So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[ToledoMard928]

Saw this picture on another forum....looks like Toledo put out another giant!!!!

Fish weighed 14.66....that is all the details listed on the story....caught yesterday and to be released today....Great fish!

[ToledoMard928]

Saw this picture on another forum....looks like Toledo put out another giant!!!!

Fish weighed 14.66....that is all the details listed on the story....caught yesterday and to be released today....Great fish!

image.jpg

A few more details about the big catch. Caught in Housen, 14 to 16 fow, on a senko.

15 fow plus or minus 3 feet....heard that a few times on this thread.....beautiful fish!!!!

[RonnieF]

On a wacky rigged senko. It was like reeling in a wad of grass, is the story I was told.

[PODNAH]

I heard this morning that the fish died

[Catt]

A few more details about the big catch. Caught in Housen, 14 to 16 fow, on a senko.

15 fow plus or minus 3 feet....heard that a few times on this thread.....beautiful fish!!!!

Yelp & I aint telling y'all where in Housen

[Catt]

Fished from daylight till 3 today. Only caught 6 fish but had 22.5lbs. Big fish was 8lbs. Caught fish in 25-30ft on big shaky head and crank bait.

Sweet

[Saltyredneck]

No recent reports fellas??? Will be fishing from Lowes to south indian mounds this weekend. Targeting grass lines and points in 20-30 ft of water... Hopefully the bite picks up.

[LaRoper]

Plan on making a trip up the weekend after Labor Day. Hope I have a good report to post!

BB

[Saltyredneck]

Did pretty well Saturday morning. Limited early with a mixed bag of Kentuckies and Large Mouth. A few on topwater early, then finesse fishing.  15 ft to 20 ft drop off. Fished around Lowes all the way to Oilwell Cove.

 

Sunday morning another mixed limit... played catch and release for a while with Kentuckies. Finesse, Cranks, and topwater in 10-22 ft.

 

Sunday afternoon was my best numbers trip by far. Fished one area to grind out about 30 or so kentuckies in less than an hr. At one point i had 5 casts and 5 hookups. Caught them on isolated structure in 10-15 ft. Had a guy troll up to me to get in on the action and BOOOM... he hooked a 10+... watched this baby jump several times then as he got it to the boat it made one final run. SNAAAP!!!

 

Monday morning was a solid limit of largemouth. Six of the 8 coming off topwater early. The others were caught with a dropshot.

[Bass_Fanatic]

You kicked my butt then lol. I only caught 6 fish Monday and only one over 3lbs. I stayed deep all day, probably should have moved shallow, but I was to hard headed.

[jcdogfish]

Its good to see some reports, especially good ones.  Looks like a few weeks til I can get back up there.  Hope the reports keep coming, not as good as being there but much better than nothing.

[kjburleigh]

I just recently found and joined this forum and all I can say is AWESOME site.

 

My son and I will be making a trip to the bend 9/11 - 9/14 after a long stay away.  We will be staying around the mouth of the cove at Big Bass Marina, on the west bank of that mouth, basically on the main lake. I've fished Toledo way back in the past and are familiar with the most of locations I see y'all talk about in all the post on the south end, well mainly from Tennessee bay to quite cove and a little on the indian mounds.  So back to our trip in a couple of weeks, what should we be geared up to fish with.  From what I've seen in the past post looks like spinnerbaits and topwater till mid morning switching to deep diving cranks and rat-l-trap.  Where we will be at has quite a few docks near what I think is deep water.  I have the ability to travel anywhere on the lake if need be but would like to start learning either housen bay or six mile.  Any helpful tips would be great.

[Bass_Fanatic]

Housen and six mile are great places to start. Six mile is a little harder to pattern for me as housen has a lot more points, creeks, flats, ect. I love fishing deep water, but my last 2 trips haven't been nearly as productive as I would have hoped. I think the bass are starting to move shallow already. The water temp this past Monday was 82, so I would definitely check shallow first. Top water, cranks, and spinnerbaits should all produce.

[kjburleigh]

Thanks Bass_Fanatic thats good stuff.  When you say check the shallows would you target more of dock areas or grassy flats?

[Bass_Fanatic]

I'm not saying docks aren't good out there, but i never fish me. I look for shallow grass flats with a creek running alongside it. Chech the inside and outside grasslines. When the sun comes up, pick up a bit 1.25oz jig and punch the outside grassline. May not get a lot of bites, but you can catch some giants!

[Saltyredneck]

Looks like a front will be rolling in around the 11-13th... would think shallow water is going to pick up around then.... IF it hasnt already.  As mentioned before, I would key in on grasslines right about now. I found the largemouth holding close to 10-14 ft grass edges. I was reluctant to travel further in past the grasslines. I am sure people are catching both shallow and deep depending on the areas. Negreet was nonexistent for me this summer but picked up on my last trip.  Hopefully i can get up there when the topwater bite picks up.

