Bass_Fanatic

I’ve spent thousands of hours on Toledo and I can confidently say that the fish eat ALOT better when the wind is blowing. I’d take a 10-15 mph wind everyday if it were up to me. A Carolina rig with a 1oz weight, a 3/4 fb jig, and a big crank bait will catch them when the wind is howling. I’ve caught more and bigger fish on a big crank than anything else and if the wind isn’t blowing, you can forget it. They won’t bite it. The Ultrex is the real game changer. You can fish in the wind with no issues at all with spotlock.

Finally got a day back on Toledo today. Ive been on Rayburn the past couple of weeks. We started the morning mid lake and found tons of shad and fish in 18-22’ on ledges. The man I had with me was just trying to learn how to find fish so we idled for the first 6 hours without fishing. With what we saw this morning, I’m confident we could have had “one of them days”. The fish were positioned right and were feeding on lots of shad, and big ones too! I checked a brush pile just to show him what white perch looked like and underneath the perche were a dozen huge bass. Once again, we didn’t cast at them, we just kept looking. Finally at noon we decided to fish for a bit before heading in. We headed back to that pile and the perch were still in there by the hundreds, but only a couple of big bass. First cast I missed a good one. Second cast I caught a 4lber and about 5 min later I caught a 6.5lber with a few small fish mixed in. We then called it a day. There were more active fish today than Ive seen in awhile. Looks to be shaping up well.

No doubt, a dirty jig HP flipping jig skips better than any jig I’ve used

I was there this past Friday and Saturday. We caught about 20 fish Friday prefishing for a tournament. Got 6 big bites that day and had 22-23lbs easily. Saturday we got 6 big bites again, but could only put one of them in the boat. She was a little over 5lbs and I had 2 more that I saw jump off that were well over 5lbs. Frustrating to say the least, but still managed 15lbs and a 3rd place finish in a 60 boat tournament. Should have had 23+ but it wasn’t our day I guess. Only took 16lbs to win.

Inspect the water frontage really hard. If it’s in an area that has a lot of waves hitting your bank, it could cause erosion and could be a costly fix.

What kind of electronics does he have? I guide on Toledo and Rayburn and I specialize in Humminbird electronics. I can help with Lowrance too, but I know birds better. If he’s interested, tell him to give me a call. We’ve been catching lots of fish for the past month. I’ve taken a few guys from this forum too if you need any references. Thanks man. Josh Sikes 318-308-5818

Yep, blue lake for sure

I never use tungsten with glass. I learned the hard way lol. Only lead egg weights with glass beads.

Glass beads and sideways hookset

Be careful. With the fluctuating water levels the past few years there are new sand bars. Idle everywhere outside the river unless you know it well. Topwater is getting hot on the river and flipping wood.

Powell Max3d 775 Shimano Curado I 7:3 25lb sunline sniper main line 16lb sunline sniper leader 1 oz egg weight 2.5' leader Offset hook(this is the biggest key) Baits vary from a baby brush hog, big worm, lizards, and missle destroyers

I was a boat captain for a high school team fishing the albc state championship yesyerday. We fished Thursday and Friday. Caught well over 300 fish Thursday, about half bass and half barfish. Got on a mega school and caught a fish every drop for 3 hours. Left when the 2 boys got tired of taking fish off the hook lol. We tripled probably 50 times. We then went searching for big ones for yesterday and found 4 spots that we caught 4-5lb fish on. Tournament day we started on a shad spawn, but the shad didn't show up. Left and went to our first big fish spot. The two boys caught a couple 3s, a 7.28, and a 5. Went and hit our other spots and lost another over 5 and caught alot of 2-3lbers. We probably caught 75 fish yesterday and went to weigh in. I knew we had a good bag but didn't want to get my boys too excited. They had never weighed more than 1 fish in a tournament before lol. They weighed in 28.93lbs and won the state championship. They both broke their personal best and had a blast. Number came from 15-25' on Carolina rig and size came in 4-7' on jigs and Carolina rigs.

We have been catching numbers on a Carolina rig and better fish on a Crankbait. The 9.87lber came on a big worm.

Yes I am. I stay between 15-30’ but my sweet spot is 18-23’. I use a variety of baits, but I caught that big one on a Carolina rig.

Caught this 9.87lber Thursday afternoon checking a spot for Friday. Made 7 cast and caught 3 fish including the big one Thursday. Friday morning we caught around 35 fish, all in 15-25'. That evening my dad hopped in the boat and caught 48. He fished again Saturday and had 3 fish at 4:30, then ended up with 53 at 6:30. The evening bite has been unbelievable.

Congrats man! Try taking a screenshot of the pic then uploading the screenshot. That’s what I have to do a lot.

I’ll be there also. I’m a boat captain for a local high school team. I plan on talking to everyone there letting them know about the opportunity for these kids to continue to chase their dream at the college level. I’m sure I’ll run into you. We will have to talk big fish over a Dr. Pepper lol.

What’s up Lane! This is Josh Sikes. Heck of a bag of fish man. We been catching 20-25lb bags pretty consistently but I haven’t hit 30lbs yet this year. Congrats man.

I too was out there Wednesday through today (Friday). We caught right at 50 fish each day but size was hard to come by. Wednesday we only fished for 3 hours and caught over 40 fish and our top 5 went 22lbs. Thursday and Friday we caught 50 fish a day, but only 15-18lbs. We found a lot of deep fish. They didn’t bite very good though. When they but, we would double up 8-10 cast in a row then they would shut off. 18-23’ was our magic depth once again.

I’ve been catching post spawned for a month now. They start earlier than most people realize.

It was a struggle yesterday for sure. We boated 19, but only 3 of them were over 3lbs. We fished both shallow and deep, but most fish came deep.

Here’s a few from my past 4 trips

And you could have at least told Hank it’s the new “Ultrex”, not the “UltraMax”

Your on TV right now

I have no idea what the percentage is, but I know for sure that many fish will spawn on shallow humps on the main lake. Bugg island and the entire flat at the mouth of Carrice is prime spawning grounds. As for depth, I’d say it has to do with water clarity, but I believe they will spawn as deep as 8’ or so on the main lake.