What are Louisiana’s deepest lakes and rivers? Take a deep dive into local waterways
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Louisiana is strongly associated with water as it’s along the Gulf of Mexico and is home to the mouth of the Mississippi River.
There are many lakes and rivers in Louisiana where amateurs and pros spend the day fishing.
Two lakes have been identified as the deepest in the state: Lake Peigneur and Lake Pontchartrain.
Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish is the deepest lake in Louisiana with a maximum depth of 200 feet.
According to the Historical Marker Database, the once 10-foot-deep lake deepened after exploratory drilling by a company led to an accidental piercing, causing a funnel to drain the lake into a salt mine in 1980.
Louisiana state parks near Baton Rouge with hiking, fishing, nature trails
In southeast Louisiana, Lake Pontchartrain is 40 miles long and 25 miles wide with the causeway connecting the New Orleans side to the Northshore. According to Britannica, the lake has a mean depth of 10 to 16 feet.
The Visit the Northshore website said an initiative was created in the 1970s to reduce pollution and improve water quality. Now, people have fun on the lake with fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and paddleboarding.
Rivers in Louisiana can be deep, too. According to Rivergator, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains the Atchafalaya River in the south-central part of the state at a depth of 12 feet.
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