The US Lakes Where Bull Sharks Have Been Caught

Bull sharks have been caught in several US lakes, but the records are not all the same kind of catch. In Lake Pontchartrain, charter captains once reported landing 16 bull sharks in a single trip. Sabine Lake produced a 59-inch, 39-pound fish on rod and reel. Farther inland, a roughly 50-pound bull shark was caught near Lac des Allemands in 2018. Scientific sampling adds an even larger paper trail, including 565 bull sharks recorded across the Sabine system and 41 collected around Little Lake. The numbers separate well-documented lake records from the many shark stories that rely on sightings or rumor.

Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana

Lake Pontchartrain has both recreational catches and a long scientific record. Louisiana Sportsman reported in 2023 that charter captain Mackie Bellott regularly targets sharks in Lake Pontchartrain and its associated waters. Bellott said he and Capt. Andy Jones once caught 16 bull sharks in a single trip, and that some of the sharks they have caught exceeded five feet. That gives Pontchartrain direct rod-and-reel evidence in addition to decades of fisheries research.

Fisheries biologist Rezneat Darnell examined three bull sharks collected from Lake Pontchartrain for a 1958 study of its food web. Two had identifiable prey in their stomachs. A 780-millimeter shark had eaten a striped mullet measuring 255 millimeters. Another, 805 millimeters long, contained ten small menhaden and a croaker. Those specimens established that bull sharks were feeding inside Pontchartrain more than six decades ago.

Later scientific sampling continued to find them. Work around Goose Point from 2000 through 2003 produced 18 bull sharks, and subsequent field projects photographed and tagged immature sharks in the lake. Federal habitat assessments have treated Pontchartrain as nursery habitat for young bull sharks. The lake takes in large volumes of river water, while its passes maintain connections with the coastal system and Gulf.

Sabine Lake, Texas and Louisiana

Sabine Lake also has a documented sportfishing catch. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department records list a 59-inch, 39-pound bull shark caught by Harold Bean IV on July 27, 2005. The agency classifies the method as rod and reel. That fish provides a straightforward angler record for the lake.

A much larger body of evidence comes from scientific sampling. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sampling from 1986 through 2014 recorded 607 sharks in the broader Sabine system, and 565 were bull sharks. These were not recreational catches. The bull sharks were taken in agency gill-net sampling, with 532 coming from the Sabine Lake and river sampling area. Most were neonates or early juveniles, the age group researchers expect in shallow estuarine water.

The lake receives water from the Sabine and Neches rivers and drains toward the Gulf through Sabine Pass. Marsh, river, shipping channel, and open lake meet within the system, providing the low-salinity habitat frequently used by young bull sharks.

Little Lake, Louisiana

The evidence from Little Lake is scientific, not a named rod-and-reel catch. In 1999, fisheries scientists working with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries collected 41 bull sharks while conducting research in the Barataria Basin. Most of those sharks came from an overnight gill net placed directly in Little Lake, so the figure represents physical captures during fisheries sampling, not estimates or sightings.

The sharks had fork lengths ranging from about 60 to 96 centimeters. Researchers classified nearly all of them as juveniles, with one 60-centimeter female identified as a neonate. Those measurements put very young bull sharks inside the lake, not merely large adults passing through the wider coastal system.

The captures came during the warm season, when juvenile bull sharks are commonly recorded in Gulf Coast nursery habitat. Little Lake connects through the lower Barataria wetlands toward Barataria Bay, with channels, marshes, and other lakes in between. The 41 sampled sharks give Little Lake one of the larger directly measured capture records among these lakes.

Lake Borgne, Louisiana

Lake Borgne has a specimen-based capture record, not a documented recreational catch. Smithsonian collection records preserve parasite material obtained from a bull shark taken from Lake Borgne in June 1975. The surviving record does not establish that the shark was caught by a recreational angler, so it is more accurately treated as a scientific specimen record.

