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Headed out on the river here at WVU for a couple hours this evening to try and get a couple walleye for dinner. The bite was slow out deep where I normally catch them this time of year, so when the light started to fade I made my way to some shallow rock and picked up the trusty ol' no.7 shad rap. Things got ugly pretty quickly . My little Calcutta 50 got quite a workout, but boy is that thing perfect for throwing a shad rap!

Wait, I think I figured it out. The OP was writing about Toledo Bend lake, which we all misunderstood to mean Toledo Bend reservoir. I did a little research and found that there is indeed a Toledo Bend lake and it is not the famous body of water that we are all familiar with. Toledo Bend Lake is located in Ohio, not Texas. It was named for its location, a curve in the road right next to the stadium where the Toledo Mudhens minor league baseball team plays. It is a smaller lake, only about 150 acres, so when the OP talks about 10,000 boats on it during the weekend, you can imagine how crowded it gets. It kind of looks like Lake Havasu during Spring Break, you can literally walk across the lake by going from boat to boat. Needless to say, vertical presentations are preferred - casting will usually end up in you snagging another fisherman. When the OP says the lake was drawn down, he is actually being kind. In fact, the lake was drained and was completely dry during the winter. When it was refilled, signs were posted that there are no fish in the lake, but that didn't stop those Ohioan bassmasters from giving it a try. Later, out of pity, a nearby tech company designed, built and released about a dozen robotic "bass" that now inhabit these waters. They are willing to bite, but there are so few of them, only catching 4 or 5 a year is about normal.

Got 3 the first day of the storm. Waiting for it to clear up again here in Cali.

March Madness (that's 10 ft up and untouched)...

Cold this morning and a little windy, but we found a calm pocket behind a long point. She grabbed a blade bait on bottom about 15 feet deep. 23.5" long and 6.3lbs. Another couple weeks and she would have been alot heavier. Still, She's my new longest LMB! Shes my second citation largemouth of the year. PB by weight is still 6.5lbs (23") from a couple years ago.

It's that time of year. He's ready to go.

How many worms do you think a bass sees? Worm style baits have probably caught more bass than any other shape. You certainly don’t find night crawlers swimming around in a lake but they sure do catch bass.

When that happens, the fish are telling you you're almost there, but there's something just not quite right. I'll first change my retrieve speed to see if that improves the bite, and then I change blade colors if that doesn't work. That often gets them to commit more, but if it doesn't, then I change skirt colors. Between those three, you'll get better hookups. Ya, ya... a bevvy of folks will tell you to add a trailer hook. I personally hate them because they interfere with trailers, plus that tends to get the spinnerbait hung up more. Plus it doesn't answer why they won't commit - it just snags them...sometimes. I prefer to solve the core issue. I want them to crush it!

Like John and Dwight, I was falling for @OCdockskipper's post until about halfway through the second paragraph. The humor started to exude from his words at that point. Sorry to hear the OP, @redboat, is struggling on TB. I don't live nearby so I can't dispute his report directly, but it would take some kind of major event to take TB from the top bass lake in the nation to an also-ran in just one year. You can bet the bass are there though it may require a different strategy to find them, or get them to bite.

I did the same thing, and then got it. I even googled the lake.

"The report of my death was a exaggeration", Mark Twain. Drag a dead animal across the trail to devert the hounds could also apply. Having lived through extremely high fishing pressure created by national attention I can see how local anglers trying to fish there home lake get frustrated. Toledo Bend is a big lake over 70 miles long and nearly impossible for the entire lake to have it's big bass population crash from over harvesting. With that said every lake has it's peake periods and down periods regarding big bass populations. Texas has the premier bass management program in the country, Toledo Bend is in good hands. Tom

Pretty much every thread you've started is about how terrible fishing is, or that something doesn't work. What's the deal? We're here to help you catch, but if you're just going to complain, that won't put fish in the boat. Give us a breakdown of what you're using, where, and how. What the cover is like, how deep, etc. There's a GIGANTIC thread on how to fish TB. Pages of info on it. Let us help you get better.

TW Roboworm Neds just arrived and Berkley 1/16 Half heads tossed in some paddle tails to get free shipping

I use the exact same setup except I use it for flipping carolina rigged zara spooks into thick grass mats.

I would go with a 5' xtra heavy spinning rod for sure. Put a zebco 33 on with 6lb braid and 30 lb mono leader. My go-to rig for drop shotting chatterbaits and I highly recommend it.

Here’s a few from my past 4 trips

You don't look a day over 69 and 3/4. Happy early birthday big guy.

Us old guys are a little slow.

The OP's location is Many, Louisiana not Ohio. OK tongue in cheek sarcasm.

