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Spotlight on Lake Pontchartrain: Visitor's Guide, History, Fishing, Hunting, Lake Homes & Causeway
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May 22, 2024
This video is about Lake Pontchartrain in Southern Louisiana. This is a huge lake, featuring the longest single bridge over a body of water in the world: the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Learn more at https://www.lake-pontchartrain.com/ Boat ramps map: https://www.lake-pontchartrain.com/boat-ramps-map Marinas: https://www.lake-pontchartrain.com/marinas History & Info: https://www.lake-pontchartrain.com/information In this video: 0:00 - Lake Info 2:05 - Wildlife Species 3:12 - Pontchartrain Causeway 4:14 - Size of the Lake 4:40 - Waterfront Amenities 5:24 - Camping & State Parks 5:55 - Marinas & Boat Ramps 6:10 - Lake Homes 7:04 - Pontchartrain Lighthouse 7:58 - Weather
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0:00
What's up everybody, it's Simon from Lake Up
0:02
We're out here exploring Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana. This is a gigantic lake
0:08
It's like 40 miles long, 24 miles across. It's famous because it sits in the kind of the Mississippi Delta land
0:16
It's not exactly part of the Mississippi Delta, but in flooding times it could overflow into here
0:23
So it's lost lots of river deltas. It also opens up to the Gulf of Mexico
0:29
and goes all the way across the water to New Orleans. So technically, it's not really a lake
0:37
It's an estuary. That's really the proper term for it is an estuary
0:42
It's brackish water. It's where all the fresh water is coming out
0:46
and spreading out and it's big, huge, shallow, slow moving body of water going out into the ocean
0:54
Tidal surges come in and what's really remarkable is there is a really, really
0:59
really really diverse number of fish and wildlife species going on in the water and
1:07
around the water and when I say diverse what I mean is freshwater fish saltwater fish
1:13
gators sharks all kinds of stuff going on here like Pontchartrain so this is a
1:20
completely natural body of water there are a lot of authorities going on here
1:26
because I think it's a five or six parishes which are kind of the Louisiana version of counties, if you're not familiar
1:33
all have some variety of jurisdiction around the lake. There's also, you know, the Louisiana Wildlife Department
1:42
There's water authorities. There's, you know, dam and flooding control from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers involved
1:50
But again, this is a completely natural body of water. So all we're doing here is making sure that people have the lowest impact on the water as possible
1:59
and that the water has the lowest impact on people as possible, more or less
2:04
As an angler and outdoorsman, I think this is really cool that you can catch, you know, a speckled sea trout
2:11
and the same body of water that you can catch a Guadalupe bass I think that pretty crazy It pretty crazy Of course probably not in the same areas You know you going to have more fresh water on one end more salt water on the other
2:24
end. And with the tides, that's going to surge, it's going to raise and lower the water level
2:30
a little bit. And if you're more closer to the Gulf of Mexico, obviously you're going to have more
2:36
saltwater species. That said, this entire lake is below the Louisiana salt water line. So you do need
2:42
a saltwater fishing license to fish out here. There's also remarkable hunting here at Lake
2:49
Pontchartrain mostly in the Delta land. So in the freshwater feeding into there are there's like
2:55
just marshland galore on the kind of north and northwest sides of the lake, which is fantastic
3:04
habitat for bird hunting. Louisiana's really known for that as part of the Mississippi
3:08
flyway and Louisiana's just known for good bird hunting. All right, the famous part of Lake Pontchartrain is right behind me
3:17
That is the Pontch Train Causeway. So it goes from the North Shore where I'm at right now, Madisonville, Louisiana kind of area
3:25
across 24 miles across the way to the city of New Orleans
3:31
This here, folks, is the longest single-spanning bridge over a body of water in the world
3:42
Yep. Didn't know that. I didn't know that. I thought the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was was the biggest, but this is about six miles longer when you're out in the middle
3:53
You cannot see either shore. You might be able to see skyscrapers in New Orleans, but you will not be able to see either shore when you're out in the middle because the curvature of the earth when you're out in the middle of water
4:05
ends at about eight miles. That's your visibility This is a long, long bridge. That's pretty cool
4:14
