My son has qualified for the Jr. Bass Divisional down in the
Atchafalaya Basin near Morgan City, LA. We are heading down at the end of this month to do a little prefishing for 5 days and would like to know some basic information about the area. We have never been down there but it looks like a neat place (if you like alligators). Thanks

I grew up fishing the basin. I haven't been in a few years but maybe I can help. We always had good bags with chartreuse spinnerbaits with gold blades. Colorado and willow leaf. Fish the cypress stumps and make sure to bang the spinnerbaits on the stumps and roots as you pull it through. If the bite is a little slower try a watermelon bitsy bug jig with a watermelon grub next to big trees. Texas rigged brush hogs and worms in grass always produced as well. Lastly, square billed chartreuse cranks baits in Lilly pads seemed to produce nice fish. Hope this helps and update with your catch. Good luck

Everything down there looks fishy, find the clearest water you can. Clear water changes daily due to rain and boat traffic. Nothing better then a barge coming thru a bayou to muddy it up. Shallow cranks, spinner baits and flipping dominate down there. If the water is draining out of the swamp fish the runoff.

Ah, the basin.
My old stomping grounds
Easy, easy to grab a limit. However , much harder to find big fish.

Look for old pond damns, and other hidden deep areas. The big fish there love,love isolated cover.

Above mentioned patterns work well, chartrouse, white spinner bait's Colorado/willow leaf combo's black/blue worms and squarebills.

Flipping thick,thick cover works well there too.

Look for bar ditches with deeper water, good luck. Can be an amazing fishery and a trying place at Times too!!

Thanks guys I really appreciate the information. My son won the 11-14 and the Overall State Championship down at Lake Amistad with 17.10 lbs. and he is only 13. This will be a whole different experience for him.

It will be a blast, the basin is a very large vast fishery that is very scenic and a great fishery at the same time, I got my first bass fishing trophy there in 1979!!!!

What is the date of his tournament?

June 8th but i am going down may 25 thru 29 so he can prefish

Punching the matted hydrilla is a good pattern. And as already stated, isolated trees are good for big bites. Keep in mind that the cypress trees have a big root system that you may or may not see. Alot have roots 20' out all the way around so there's alot more to them than the trunk. Sure do miss that place.