Went out to buy some split rings. I ended up with two Zara Spook Jr's., one Redeye Shad, and a couple packs of replacement treble hooks. I forgot all about the split rings.

Ithaca Falls in fall. I had to get in the river for the shot.

If some company came out with a balanced, light weight spinning reel without a bail, and a nice line roller, I'd use it. I have no purpose for the bail, other than it's an extra step to make a cast. I seat the line on the roller after the cast, and manually flip the bail back. Come to think of that, the bail adds two steps! Off with the bails!

Snoqualmie Falls, Washington - 2011.

This is what happens when you put your confidence in baits (and/or tackle). They're all just tools, and it's not always the fancy or expensive one that's best for the job.

Some Jigs from Seibert Outdoors, I had the same look on my face when I opened the box. This was before I trimmed skirts and weed guards.

You can check out Willow Oak in the back of Sandy. Maybe less people.

If you ever get out here, you can drive to within about 75 feet of the summit of Mt. Evans. It's the highest paved road in North America, ending at about 14,130 above sea level.

I use Fish Sticks crawdad scent on all my soft plastics, even those with built-in scent. While I can't prove it increases the number of bites or catches, I do know for a fact that it repels my wife...

@senile1 Did you ever get to Mt. Evans when you were in Colorado? These are from about 40 years ago, the first one is 1979, the rest are from the 80's. Where he's looking down is a couple thousand feet, almost vertical (he's standing at a bit over 14,000 feet). There were several nannies with kids on the narrow rocky ridge that runs from the peak of Mt Evans across the Sawtooth to Mt. Bierstadt. Bristlecone Pines:

^^ My backyard ^^

I like a brush jig but an Arky is probably a better all around head.

They did accept it. Just put in price of new Edge and submitted my sales order. It was for me … took a couple extra days for them to approve but they did.

Perfect description! @new2BC4bass, as reason recommended, a ml, or light power spinning rod with 4-6# mono works for me. I don't like a whippy rod for this, though.

i am and i believe its 9 people so 8 unless you are making one for yourself too. my blanks should be here monday so i will get started asap

Whatever my wife's nail file grit is works great for me. She keeps changing the hiding places to them, nail clippers and nail polish on me....

Quote of the month. I want the Tshirt! 1/4 oz swim jig, 3/8 Arkye, 1/2 brush 3/4 football You can catch fish pretty much every where with those 4, of course for certain specific places and times, something somewhat different might work better.

Maybe one of the old "Honeycomb" series of baits from Wal-Mart? Long discontinued, my dad used to fish them a lot and still has a couple of the crankbaits.

While I certainly can't speak for the entire sisterhood ( nor would I try to) "pink" anything related to outdoor fishing/hunting would not be welcome anywhere within a hundred miles of me. And even that might be too close. Just my two cents.

because the earth is flat....duh

Probably so, bass are curious creatures and their only way to get the "hands" on things is through their mouth. Also thousands of bass are caught each year on creature baits and I have yet to see anything in the wild that looks like a creature bait

In my totally unscientific opinion, I have seen the difference mainly in crappie fishing. I use Smelly Jelly on my crappie jigs and my catch rate goes way up compared to not using it. I have also tipped my little jigs with Berkley Crappie Nibbles and also noticed an increase in strikes over just a plain jig. As for Smelly Jelly on a topwater....you got me there. Possibly the oil sheen left by smelly jelly looks like an injured baitfish?

The less developed gland bass have is the ability to detect odors. This doesn't mean they are unable to detect minute percentages of odors in the water, they can and do, it's just not a primary prey detection sense. Cat fish with their highly developed sense of order detection with barbels for example rely primarily on their sense of smell. I used 100% pure anise oil mixed with fresh garlic as a scent for bass fishing for decades, long before commercial fishing scents were availble and it works. I have caught several big blue and channel catfish fishing for bass using scented jig trailers that I wouldn't have not using scent. Why use a scent when bass fishing? I don't believe bass are attracted by the scent we use, they definately can be repealed by offensive odors. My theory is why not use a scent that doesn't alarm the bass and may cover orders that can. If a bass strikes my lures and holds it in their mouth a second longer, that gives me an advantage. Tom

The downfall of the Ned rig is it is a small fish bait. For sure you won't catch any good ones on such a tiny little bait

Guys Breakfast....

