Shreveport's Red River Winter Bite - Bass, Cats, and Crappie on the Rebound

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Red River Shreveport fishing report. We’re sitting on a cool North Louisiana winter pattern. National Weather Service Shreveport is calling for morning temps in the low 40s warming into the upper 50s, light north to northeast wind around 5–10, high pressure and mostly clear skies. That’s classic bluebird post‑front weather: tougher bite, but when they chew, they’re good ones. Sunrise is right around 7:15 a.m. with sunset close to 5:30 p.m. according to timeanddate’s Shreveport tables. That first hour after sunup and the last hour of light are your best windows. The Red isn’t tidal up here, so don’t worry about tide charts; instead, watch river level and current. The USGS Red River gauge at Shreveport shows a stable, slightly low winter flow, with decent clarity in the main channel and a little stain in backwaters. Local chatter from Red River tournament trails and bait shops in Shreveport and Bossier is that bass fishing has been fair on numbers but good on size this past week. Most of the keepers are coming on slow presentations in 6–12 feet off main‑river ledges and in oxbows with some brush. Anglers are reporting 8–12 pound limits pretty regularly, with the better sacks pushing 14–16 when somebody finds a school grouped on wood. For largemouth, think winter confidence baits. Guys have been doing well with: - **Jigs**: 3/8–1/2 oz black and blue or green pumpkin flipping jigs with a matching craw trailer, pitched to laydowns and barge tie‑ups. - **Crankbaits**: Medium‑diving shad or red craw patterns along riprap and outside bends when the sun warms the rocks. - **Finesse**: Green pumpkin shaky heads and Texas‑rigged creature baits for the tougher midday bite. Best “live” bait right now for bass is a frisky shiner slow‑trolled or drifted along ledges in the oxbows. Catfishermen upstream and around town ramps report decent blue and channel cat catches using cut shad, chicken liver, and punch bait in 15–25 feet on the outside bends. A few flatheads are still showing up on live bream tight to timber. Crappie are scattered but catchable in the barge slips and deeper brush piles; locals are tight‑lining hair jigs and small tube jigs in white/chartreuse or monkey milk, tipped with minnows. Solunar forecast services for north Louisiana, like SolunarForecast and FishingReminder, rate today as an average to slightly better‑than‑average day, with a solid morning major feeding window lining up right after sunrise and another good push late afternoon into dusk. A couple of local hot spots to consider: - **Stoner Avenue Boat Launch area**: Work the riprap, barge rows, and the first couple of main‑river points with jigs and medium cranks. - **Bishop Point and nearby oxbows** just downstream: Target deeper brush and old stumps with jigs and Carolina‑rigs; that area has been quietly giving up some quality keeper bass and a mixed bag of cats. Bait shops around Shreveport and Bossier are saying black and blue This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.