Researchers later used material from that shark in a 1988 peer-reviewed study describing nematodes from Carcharhinus leucas. The Smithsonian record supplies a collection date, locality, host identification, and preserved material. Lake Borgne also appears in Peter Gausmann's 2021 global review of bull shark records in fresh and brackish water, which compiled juvenile and adult occurrences from fisheries literature.

The lake lies east of New Orleans and connects with Mississippi Sound through a broad coastal corridor. Its shallow estuarine water and surrounding marshes place it within the same northern Gulf habitat network used by bull sharks elsewhere in Louisiana.

Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana

Calcasieu Lake belongs on the basis of fisheries documentation, not a named sportfishing record. Peter Gausmann's 2021 worldwide review of bull shark movements lists both juvenile and adult records from Calcasieu Lake, drawing on earlier Gulf fisheries work. Federal habitat assessments for the region have also recorded the species across the Calcasieu estuary. These sources document bull sharks within the lake system.

The lake is connected to the coast by the Calcasieu Ship Channel, while river water, tidal water, marsh creeks, and navigation channels meet throughout the estuary. Local anglers know the waterbody as Big Lake, although its sport fishery is much better known for species such as red drum and spotted seatrout.

Lake Salvador, Louisiana

Lake Salvador has a recurring agency sampling record. In 2015, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries marine biologist Jason Adriance said agency crews occasionally encountered bull sharks while sampling in the lake. His statement came after reports of sharks in Lake Salvador drew local attention that summer. The reports themselves described the animals as presumed bull sharks, while Adriance's account of LDWF sampling provides the firmer species-level evidence.

The species also appears at Lake Salvador in Peter Gausmann's 2021 review of bull shark occurrences, which includes the lake among documented Louisiana localities. Young bull sharks are particularly relevant in the upper Barataria system because they regularly use low-salinity environments during their early years.

Lake Salvador lies along a continuous aquatic route through the Barataria Basin. Bayou des Allemands enters from the north, and channels continue south toward Little Lake and Barataria Bay. A bull shark moving through the basin can therefore pass among several named lakes without leaving connected water.

Lac des Allemands, Louisiana

Lac des Allemands has one of the clearest individual freshwater catches. In June 2018, a local report documented a shark weighing about 50 pounds caught near Des Allemands. Peter Gausmann's 2021 global review retained the record, identified the animal as a subadult Carcharhinus leucas, and included it among documented freshwater occurrences. Unlike the gill-net totals from Little Lake and Sabine, this record began with an individual reported catch rather than a large fisheries sampling program.

The lake covers roughly 65 square kilometers and lies in the freshwater portion of the Barataria watershed. Water drains south through Bayou des Allemands toward Lake Salvador, Little Lake, Barataria Bay, and ultimately the Gulf. Bull sharks can make that transition because of their unusually strong osmoregulatory system. Their kidneys reduce salt loss in fresh water, while adjustments in gill and rectal-gland function help maintain internal chemical balance.

Shell Lake, Texas

Shell Lake has only one bull shark in the Texas sampling record, and its method of capture is known. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sampling across the Sabine region from 1986 through 2014 logged 565 bull sharks. The location breakdown included one specimen from Shell Lake, part of the Salt Bayou and Keith Lake marsh complex. That fish was taken during the agency's gill-net program, not by a recreational angler.

Most bull sharks in the same dataset came from Sabine Lake and its connected rivers, making the Shell Lake record small but unusually precise. It establishes a physical capture within the lake rather than a sighting or an inference based on nearby habitat. Shell Lake is connected to the wider Sabine estuary through coastal marsh, placing it within the mixture of river flow, tides, and Gulf influence used by juvenile bull sharks throughout the region.

What The Records Show

The strongest records show that bull sharks in these lakes are more than occasional surprises. Lake Pontchartrain has decades of documented captures. Across the broader Sabine system, agency sampling recorded 565 bull sharks, adding substantial evidence beyond Sabine Lake’s 39-pound rod-and-reel catch. Not every lake has such an extensive record, but their connections to coastal waters help explain the pattern. Rivers and channels link these systems to the Gulf, allowing sharks to move beyond the open coast. For bull sharks, entering a lake does not always mean leaving suitable habitat behind.