Artificial Lure here, giving you your November 2nd, 2025 fishing report for the Red River around Shreveport. Grab a cup and settle in, 'cause today’s shaping up real fine for getting lines wet across northwest Louisiana.
Weather’s near perfect—sunny skies with temps topping out at 64°F this afternoon, as the Weather Network has it. Winds are calm, and that’s a treat after last week’s gustier stretches. We saw sunrise at 7:32 this morning and you’ll have daylight until sunset at 6:24PM. Water clarity is improved thanks to post-front north winds and low rain all week.
Now for the river: Red River’s holding steady after a few rises last month, with water levels near seasonal norms according to rivergages.com. This means the current is just right for working the cuts, edges, and main channel drop-offs without battling too much flow. Perfect for positioning off the channel bends and working that breakline.
Fish activity is picking up as fall settles—water’s cooling, bait is stacking, and the big girls are feeding up. In the main river, largemouth bass are in pre-winter mode, hunting shad schools close to laydowns and around the mouths of backwater sloughs. Some fat blue catfish have been caught in the deeper bends on cut shad and skipjack. If you’re after white bass and crappie, check creek mouths and the current seams where smaller bait is getting corralled.
Yesterday, a few boats at the ramp were showing off bass limits in the two- to four-pound range, mostly caught on crankbaits and soft plastics. Channel cats, too, were biting steady—several keepers caught on nightcrawlers drifted near structure.
For tackle today, here’s what’s working best:
- Bass: Try shad-pattern crankbaits around riprap and submerged brush. If they’re pushing shallow, throw a green pumpkin or watermelon finesse worm on a shaky head. Don’t be shy to skip a Senko around dock pilings, especially as the day warms up.
- Catfish: Fresh cut bait—shad or skipjack—is pulling the bigger blues, with a steady bite coming before noon and toward dusk.
- Panfish: Live minnows and white curly-tail grubs around woody cover in the bayous are putting crappie in the cooler.
Best bite windows are at dawn and again in the hour leading up to sunset, per FishingReminder’s solunar forecast. Major feeding periods today land from 8:15–10:15AM and a second at 3:40–5:40PM, so time your casts for those power hours.
Spinnerbaits in chartreuse and white will draw reaction strikes along current breaks, while a gold Colorado-blade spinner is a classic for the river’s stained water. For the live bait crowd, jumbo minnows remain a top crappie producer around bridge pilings on Cross Bayou.
Looking for hotspots? Two keep popping up:
- Cross Bayou, less than half a mile from downtown, is loaded with baitfish right now, drawing in schooling bass and plenty of slab crappie.
- The mouth of Twelvemile Bayou. Fish the points and creek mouths with a crankbait or slow-rolled soft swimbait.
Remember, marsh drains and the mouths of small bayous are prime right now—fish them with moving water, especially two hours before and after the tide starts dropping, to get that aggressive bite.
Word to the wise: the fish are groupin’ up, so once you hit one, work the area thoroughly; you might pull a quick limit before they scatter.
That’s the bite rundown for Red River around Shreveport this beautiful November morning. Thanks, y’all, for tuning in to Artificial Lure’s local fishing update. Don’t forget to subscribe for more hot tips, reports, and river gossip straight from the heart of northwest Louisiana.
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