Red River Shreveport: Warm Front Bite with South Wind and Stained Water

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Red River Shreveport fishing report. We’ve got a warm, muggy pattern hanging over the river this weekend. The National Weather Service out of Shreveport is calling for mostly cloudy skies with highs low‑to‑mid 70s today, south breeze around 10–15 mph, and good odds of showers and a few rumbles this afternoon and tonight. Tomorrow dries out some but stays cooler and breezy out of the northwest. That south wind and cloud cover have the river fish up and roaming. Sunrise is right around 6:30 a.m., sunset about 6:10 p.m. First light to about 9 a.m. and then that last hour of daylight have been the best bites. No real tides to speak of on this stretch of the Red, but you’ll see a “pseudo‑tide” when they’re moving water at the locks; rising flow has been turning on the bass and white bass. Water’s stained to downright muddy in the main channel with all the recent rains, mid‑60s surface temps in the backwaters. According to recent local tournament weigh‑ins up around the Red River South Marina pool, 14–17 lb five‑fish sacks have been winning small events, mostly largemouth with a kicker in the 4–5 lb class. Folks have also been bringing in decent messes of white bass and a few crappie off the deeper barge tie‑offs. Catfish guys running jugs and tight‑lining have done well on blues in the 3–8 lb range with the occasional teens fish. Bass activity: they’re hugging wood and grass edges, not way back in the junk. Best producers have been: - Soft plastics: green pumpkin or black/blue creature baits and stick worms, Texas‑rigged with a 3/16–1/4 oz weight, pitched to laydowns and cut banks. - Moving baits: chartreuse/white spinnerbaits with double willows, and square‑bills in sexy shad or red craw banging off timber when the wind picks up. - On overcast stretches, a black buzzbait or popping frog around shallow grass and duckweed has been good for a few explosive bites early. Crappie are still scattered. Your best bet is vertical jigging 12–18 feet on barge pilings and deeper laydowns using 1/16‑oz hair jigs in chartreuse/white or natural shad. Tip with a small minnow if they’re sniffing but not eating. Catfish: cut shad, skipjack if you’ve got it, or good old chicken liver on a Carolina rig has been steady on outside bends where the current sweeps into 10–20 feet. Set a few rods and let the scent work. For live bait, small shiners and medium minnows are the ticket for crappie and white bass. Nightcrawlers or punch bait will still put channel cats in the cooler if you’re just out to fry fish. Couple local hot spots to circle: - The oxbows and backwaters off Pool 5 near Red River South: plenty of visible wood, some grass starting to green up, and solid bass reports pitching plastics. - Downstream barge tie‑offs and bridge pilings by the railroad and I‑20 crossings: crappie and white bass stacking there when the current’s rolling, plus bonus blue cats underneath. That’s the rundown from Artificial Lure on This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.