mpdunne79

We spent the weekend on Toledo watching the Elites; the weigh-ins were very interesting. I cant wait for the TV footage of them fishing. In particular, Murray and Christie (who I think ran wayyy north). I agree with @Catt. I do not think you can look at 2016 as the "norm". @Catt beat me to the Elite tournament weight comparison. There are so many different variables that contribute to those weights.. Lake level, temps, time of year, moon phase, etc.. In looking at the top 5 weights for 2016 as compared to 2011 and the 2014 tournaments, the weighs are all pretty similar. They were at a similar time of year as this one (2011 - April 14-17, 2014 May 1-4). A comparison with the 2012 tournament is difficult as it was in June that year so a different pattern existed. I guess my point is... 1 point in time does not a trend make.... We should be careful not to jump to conclusions too quickly and overreact. The lake might be in a downturn (which I'm sure is cyclical), but that does not mean its being "destroyed". That isn't something which can be determined strictly comparing 1 year to the next. It will be a couple of years before that determination could be proved valid. Hackney said it best at the weigh in Saturday... he said something to the effect of "there are 10lb'ers that will never see a bait". The fish are there, we as anglers must adapt to find them (although tough to do with a 15mph south wind...lol). I'll give @Strikeking credit as he got me diving into some details that I otherwise would not have looked at. While we disagree on the points he made in his blog, I think his point on conservation is valid. We should protect the lake and I believe the vast majority of folks who fish it have that mindset. Further, if the lake does get to a point where it is troubled, I'd like to believe the vast majority of us would come together and do whats best for the fishery.

@Catt Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I know it's a bit long. It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend. My son and are going head up there to check it out. I started reading this thread in 2014 and has helped give me the confidence to move to more of a structure approach instead of beating the bank and only cast at things I can see.

Hello everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster... I am fairly familiar with Toledo Bend as I have been going there since i was in my mother's womb (literally), I'm 38. My father has been fishing the lake since the late 70's and spends the majority of his retired days at the lake at his home not far from Lowe's Creek. I read Mr. Root's editorial on his website. (https://jimrootfishing.com/toledo-bend/). I must admit I was taken back by it. When I see "Toledo Bend is being destroyed", I take notice. I take statements like that to heart and feel the need to dig into the details. I visit the lake several times a year and I must admit I've never seen some of the things he describes. In particular the " There are piles, and piles of fish heads in the water. Remains of largemouth bass 5-10lbs that were caught and filleted". While I am not naive enough to believe this does not happen. I do believe this is in the minority of instances. I'm sure there are folks who do not obey the creel limit established by the SRA nor have the conservation mindset of releasing a larger bass 6#'s or larger, but once again I believe this is the exception and not the rule. Also, I'm curious to know how the non existence of the grass is exclusively due to spraying for salvinia. While I could agree the spraying of the giant salvinia contributes to hydrilla die-off, to assert "...treatment killed all the grass. And I mean ALL OF IT" is pure conjecture. I bring this up due to the flooding we observed last year at the lake. Turbidity in the lake increased and there was very little shoreline vegetation growth in our area last year and thus no filtering mechanism was there. We used to have hydrilla in the cove where we live, but with the high; turbid water it is gone. It it my opinion, (I'm not a biologist either...) the the dominant contributor for the decrease of grass is due to the high water and sudden increases in lake level dating back to the end of 2015. Since the low water events in 2011, there was about 3 years of relatively stable water levels in the lake (I'm looking at data from http://www.toledo-bend.com/toledo_bend/index.asp?request=lakelevelhistory). Perhaps this allowed for the grass to be as prolific as it was. As far as the boat traffic and pressure goes... That's March on Toledo Bend... My son fished the High School Bassmaster Open there at the beginning of March. Yes there were a lot of folks on the lake. There are multiple big tournaments this time of year (BASS aside). The Texas and Louisiana Oilmen's tournaments are huge, but this has been the case for 30 years. The comment about the boat lanes is curious as well. I've run from Cypress Bend south to Indian Creek without an issue and felt the lanes were well marked and haven't hit anything in the lanes. During the low water there were several initiatives to clean the lanes up. It would have been helpful to know the area he was running in if indeed it wasn't safe to run there... And "The lake looks to be about 8-10 feet low"??? C'mon... Maybe I misunderstood the comment.. As far as the fishing this year goes.... this year has been a little different. The water level is down from where it was last year, its more inline with historical levels. The weather has been different this year, also We didnt have much of a winter down here. The first week of March we were fishing 70 degree water. I believe parts of the main lake were above 65 as well. Perhaps when he was there it was more of a post spawn pattern and that be bass were more finicky. One thing i've learned about that lake is, someone knows how to catch them. I take some issue with comparing last years lunker program catches to this year directly... Further, there are differing programs for Toledo Bend Lunker Bass. Which i believe was a point of confusion between Catt and Strikeking. The data to which Strikeking is referring to comes from http://www.toledobendlakeassociation.com/lunker-bass-program.html however, their data is incomplete through March 2017 (the FB page must be more up to date). Heres the link to the "ShareLunker Program" to which I believe Catt is referring http://tpwd.texas.gov/spdest/visitorcenters/tffc/sharelunker/archives/index.phtml?seas=31&Submit=Go. To say there are half as many 10lb+ bass caught this year compared to last year and that being a basis for the lake being "destroyed" is a bit silly especially if you incorporate 2015's numbers into the discussion. In 2015, a mere 53 10lb+ bass were in the Lunker program (yes I'm being a bit sarcastic) according to the facebook page posted above as compared to 63 for 2017. I'm not sure how many times Mr. Root has fished the lake. Toledo can be humbling. Maybe it was the pattern he was fishing, maybe the weather wasnt good and/or maybe he was just fishing the "popular" heavily pressured areas. His point on conservation is well taken. However, I do believe that situation he says he witnessed (would have been nice to see a picture) is an extreme exception. 2016 was obviously a phenomenal year for big bass on the lake (March 2016 in particular). Perhaps it was the exception not the rule. if he doesnt like the lake thats fine, but to have one bad 4 day trip and claim the lake is being destroyed based on some loose facts and selective data is a bit irresponsible given the platform he is using. My 2 cents... As The l"ake looks to be about 8-10 feet low