Keith Lusher The Northshore offers the greatest span of rivers within a 50-mile radius than any other span of land in Louisiana. It’s this reason that bass fishermen have some many options. From Manchac to the Pear River system, our rivers offer some of the best options available for those fishing bass tournaments or just looking to catch a few for the ice chest. I’m sure you’ve heard of the larger waterways that hold fish such as the Tchefuncte River, Bayou Liberty and The Tangipahoa River, but I’d like to shed a little light on a very underrated tributary here on the North Shore. Stretching just over a mile from launch on Highway 190 to Lake Pontchartrain, Bayou Cane in Mandeville presents bass fishermen with some very unique options. I recently made a fishing trip with Todd Oalman who fishes the bayou often and says that Cane is one of his favorite places to fish for bass. “I’ve fished Bayou Cane so many times it’s almost always productive,” Oalman says. We started our day early before the sun was over the horizon. With the high projected to be 97 degrees, we both knew that our time to fish was limited to a small early morning window before the heat set in.
The Trace Bridge hovers over Bayou Cane just after the launch at 190 We motored to the mouth of Cane and Todd stuck the nose of his flatboat into the marsh. As the sun peeked over the horizon behind us, the action started on the waters surface. Bass chasing baitfish turned two calm fisherman into excited kids and we started casting out into the mouth. We both were using “Salt and Pepper” Saltwater Assassins with a Chartreuse curly tail. Todd says this is one of his favorite baits to use here. “If you rig it on a worm hook without a weight I find that you can work this bait very slowly on the waters surface so you’re not constantly reeling in and throwing out,” he says. It didn’t take long for Todd to put the first fish of the day in the boat. a 12” bass that slurped up his lure just under the waters surface.
Todd Oalman catches the first bass of the day at the mouth of Bayou Cane
We continued to fish the mouth of the bayou for another hour and ended up with 6 keeper bass in the ice chest. We then moved to the next drain in the marsh. “I like to start at the mouth and then work my way steadily back to the launch,” Todd says. The drains that protrude from the marsh typically attract bass because of the cleaner water and the baitfish that congregate in the are. As we fished these drains we picked up one or two bass at every drain making for a consistent morning. But as we felt the sun trying to beat down on our necks we both knew that the bite would be ending shortly. “It doesn’t take long! I’ve seen it time after time - you’ll be catching fish steady and all of a sudden the bite dies,” Oalman says. After we put our 15th bass of the day in the box, we couldn’t manage another one for over an hour and we decided to call it a day.
Todd Oalman and Keith Lusher head back to the lunch with an icebox of bass
Once again Bayou Cane provided a steady bass bite and a box of fish. “It’s probably the least fish bayou here on the Northshore and I don’t know why. It’s easily one of the most consistent and productive bayous tat we have here,” Oalman adds.
