Fishing forecast for New Orleans, LA

New Orleans lies between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, and the two waters normally stay apart. Louisiana Sea Grant describes the Pontchartrain estuary as a low-salinity basin, fed fresh water by rivers, streams and rainfall runoff, including rain pumped out of the city, while Gulf water enters through the Rigolets and Chef Menteur passes. River water reaches the lake when the Bonnet Carré Spillway is opened.

Best fishing times in New Orleans this week

Majors run an hour either side of the moon crossing the meridian over New Orleans, LA; minors, half an hour either side of moonrise and moonset. Where those widths come from: best fishing times and how we compute these times.

When these windows are not the right tool

Solunar theory is John Alden Knight's 1926 prediction; the ±60 and ±30 minute widths are convention, not calculation. The times are computed astronomy, the claim that fish feed inside them is not. The day rating follows moon phase — identical nationwide, so every city shows it the same. A moving front beats the moon: apps that read pressure.

Where to fish in New Orleans

This page is built around Lake Pontchartrain, with Delta marsh in reach — both salt and fresh water, about 20 minutes from the middle of New Orleans.

Lake Pontchartrain is an estuary rather than a lake in the usual sense, open to Gulf water through the Rigolets and Chef Menteur passes. Louisiana Sea Grant gives its historic average salinity as 3.5 parts per thousand, against about 33 for ocean water, and says readings have run lower since the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was closed.

Wind sets the salt calendar in the Pontchartrain basin. Louisiana Sea Grant says that from late spring through most of the fall the dominant south and southeast winds push salt water into the basin through the passes, while in late winter and spring rain and west to northwest winds and fronts push it back out.

Roughly half of greater New Orleans south of Lake Pontchartrain has sunk below sea level, in geographer Richard Campanella's account, so rain that falls on the city has to be pumped out. Louisiana Sea Grant counts that pumped runoff among the fresh water that keeps the lake brackish.

The nearest grids we publish are Birmingham, AL (503 km, Logan Martin) and Houston, TX (512 km, Galveston Bay). Different water, and different minutes.

What you can catch in New Orleans

State listings put these 6 fish in the water around New Orleans. Plan around the peak, not the open season.

The Bonnet Carré Spillway is opened when Mississippi River flow at New Orleans exceeds 1.25 million cubic feet per second, sending river water into Lake Pontchartrain and freshening it. How the fish respond depends on the opening: in LDWF acoustic tracking during one cool, 22-day opening, tagged adult speckled trout and redfish were not seen leaving the lake.

Coastal land loss here is measurable year to year. Ponds become open water, marsh islands disappear, and a spot fished five years ago may no longer exist — a constraint that makes any static list of places unreliable.

USGS, which monitors salinity, dissolved oxygen and temperature in the waters around the Bonnet Carré Spillway, dates the structure to the early 1930s and notes that it was opened twice in 2019. The agency describes those waters as crucial habitat for fish, crabs and other shellfish, seagrasses, and marine mammals such as dolphins and manatees.

Tackle sits outside a forecast page: start with how to catch largemouth bass.

Sunrise, sunset and daylight in New Orleans

The moon window moves daily; the sun does not. Plan a season against this block.

The longest day of 2026 is June 21, 14h 04m; the shortest, December 21, 10h 13m. The meridian passing drifts about 50 minutes later daily: a dawn window this week is an afternoon window in a fortnight.

While the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was open, dense Gulf water slid under the fresher lake water each summer and set up a low-oxygen bottom layer that could spread over more than 100 square miles. Louisiana Sea Grant reports that Rangia clams, which could not escape it, have increased since the outlet closed in 2009.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and on this low coast it is a planning variable for every trip onto the lake or into the marsh, not background noise.

Winter changes the lake in ways a thermometer does not show. Louisiana Sea Grant says north and northwest fronts become frequent and strong in winter, and as they drive water out through the passes and the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal the lake level drops and the saltier bottom water is pushed out with it.

License and seasons in Louisiana

Rules for Louisiana come from the Louisiana agency, and the calculation behind the table is set out in how we compute these times.