Tim Goodwin isn’t an official, card-carrying fishing guide, but after thirty-five years living on Lake Vernon, he might as well be an honorary one—or, as he calls it, a “Drugstore Guide.” As spring brings on the height of bass season, Goodwin offers the following tips to make the most of a fishing trip to the lake, which he maintains is an often-overlooked bass fisherman’s mecca.
Know your species migration patterns
During the winter months the fishing’s tough, as the fish move into deeper waters. But as the lake water starts to warm in March, largemouth bass will relocate into the shallows, where they’ll begin to prepare nests for spawning.
“Once the fish move in, they’re easier to catch,” Goodwin said. “That’s why so many fishermen love to go to these local lakes in March and April because that’s when they have a good opportunity to catch a huge bass.”
Sac-à-lait, or white perch, are also abundant in Vernon Lake, as are channel catfish and bream. All those species work together, Goodwin said. They move in together, prepare their nests in the shallow water, and stick around until it gets too hot to bear in the summer months.

Lake Vernon
Practice CPR (Catch, Photo, Release)
Goodwin is a proponent of a fishing practice he’s coined called “CPR,” or “Catch, Photo, Release.” When fishermen catch a big bass in the spring months, a female will typically be full of eggs—sometimes as many as 10,000.
Those eggs need to hatch, adding to the lake’s bass population. To keep the habitat healthy, Goodwin urges anyone fishing Vernon—or any lake—to photograph larger fish and then release them. Any fish smaller than three pounds, however, is fair game to keep—up to ten fish per fisherman per day.
“What I tell people is keep the smaller bass during that period of time,” he said. “They want to focus on letting the large fish go that have the eggs in them so they can do their thing.”
Lately, he’s added a fourth letter to his favorite acronym—a ”T,” for “tag.”
“I have a tagging system where I put a tag in them. Fishtagger.com, I enter them on that site, the number and everything,” Goodwin said. “And if someone re-catches that fish, they can go to the Fishtagger site, and enter that number.”
The information will display when the fish was caught, how much it weighed, and other descriptive information.

Tim Goodwin practising CPR — Catch, Photo, Release!
Find the best fishing spots
According to Goodwin, the north end of Vernon Lake tends to warm more quickly, making it the go-to fishing spot during spring months.
“It warms up before the southern part of the lake,” Goodwin said. “The fish move in a little sooner. When they finish spawning, they kind of hang around a little bit. They become lethargic. The spawning process is tough on them.”
After they recover, the bass begin to feed aggressively again, making late spring and early summer great times to head out to fish again.
“There’s some really big fish in there,” Goodwin said. “That’s what makes Vernon Lake special. It’s a tiny gem.”
To start planning your Vernon Parish fishing trip, click HERE.