Louisiana Team Trail at Caddo Lake

On Saturday, February 21, 2026, the Louisiana Team Trail stages at Caddo Lake in Mooringsport, Louisiana, running from 7 AM to 3 PM with public access to the weigh-in at the Mooringsport Ramp. The prize for the winning team is $7,500, calculated from a base of 50 entries per division, making the payout a direct function of the field size and the competitive investment of the entrants rather than a fixed sponsor subsidy. Caddo Lake, a natural cypress-lined lake straddling the Louisiana-Texas border, is among the most visually distinctive fishing venues in the American South: the bald cypress canopy, Spanish moss, and dark tannin-stained water produce a landscape that is simultaneously beautiful and operationally demanding for bass tournament anglers who must navigate through timber structure with precision unavailable in open-water fisheries.

The Caddo Lake Fishery and What It Demands

Caddo Lake’s largemouth bass population is a year-round fishery, but the February window presents conditions that separate technical anglers from opportunistic ones. The lake’s complex cypress timber maze, its relatively shallow depth profile, and its lateral connectivity through bayou channels into the lake’s broader wetland system require local knowledge that visiting anglers without prior time on Caddo are unlikely to replicate in a single competition day. The Louisiana Team Trail format pairs anglers as two-person teams, which distributes local expertise and allows the pairing of experienced Caddo anglers with partners who provide complementary skills in presentation or water reading.

Good to Know: The Mooringsport Ramp on the Louisiana side of Caddo Lake is the primary competition access point. Non-competing spectators can observe the 3 PM weigh-in from the ramp area. Mooringsport itself is a small community in Caddo Parish; the nearest full-service lodging concentration is in Shreveport, approximately 30 kilometres to the south on US-1, which provides a practical base for visiting anglers who want to arrive the night before and depart after the weigh-in the following afternoon.

Caddo Lake: A Landscape Worth Building a Trip Around

Caddo Lake State Park on the Texas side of the lake at 245 Park Road 2 in Karnack, Texas, provides hiking, paddling, and camping access to the cypress swamp environment that makes this lake genuinely unlike any other competition water in the tournament circuit. A canoe or kayak exploration of the Big Cypress Bayou channels, particularly in the early morning light when great blue herons and wood ducks are at their most active, constitutes one of the more memorable two-hour experiences available in the western South at any time of year. For anglers, families, and couples wanting to stay close to the lake for the tournament weekend, Lake.com lists several Caddo Lake waterfront rental properties, including the Stargazer Caddo Lake Cabin with Kayaks, the Caddo Lake Cabins Wyldewood with Kayaks, and the Blue Heron Lakefront Caddo Lake cabin with kayaks and canoes, each providing the kind of cypress-shaded waterfront access that makes an overnight on Caddo Lake qualitatively different from any standard hotel stay in the region.