Fishing at Hog Lake, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana

• Overview

  The Natchitoches Parish entry here is Hog Lake, in Louisiana. Height above sea level is 95 feet. At about 29 acres, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. Colfax is the closest town at 8.3 miles. After that come Vienna Bend at 17 miles and Natchitoches at 20 miles. If this one is busy: Cow Lake within 0.5 miles, Lake Rond out at 2.9 miles, Clear Lake within 3.2 miles, Little Trudo Lake out at 3.4 miles and Chico Lake within 3.5 miles. This one sits near enough to a boundary to be worth checking.

• Where to Fish on Hog Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Nearby survey and observation records mention longear sunfish, largemouth bass, bantam sunfish, spotted bass and blacktail redhorse. Check the state or provincial list before planning around one species. The near bank of Hog Lake is often the one people ignore.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The year swings from about 47°F in January to roughly 83°F in July. There is no frozen season to plan round. Shade and hour of day matter more than month. March through May is the strongest run, with October and November a second stretch. Hog Lake runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  We have no record of the rules that apply on this bank. No made access appears within a short radius, so plan to park on a verge and walk. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Where a permit is needed, the nearest town usually sells it. Fishing rules and camping rules are set separately here. The nearest alternative is Cow Lake, 0.5 miles out. Where Hog Lake is concerned, a local answer beats a written one.