and flooded forests offer great hunting, fishing, paddling, boating and any other outdoor recreation you can think of. It’s a prime example of the entire basin ecosystem. The Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management area is also just south of town.
On the city’s northern border lies massive Lake Palourde, a cypress-lined hotspot for freshwater fishing. It’s also the site of one of the best known campgrounds and parks in the state, Lake End Park. Grassy Lake and Flat Lake also offer good fishing and water recreation as well as Belle River.
Boat launches galore adorn the area, but none is more popular than Doiron’s Landing, a spot you might call fishing tournament headquarters for the area. Very few weeks go by that at least one big tournament isn’t held there. There are plenty of places to eat. The Atchafalaya Cafe, East Gate Barbeque and the Original Castalano’s are favorites, while you can cross the river into Berwick to T-Noon’s Seafood or go up the road to Claudia’s Soul Food in Patterson.
Fishing supplies are plentiful at places like Ivy’s Tackle, Tideland Gun & Tackle, Skipper’s Sporting Goods and the Cajun Tackle House.
8 Venice
Mention a trip to Venice and some folks might start thinking about Italian food, tourist spots like St. Mark’s Basilica or taking a boat ride in a gondola. But that’s the wrong Venice.
The real Venice is in Plaquemines Parish. The only thing the two have in common is the boat ride. Venice is a sportsman’s dream spot because there are three things to do here: Eat. Sleep. Fish. And then start all over again. That’s about it. But it doesn’t get any better anywhere than here “at the end of the world.”
Located about 70 miles south of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River, the population of Venice is less than a Super Walmart on Black Friday. But the population of fish and good times is unmeasurable.
Going out of full-service marinas like Venice Marina and Cypress Cove Marina, dozens of experienced guides take people on trips of a lifetime. There are inshore trips for speckled trout, redfish and flounder year round. And there are “deep sea” type adventures to the south for tarpon, sailfish and tuna. You can add red snapper, grouper, amberjack, cobia, and king mackerel to that list, depending on the time of year. Many experienced fishermen go on self-guided trips, but the majority of anglers depend on the veteran guides.
Marinas have fishing tackle and bait and you can also give We Dat Bait & Tackle a try. There’s plenty of fresh seafood here you can buy and cook for yourself, or try one of the local favorites like the grills at the marinas, Crawgator’s, Changes, or Maw’s up in nearby Boothville, which is considered part of Venice by most folks.
While it’s a journey not for the faint of heart, right down the big river lies the 115,000 acre Pass A Loutre WMA, a duck hunting paradise in the winter months. It is accessible only by boat and by dodging sea-going vessels.
If you want to do something just to say you did, drive your car down to the end of Tidewater Road till the pavement ends. You’ve reached the southernmost point of Louisiana that can be reached by car.
