Caney Lake Fishing Charters & Guides

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Charters Near Caney Lake
Big League Fishing
Jonesboro, LA
Stout’s Fishin Guide Service
Alba, TX
(5.0, 1 Review)
Kirklands Alligator Gar Fishing
Trinity, TX
(5.0, 4 Reviews)
About Fishing in Caney Lake

Caney Lake

Big things come in small packages. That’s one quick and accurate way to describe Caney Lake, a small 5,000 acre man-made reservoir located between Chatham and Jonesboro, Louisiana in Jackson Parish. When it comes to giant bass and whopper redear sunfish in the Bayou State, this little lake is hard to beat. It’s hidden gem that was built in 1986 but has maintained its popularity fairly steadily over the years.

Caney Lake Fishing

Caney Lake has held the state record for largemouth bass at 15.97 pounds for years. What’s even more impressive is six of the top 10 lunkers in the state came from this lake, all well over 10 pounds. If you take a look at the state record list for redear bream, also called shell crackers and chinquapins, it’s almost exclusively made up of former Caney Lake fish residents. The state record is 2.89 pounds and came from Caney. In fact, we’ll start with the redear bream. These fish like wide open spaces and Caney is a wide open lake, with timber in only a few of the creek areas. The many flats offer shellcrackers great habitat. Two primary food sources for the fish, midge fly larvae and Asian clams, are abundant on the lake and the fish gorge themselves on them regularly. It’s not uncommon at all to see more than one two-pounder in angler’s creels. Caney is mostly a shallow water lake, with productive depths running between five and 18 feet deep. There are some deeper areas, especially along the old river channel. But the best early season bass fishing is in the five finger areas of the lake, located on the northeast side of the lake. The banks, lined with boat houses, piers, grass beds and man-made brush tops, are great fishing. Dark colors work best on cloudy days and watermelon or sparkly colored worms work best when it’s sunny. As the water warms, fish move out onto the humps and channel beds, where they can be caught on jigs, deep diving crank baits, spoons and Carolina rigged worms. Night fishing around piers with lights is also a great way to catch numbers and big fish in the summer months. Bass fishing points is also a great way to land a lunker. Start deep and work your way in to find the fish so you won’t spook the bigger ones. Caney is normally very clear water.

Caney Lake Development

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing on this reservoir, which is surrounded by homes and camps. It’s a classic example of man vs. Mother Nature when it comes to fish management. For years the lake was plagued with too much aquatic vegetation. So grass carp were brought in and controlled it to the point of removing it all. Fish populations suffered, so managers actually “farmed” aquatic vegetation in several secure areas and now grass is abundant again. So are fish. The lake was originally part of the state’s “Trophy Lake” program, but recently fish harvesting data suggested that the slot limits were having no real effect on the lake and since the lake was in such good shape, the slots were lifted. In addition to the natural structure like humps, creek channels, grass beds and the like, there are several artificial reefs placed in the lake. The consist of several makeups — pallets, brush tops and old tires. All hold fish at certain times of the year and can be located by buoys or with your electronics.

Fishing Caney Lake

The lake has one of the premier state park areas on the southeastern end of the reservoir on a beautiful point. The Jimmie H Davis State Park offers just about anything you can imagine for campers, boaters and anglers. It’s named after former state Governor Jimmie Davis, who also made the song, “You Are My Sunshine” famous. The park was severely damaged in early 2019 by a tornado, but repairs have been made quickly and all areas of the park are open. Davis would be proud of all the “sunshine” that Caney Lake anglers have enjoyed over the years fishing in the reservoir bearing his name. Two launching ramps are available at the State Park, on Boggy Creek and Clear Bay. There are also ramps at two marinas, Brown’s Landing and Hook’s Marina, as well at Ebenezer. One thing to note: don’t be confused about the “other Caney Lake” in Louisiana located just about an hour north of this lake. The smaller Caney is located in the Kisatchie National Forest.

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