[kjburleigh]

Ok  Looks like I have a game plan.  I will be targeting the edges of grassy flats.  Thanks for the great advise and I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

[hunterfishes]

Good evening everyone wanted to give a quick report from the weekend.  Hunter fished the Ignition bass Youth fishing league championship this weekend. we fished Fri, Sat, and Sunday. Bite was great Friday with schooling fish back up the creeks. we caught fish  in both housen and Lowes creek  on topwater and texas rig worms our best went 5lbs. fish were on flats in the back of the creeks in 8 to 10 foot of water. Top water baits that imitated wounded  bait fish seemed to do better than popper type baits, and  TR riged worms  (mag II camo  color) with  1/8 to 3/16 oz weight. 

The front came through Friday night and the wind and cloud cover   on Saturday changed everything, Schooling fish abounded, but due to the wind  we elected to stay in Housen and not run.  Caught around 20 fish on Rattle trap and TR worm  same color  but wind  required the 3/16 weight only one of the fish was over 14  inches seemed the big fish  just settled down in the grass and   refused to bite.  

Sunday it was again cold and windy, we  again elected to Stay in the back of Housen due to  rough conditions. started on the  hydrilla/ lilly pads in the back of  creeks with top water and had several bites  most were small only one keeper.  we again moved to the grass flat around 9 am  8' to 10 foot  near a small drain. Hunter  changed to a plum colored ole monster worm on the light TR and it got really interesting for a few minutes. between 9am and 12:30 pm he caught 10 bass  with the biggest being almost 6 1/2 lb and culled a limit that  weighed in at 18lbs. His personal best (he's 13) 

There are still deep bass and schoolers are  on nearly  all  major points in the  large feeder creeks, but the bigger  fish were off the creeks and drains in the scattered grass. The rattle trap in bone color was best  for us on schoolers. 

[jcdogfish]

Thanks for the report. Looks like I can finally get up there this weekend for a short trip.

[jcdogfish]

Caught a lot of small schooling bass Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Had a few 2-3 lb bass mixed in.  I did catch some nicer fish on one grass point.  5 fish on the one point in an area no bigger than a car between 2 and 3.5 lbs.  That was all i found other than the schoolers.  Great weekend, hope to be back this weekend again.  It was too long between my last two trips.

 

Question for the experts,, schoolers are out in the middle of nowhere.  What is keeping them in an area I see as nothing special other than thats where the food is.  Has to be something keeping the baitfish there.

[Bass_Fanatic]

I was out there last Tuesday. The baitfish are starting to move to the back of the creeks. They use the creek beds to navigate towards the back so the bass follow. Many times it seems as if they are just scattered, but the bass are following the shad down the middle of the creeks to the back. We too caught a lot of small fish. Seemed the better fish are still out towards the lake.

[Dam Yankee]

I have been absent from this forum for a while. Had a few things in life pop up. Looking to get back out on the water and I have some reading to catch up on as we approach my favorite time of the year to fish the Bend. I also have a couple relatives coming down on the 15th for a week and they expect me to be able to take em out and catch a few. One cousin is from NY and one is from Alaska. Looking forward to it so I better get crackin!

[BassinHog]

Hello everyone, first time post. Whew, I have been reading thru this thread for close to 4 weeks, and didn't want to post anything until I was able to get current. Great info. Thanks Catt for starting this thread and for the many others on here who have contributed. I haven't been looking on here to get that secret waypoint, but rather to get insight on how to read a map and apply it to what the bass are doing at a given time of year.

 

My son who is a senior this year has been fishing High School fishing tournaments with the same partner since they were freshman. We travel around and fish tournaments whenever possible. This year they have fished Rayburn & Dardanelle as well as their home lakes in Northeast LA. They will be fishing some tournaments this fall at Rayburn & Toledo Bend and are really looking forward to fishing the big pond.

 

Some of my fondest memories as a child were fishing Toledo Bend with my father. I don't remember much because it was like 30+ years ago, but what I do remember well is that my father caught a lot of really good fish on the lake. If I remember correctly, we would stay a Lanan Landing and fish that area and something about the Christmas Tree hole sounds really familiar.

 

Anyway, looking forward to keeping up and will post if and when we have any success. Thanks for all of your insight.

[bcody]

I'll be heading up there this week from Wednesday thru Sunday. I live in Baton Rouge, so I try to visit the Bend 4-6 times a year when lucky.

 

I'll be fishing mostly in Palo Gaucho / Housen / Negreet ( <--- thats where we are staying). I guess I'll be checking the backs of all of those areas with popper's, spinner baits, sq. bills, and jerk baits. 

 

I'll report back and let you know how it goes. Any other tips are welcomed. 

[RonnieF]

Has the lake started turning over yet?