Pine timber land can be tough... I hunt alot of it in west alabama and it always seems that deer are just harder to hunt when they live in areas like that. My lease is probably 80% planted pine and cutover with the remaining 20 being deep hardwood bottoms or SMZs (stream management zones) I feel the most efficient way to find deer in areas such as this is to be on the edges of that 20 percent. Most of the time, the pine thickets will not provide alot of forage for deer, save your green briar and honey suckle, but they will provide one thing all deer want, thats COVER. The deer will feed on the edges of these hardwoods so that they can be close to the safety of the pine thickets. OF COURSE, since you are in louisiana the deep hardwood bottoms are not really an option, but i would be willing to bet that there is some wet area or some other places that whoever went in there and planted those pines didnt want to take a skidder to cut down all the old hardwood trees first. Find that area and you should be on deer.
As far as food plots go, they can be really lethal in a pine plantation area. if you have access to the equipment needed just find an area that gets plenty of sun and is not to wet, expose the dirt and plant something basic like wheat, oates, clover or any combination of the three. Most of the stuff you see on tv (ie brassicas, beans, corn etc.) will not grow well at all in the acidic soil you find under pines. keep in mind the dominant wind in your area and set up stand locations AND INTRANCE/EXIT ROUTES accordingly
I hope this helps, Im sorry it was so long winded but i could talk about the struggle of hunting deer in the south for days!