Artillery Lake Fishing near Fort Polk North, Louisiana

• Overview

  In Louisiana, Artillery Lake falls inside Vernon Parish. It lies 427 feet above sea level. It covers about 4 acres, so this is small water you can walk round in under an hour. By elevation it is in the upper part of our Louisiana listings. Fort Polk North sits 7.4 miles from here and is the nearest stop. After that come Fort Polk South at 11 miles and Leesville at 12 miles. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Artillery Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Treat Artillery Lake as a water to read rather than to cover. Read the water for ten minutes before the first cast.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The warm month here averages 82°F; the cold one sits at 48°F. Cooler months are the productive ones on most of this water. The first and last hours carry the summer; the middle is slow. November and March are the quiet, comfortable months to be out. Keep it in mind when planning a trip to Artillery Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  The paperwork position is blank for this one. Public data shows nothing built here, so treat the whole approach as informal. Check locally before you travel, because a wasted drive is a long one. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. Engineer Lake, 1.3 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. None of that is settled for Artillery Lake in what we hold.