Update #4 Good day, got a lot of stuff done but first the bad news. The new 800 gph pump I got just died. I connected it and everything but then it wouldn't turn on. Checked voltage and I was feeding it power. Took it out and confirmed it died. Kind of annoying. I put the 500 gph one back in there and did a rough test of the fill feature. I filled up the livewell then put the valve to "empty". This allows the water to drain out from the livewell drain hole. The drain hole is also the intake hole, so while the livewell was draining I turned the pump on. This isn't a perfect system because the pump sucks in water faster than the livewell can drain it. I'm not really sure exactly what's happening but I think the pump starts sucking in more air than water and eventually stops pumping in water. Regardless, I'm still able to verify nothing is plugged up and water is coming in. I'm confident when the boat is in water I'll have no issues: The flowrite valve cables are a lost cause. Honestly, I'm not a fan of the design, it seems very prone to failure. I'm leaving it on "fill" most of the day anyway. So now I'll manually flip it to "empty" at the end of the day. I'll revisit this in the future, maybe next year, but for now, I'm able to put in water. I'l have a poor man's recirculate by filling it up and using the overflow to drain old water. In the future, I might overhaul the system with an auto and recirculate, but since I'm not tournament fishing (yet) it's not a huge concern. Verified bilge pump is working: I'm finally able to put in the battery tray and the oil tank in it's right place. It feels great to be pretty much done with the bilge area. It's not the cleanest, but it's a billion times better than what it was before: A funny issue. Both my trolling motor batteries came today. They're a little too wide. Ehh whatever. At this point I'm too tired to care. They're not going anywhere. (I only have one put in the picture) Man, looking at these pictures I forgot to clean the lid. It's pretty moldy. Will do that as soon as the rain stops. Also topped off the hydraulic steering fluid. Mechanic told me he doesn't think I need to bleed it. After topping it off the looseness definitely drastically decreased. I counted about 4-5 complete helm revolutions to make the motor go end to end. I think that's pretty standard. I tried moving the motor by hand and it felt decently stiff. I'll be keeping an eye on the seastar valve seals, but so far so good. Whew, what a day. The benefits of getting to "work from home". So let's go over what was done: Motor shut off issue fixed. Bilge area restored. Batteries replaced. Steering fluid added. What still needs to be done: 3 bank charger coming in and needs to be installed. Install trolling motor circuit breaker. Install fish finder. Install trim tab anode. Marine-tex coming in and then I plug up some screw holes. And finally, installing the Ultrex. Supposedly the Ultrex can line up with the motorguide holes. Crossing my fingers this will work. That's for getting it on the water. I want to re-carpet it and restore the fiberglass too. Seems like a lot, but a lot of these are straightforward tasks. Hopefully I'll be able to take it on the water next week. Just in time for the rains to end and the fish to move to the beds. Oops I almost forgot. The port side fuel gauge doesn't work. Fuel gauges are not complicated, hope I can easily fix this one.

I'm most effective pitching under 60 feet. I practice a lot though. One side of my deck in the back yard is raised about 2 feet off the ground so it's perfect to simulate the deck of a boat. I practice my 20'-40' pitches the most. I try to be able to place whatever bait I'm using inside of a small coffee can every pitch. I also practice with different weights. Anything from a 1/4 ounce finesse jig up to a 1 ounce punch rig. My sweet spot is a 3/8 Texas rig. Enough weight to get the distance, but not too much weight where my mechanics get lazy.

When my brother first started using a jig, he would throw the Strike King Bitsy Bug a lot. Its a small jig, so it gets a lot of bites(at least where I fish). It was good a way for him to build up confidence in his presentation and then move up to a larger jig.

With rain in the forecast there was a narrow window to get on the water. Air temperature was balmy 38 degrees when I hooked up the boat and headed for the Tract to do some fishing. Tide had been going out for about two hours, water temperature was 54 and change as I dropped the boat in the water. I covered a lot of water junk fishing and the bite got better for numbers later in the day as the water warmed. However, my better fish came in the first half of the day. The 5.2lber absolutely crushed a square bill, and my biggest was a 6.8 which smoked a slow rolled spinnerbait. As I was fighting them, one of my the first thoughts was why did I leave the net at the house.... Good Fishing all, JB

Smallies will be moving from deep water to shallow as the water warms. If you have underwater humps, rock, hard bottom to soft transition areas start looking for them there. They probably will suspend over those areas as they move shallower. 45 to 50 degrees is the magic time where the bite gets going for me. Once you hit 50 degrees the bite will be on until the spawning urges takes over around 60 degrees. Early prespawn finds the smallies moving shallow but they will pull back to deeper water with bait movement in deeper water. So you have to follow the bait most times to find the fish. Suspending bait balls will find the fish suspending & roaming as they feed up. If the bait only consists of bottom dwellers & crawfish the fish will be mostly on bottom or feeding down. If you have an incoming water supply like a creek or river which will be warmer than the lake water temps look shallow around that area. Then expand out from the area deeper until you find them. For clarification I would define deep as 20-40 feet & shallow as 6-15 feet. Often times the sweet spot is 15-20 based on water temps. Good luck out there.