North Louisiana's Hidden Gem: Bartholomew Lake
There's a serene joy that comes with bream fishing alongside a good friend, where the natural sounds of the outdoors mingles with shared laughter and easy conversation. It’s a style of therapy that I’ve enjoyed since I was a kid. Every summer I would look forward to fishing with my dad or grandfather on the bayou near our home. The old Jon boat wasn’t much but to me, it was everything.
Now as an adult, I only get to bream fish every so often each summer, but I still get that same smile as always when I watch my cork dive under the water with a bream on the other end of the line.
I recently went to one of North Louisiana’s hidden gems for bream fishing; Bartholomew Lake near Sterlington, LA. Commonly called “The Cutoff”, Bartholomew Lake is an oxbow off Bayou Bartholomew. My company for the day is one of our areas most popular YouTuber’s, Bradly Smith of God’s Country Hunting & Fishing. The goal of the day was to catch fish and film an episode, something we both felt confident that would happen.
We launched from the public launch just off Hwy 165 south near Sterlington. Bradley did a little recon at work earlier in the week and got word of a good place to start. “My buddy at work told me of a place where they did really good a few weeks ago. Maybe we can get on them,” he said.
This trip would also educate me on some new things in the bream fishing world that I’d never tried before. As we rigged up a few poles before we left, Bradley handed me a small tab with beads and wires. “Use this to help rig your cork”. I was lost until he showed me how they work. “It’s a bead that helps adjust the slip corks depth. The cork slides down to the sinker weight and then back up to the depth you want to fish as the hook sinks. It’s really easy,” he explained. It also aids in making accurate casts as all the weight on the line is as the end and not in various places. “The Honey Hole in West Monroe has a bunch,” he added.
As we motored down the lake, the scenery was impressive. Massive cypress trees and Spanish moss seemed to spring up from everywhere. We finally made it to our destination and started to fish. We trolled the lake for most of the morning and finally called it a day just after lunch. The bite was a little slow and to my surprise, we had close to 50 bream when I finally counted our keep. They were a mix of what my grandfather always called “sweet bream”, blue gill, and even a few Chiquapin.
You can catch our adventure and more on God’s Country’s Hunting and Fishing’s YouTube page soon!
