Caddo Lake

Caddo Lake sits directly on the border between East Texas and northwestern Louisiana, straddling Harrison and Marion counties in Texas and Caddo Parish in Louisiana. Located near the town of Uncertain, Texas, and about twenty miles northeast of Marshall, the sprawling waterbody covers roughly 25,400 surface acres consisting of shallow bayous, channels, and flooded cypress swamps.

In national rankings, Caddo Lake regularly features on Bassmaster Magazine’s Top 100 Best Bass Lakes in America as well as regional top-tier lists across the Central and Southeastern divisions. While its dense underwater maze makes tournament navigation unique, national publications consistently celebrate Caddo Lake as a bucket-list destination for anglers due to its healthy population of trophy largemouth bass and incredible natural beauty.

The lake boasts a distinguished history in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Toyota ShareLunker Program. Caddo Lake has submitted multiple 13-plus-pound Legacy Class ShareLunkers, highlighted by its massive all-time lake record largemouth bass weighing 16.17 pounds, caught by Keith Burns in March 2010. Beyond these top-tier giants, anglers consistently log fish weighing between 8 and 12 pounds into the program's lower Lunker and Elite tiers each season.

What truly sets Caddo Lake apart is its geography and history, as it stands as one of Texas's only naturally formed lakes, originally created by a massive naturally occurring logjam known as the Great Raft on the Red River. It holds international environmental significance as a designated RAMSAR Wetland of International Importance, sheltering the world's largest flooded forest of bald cypress trees draped in Spanish moss. Navigating the lake requires careful attention to marked boat lanes due to its maze of shallow sloughs, lily pads, and submerged timber, which support an amazingly diverse ecosystem containing over seventy species of fish alongside alligators, waterfowl, and abundant wildlife.