Lake Maurepas

One of the best lakes to visit in Louisiana is Lake Maurepas. Southeast Louisiana's Lake Maurepas is situated just west of Lake Pontchartrain, about midway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. It's a naturally created lake that began to take shape some 2,000 years ago. It is Louisiana's second-largest lake and offers a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities, such as hiking, camping, birdwatching, fishing, boating, observing wildlife, hunting, and trapping.

At Lake Maurepas, fishing is fairly common and there are many different species. Largemouth bass, spotted bass, channel catfish, white crappie, black crappie, bluegill, flyer sunfish, green sunfish, longear sunfish, redear sunfish, and warmouth are among the species available to anglers. With common game species like white-tailed deer, squirrels, rabbits, and waterfowl, hunting and trapping are immensely popular. At Lake Maurepas, anglers can cast their lines from a few spots along the fifty-eight thousand-foot shoreline or from one of the lake's two main boat launch ramps.

Lake Maurepas resembles Lake Pontchartrain in many ways, except that it is smaller and has fresher water. The 18th-century statesman and principal advisor to the French King Louis XVI, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas, was honored by having the lake bear his name. Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, a French politician, was Maurepas' grandfather and the inspiration for naming Lake Pontchartrain.

Location: Southeastern Louisiana

Surface Area: 59,310 acres
Max Depth: 9 Feet