I'm heading to Caddo Lake tomorrow for my first visit to the lake. My 23 yr old son is driving over from Mississippi and we're going to spend three days fishing, mainly for bass but we wouldn't mind catching some large bluegill too. Should be a blast and some great father-son time. We're camping at the state park and I plan to launch at Johnson's Ranch in Uncertain. I've searched through a lot of Caddo threads on the site and have found some great info. Highlights below:

Baits to add to my usual arsenal of rattlesnake plastics, flukes, and power worms:
black-red beavers
tubes
senko june bug color
frogs
kvd 1.5 sexy shad
traps
black neon plastics

Looks like these are good areas:
C-75 and C-78
Old folks hole
sand island
big green break
alligator bayou from devils elbow to brit's gap
potters point from whitely to sand island
little green for top waters
find grass anywhere we can

General advice: buy a map and bring my gps!

Am I missing anything important?

Thanks!!
Mick

My parents are there now camping at the state park for a week for their anniversary. They are just fishing with crickets and catching a bunch of bluegill.

Black is the best color on Caddo.Throw a spro frog around the larger Cypress trees.Watch for pads mixed with grass.

pay real close attention to where you get your first quality bite - is it an isolated tree next to a cluster, all by itself, on a point, how deep, etc.... seems like Caddo fish often setup in a real particular way and if you figure it out, you can whack'em. if you don't you'll miss it entirely.

but for your first time there - when it gets hot and you want to cool off, get a nu-grape soda or two at Johnsons, drive around a bit and enjoy the scenery.

Good luck. Love Caddo, only been once but it is neat.

I fished the river last July and did OK.

How did you do? I have been on Caddo in a while but it is my favorite lake.

It was a very fun trip but bass fishing was slow. I caught a couple of two pounders each day but that was it. We gave up bass fishing one afternoon and caught a bunch of bluegill. Very neat lake and we really enjoyed camping in the state park.

Buy a map, and don't get lost .... you can get lost easy!

follow the markers like they said get lost really easy! we stayed at the state park and its a pretty good run upriver to main lake. we actually caught all our fish in the pads using crawdads

Stick to the boat lanes... if your not in one be at idle.

Watch out for sucker rods. They r everywhere

We've been catching them in Jeems Bayou on the Louisina side. From the highline north. Black spro frog early, then switching to plastics on single trees in 4-6' of water. Jeems, however isn't the prettiest part of the lake; if you fish Caddo you owe it to yourself to make a run through Government Ditch and Alligator Bayou.

Something else you need to try is a spinnerbait early. We have been doing good on it.

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