Bryan J

Does anyone have any info on the quality of Garmin's LakeVu maps for Toledo Bend. I am hearing the latest version (LakeVu Ultra) has 1' contours and is second to none but haven't heard of any real life tests. I am considering the 93sv model currently along with the humminbird helix 9 unit. Thanks again for all of the valuable TB input.

Unfortunately for me, I have not had time to make it up to the lake much at all this year. Crazy busy Work schedule and weddings have prevented it. Not to mention the drive from NOLA. I did go up once for a quick bachelor party not long ago. We stayed at Wildwood Resort (San Miguel area), great place. Freshorsalt, that area holds some great fish. Listen to RonnieF he is spot on. We fished from San Pat down to blue lake/1215 to Sam Miguel, ended up finding most fish in SM. North bank of SM from the mouth to the back holds some good fish. Flukes when calm and swimbaits when not were the ticket for us. Ended up with 25 keepers with one 5.5 lber (threw back) for the weekend. I hope to be back up at some point this spring, but I am sure the spawning excitement will be over. I suspect I will not be back up until late April/May, if I can get my boat fixed by then. We will be staying near Red's Point south of Pirates Cove. I really want to learn to fish deep as this is my weakness so hopefully I will be able to locate some humps/ledges to try in May on the south end. Catt, I am fairly familiar with Housen, but I am unsure where the pipeline area is located. Looking at google earth the only "pipeline" right-of-way I see is all the way to the back of housen, but the map almost does not show any water in that area. Is this the area you are referring to where "Indian Creek" dumps into Housen bayou? As always, many thanks to all for the time, effort, commitment, and dedication to this forum. I wish I had more time to fish the lake so that I could share more knowledge. Oh well, maybe when I retire in 30 years....

_Bass_Fanatic, we will be in cabins 13 and 10. Should be 15 or so of us. We will be pulling up my white Champion bay boat with my buddies F250. Stop by and have a beer. We might fish midlake too since the reports I am hearing don't sound promising on the north end. I did hear a decent report from 1215.

Agreed backwater. I don't get to fish TB as much as I'd like anymore now that I'm in NOLA (maybe 2 trips a year), but I do periodically read this thread. Thanks for all the great input. My report... Fished the La. Oilmans this past weekend. It was tough for us. We were 1.5 lbs away from the money and I dropped a 4.5 at the boat. Just wasn't meant to be this year, but we still had a good time. Caught most on a green pumpkin senko and a few on jigs. No bait really produced for us and we threw the tackle box. Fished north and stayed in 0-6 FOW around San Pat. Pretty sure we should have looked deeper, but I do not know the north end that well. Most fish in the 3-4 ft range for us off the banks in or near shallow spawning flats. I will be back up Thursday for a Bachelor party. We are going with a sacalait guide on Saturday, but I plan to bass fish Thursday/Friday. We are staying at Wildwood, thus I'll take any suggestions on areas to concentrate on the north end (since I apparently am not in the right area). Thanks again for all of the great information on this forum!

Quote "Where can I purchase Yamalube 2M on TB, Louisiana/Texas mid lake area ?" I was hoping Toledo Tackle since I need some as well.

Catt...Might want to hold off on the Lacassine Pool until the water level comes up. I've read reports that almost all boats have to fish the main canals since most flats are bone dry. I am sure you can catch plenty of fish that will be stacked up in the canals, but if you are a weekender like me, then you will have to fish on top of other boats. Either way, I hope you do well. I will be fishing whitelake marsh pretty soon, but am heading up to Toledo this weekend. Went a few weeks ago. Fished south Friday(Indian Mounds (2 keepers), Housen (4 keepers), Six mile, Yocum (4 keepers), Negreet (4 keepers). Caught 27 fish total on Friday. Got on some nice fish later in the day and had ~18 pound stringer without the 7-8 lber that we dropped at the boat. On Sat, fished north 1215 (6 keepers) and bluelake (2 keepers). Caught 35 total. 2.5 lbs was the biggest. I think we will stay south this time. Maybe try Mill Creek since I havent tried there yet. Good Luck to all! Love this thread! Thanks for all the great info.

One more thing for safety... I have never fished the bend with water this low. Any lanes to stay out of on the south end or can you run in most marked lanes?

I'm heading up Friday morning! I fish toledo a lot in the spring/summer, however, when hunting season rolls in, my boat collects dust. I have tagged out early this year so I'm headin to the bend. This is my first time ever fishing during winter months. Sounds like the same patterns as always, but this cold front coming in might slow things down. We will be on the south end of the lake. Also, my girlfriend wants to learn to fish and this was the weekend she picked!! She might regret that after she feels the temperature. I think I'm going to start her on a baitcaster from the beginning. Wish me luck. I'll have some zebcos for backup. Any reports for numbers on the south end (Indian Mounds, Housen, 6 mile, Yocum, etc.)? Thanks to all for such a great forum!

My dad and I fished this weekend. Friday fished from about 5 pm till dark. Caught 12 bass with 4 keepers. We fished Yocum and Negreet. Most on light texas rigged lizards and weightless flukes. Saturday fished from 8 am till 7 pm. Caught 30 bass, 10 white perch, and about 10 white bass. We kept 5 white perch, a few white bass, and 9 bass. White perch and white bass were on beetle spins in back of Housen. Bass were caught on flukes, lizards, senkos, wacky worms, and 1 on a swim bait. Bass were scatered as we fished negreet, yocum, housen, and pirates cove area. Sunday fished from 830 am to 11 am. Caught 10 bass with 7 keepers. We fished lizards, flukes, and wacky worms in the Indian Mound area. In summary, we caught 52 bass, 10 white perch, and 10 white bass. 72 fish in a weekend is not bad in my book. We couldn't find any big fish in the 2'-10' range that we targeted. The biggest fish went 3.5 lbs. Our most productive lure was a watermelon fluke. Good luck!! Hope this helps!

I have to say that I am really impressed with this thread! I have been reading it for a few weeks now! Thanks to all for the great input. We fished last Friday and Saturday. Friday was our experimental day as we fished from sun up to sun down and tried everything from senkos, to wacky worms, flukes, to texas rigged brush hogs, to carolina rigged flukes, to lipless cranks, to spinner baits, to chatter baits, jigs, beavers....We started targetting bushes in 3-5 feet of water in the Housen/Six Mile area. Nothing. Started targetting grass in 4-8 feet water picked up a few on traps. From there, started hitting points and secondary points and picked up a few more on traps but could not buy a bite on anything else. At about 330 we had 9 fish with 3 in the live well and 1 4.9 lb released. Decided to move to the Negreet area to finish the day. Just before dark, found a point holding several fish and picked up 10 fish in about 5-10 minutes all on traps! Finished the day with 19 fish caught (a few of which spit the trap as lifting at the boat) and 8 keepers (9 with the 4.9 lber). Saturday we fished until the weather began to get bad at ~12:00-1:00. Went to the same point and picked up 7 fish all in that area. With 4 more keepers. Finished the day with 10 total. So in 1.5 days of fishing we had 29 fish (two of those being 2+ lb sacalait) all on traps! I am not one to throw traps that often, but that is all we could get them to bite on! Hope this helps y'all catch them this weekend! Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but....I am currently looking to purchase a camp on the Louisiana side. Preferably somewhere between negreet and the big bass area. Not looking to spend over ~50k. Any info shoot me an email at baj3556@yahoo.com.