So like I said, Lake Pontch Trains is about 40 miles across, about 24 miles wide, 650 plus square miles of playground
4:27
Average depth is about 12 feet. You know, for the most part, you're going to range from 10 feet, 16 feet
4:33
And even within the same day that going to swing a couple feet you know either way with the tides especially if you closer to the Gulf Being such a huge body of water such an epic playground in a metro area Lake Pontchartrain has a ton of amenities
4:52
There's not a lot of public space on the open water. I'm at a fishing park right now
4:57
Fishing pier is behind me over here. There's a couple of fishing spots over here
5:00
So this is a public park, free parking, not very crowded, pretty cool place for a little picnic, you know
5:07
It's a little windy, but it's summertime. It's going to happen. You're going to have some prevailing winds, and we've had some pop-ups thunderstorms this afternoon
5:17
No big deal. Temperature, it's about 85 degrees. Humid. It's actually pretty pleasant
5:24
There are a couple of state parks on this side, on the north, northeast side. Two state parks
5:30
parks and I've been told I haven't been there yet I've been told they're both very nice
5:35
the bigger one is fontainebleau and I hope I'm saying that right my French is not
5:42
really up to par it's probably like fontainebleau or something like that for that
5:47
matter it's probably Pontra train not punch a train but here we are so especially
5:56
on the New Orleans side a lot of marinas private yacht clubs
6:00
private boat ramps and communities with boat ramps and so on and so forth
6:04
We just drove through Madisonville, saw some really cool documiniums and all this cool stuff
6:10
So I guess this side of the lake is where New Orleans retires. Didn't know that
6:15
Very quaint, very pleasant. Feels like, you know, feels like a kind of little beach community, you know
6:21
Pretty low key. As a matter of fact, this area all around the lake, but especially on this side
6:29
is the largest market for lake homes in all of Louisiana and it's not even close so it's no surprise
6:37
on the New Orleans side a lot of waterfront restaurants waterfront parks
6:44
sites to sea so on and so forth You got to be picky if you're gonna put a boat in the water you got to figure out where you need to go
6:52
You can check our website lake dash punchtrain put a link down below that has a boat ramp map too Might come in handy for you Also has marinas campgrounds so on and so forth fishing guides all kinds of good stuff
7:04
On the New Orleans side, there is the Punch Train lighthouse, which has been a fixture on that side of the lake, just an absolute icon for over 150 years
7:16
Like, well over 150 years. In fact, the first official lighthouse building was built in 1830
7:22
It was commissioned by Congress. Before that, they had, like, some janky, like, you know, a little whale oil lantern on a big pole
7:33
Like, two poles with a string between them. This is better than nothing
7:37
But now they got an official lighthouse in 1837. It's been blown down a few times
7:42
In fact, Hurricane Katrina blew it to smotherings, Hurricane Rita. So it's been rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt even in recent history
7:52
But it's still, it is still picturesque. It is still an icon. It's not huge, but it is cool looking
7:59
Being in Louisiana, this lake does get a lot of rain. At least compared to it, I'm used to
8:06
I'm talking like tropical amounts of rain. 64 inches plus a year
8:11
That's a lot of rain. And of course, being on the golf, you get the occasional hurricane tropical storm
8:18
So right now, you can see we've got some white caps. got some breakers coming across the lake the wind is coming straight across from
8:26
New Orleans and straight onshore here and so we've got these we've got these
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little breakers here those are almost surfable dog on it you can imagine what
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this body of water is like in a real Gale force storm that is a force to be
8:42
reckoned with so do check the weather do check the wind before you head out and be
8:48
safe because this much water can amass a lot of force in a high wind
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My friends, that is Lake Pontchrane. We have a lot more lakes coming this way
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We're doing a Lake Hub tour of the American South. So stick around if you like what we got going on
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Subscribe so you don't miss out of those other lakes that we're going to be exploring. Other topics, boating, fishing camping
9:12
all kinds of fun stuff at Lake Hub. I'm Simon. And we'll see out there
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