So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[A5BLASTER]

58 minutes ago, Wesley said:

I would rather them keep spraying and stay ahead of it than have whole arms choked off and not navigable.

Not sure how salvinia keeps someone from driving a boat throw it. I been doing it for years.

 

[Catt]

5 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Not sure how salvinia keeps someone from driving a boat throw it. I been doing it for years.

 

 

I've seen it so dense light couldn't penetrate killing everything below it.

 

I've seen outboards suck it up & clogging it enough to fry it. 

 

I don't think spraying is the soul cause of the lack of grass but it's bad stuff.

[Catt]

How bad was the weather?  ?

[A5BLASTER]

31 minutes ago, Catt said:

How bad was the weather?  ?

Not bad at all. Maybe a tenth of an inch at my house today.

[Catt]

3 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Not bad at all. Maybe a tenth of an inch at my house today.

 

My front yard ?

 

[A5BLASTER]

3 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

My front yard ?

 

My sister said lake Arthur got 6 inch's today.

 

Wish I would have seen half of that at my house.

[Catt]

We still under thunderstorm watch till midnight

[bigjean663]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

We still under thunderstorm watch till midnight

Had LSP SWAT doing a search warrant for me this morning, felt kinda bad for those guys but they loved it. Which made everything ok lol

[Wesley]

Word is Toledo is dropping to 165 pretty fast right now for some repair work SRA is planning. 

[RCCA]

I hate to even comment on water levels but it seems like they could wait a month!  

[Catt]

At 165' the grass will have a better chance of coming back...just saying.

[A5BLASTER]

11 minutes ago, Catt said:

At 165' the grass will have a better chance of coming back...just saying.

That is my thinking as well. But then doesn't it reason that it will be drowned back to death when the water comes back up?

[RCCA]

I totally agree with that but I also think the higher water is better for the spawn and was thinking they could have waited until May. 

[Catt]

2 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

That is my thinking as well. But then doesn't it reason that it will be drowned back to death when the water comes back up?

 

That depends on how long the level stays down & how fast it comes back up.

 

It's like rolling dice!

2 hours ago, Lil Joe The Grinder said:

I totally agree with that but I also think the higher water is better for the spawn and was thinking they could have waited until May. 

 

I'm pretty confident SRA is working with TP&W & LW&F biologist.

 

The head biologist over Toledo Bend is Todd Driscoll, his is really good & I have total confidence in him.

[Amateur Hour]

Got back yesterday from a long four and a half days at the Bend.  Wednesday we looked shallow first then went look around deep.  Got a few blow ups on a frog early.  We did not see any fish deep so we went searching.  We found a few groups in some drains in about 12 FOW.  Caught a nice 2.75 pounder and left.  Thursday was about the same on the frog so we went look deep.  They were back and in about 19 FOW  as seen in the picture.  I caught a nice chunk on the drop shot and left them.  We repeated this on a few more schools and felt we had a decent game plan going into Friday morning.  Friday morning rolls around and that is when the suck began.  Start throwing a frog and catch a 1.5# fish.  My brother catches a 2.5# on a wacky.  Three and a half hours later and that is all we have.  We decide to go to our deep fish.  We setup on a nice group of fish and about 5 casts later i catch a 5.5# fish on a drop shot.  She was spawned out and beat up.  I was worried she wouldn't make  it, but luckily she did.  That was the first time I have ever fizzed a fish.   Anyway, at this point I am jacked thinking we were on to something good.  My brother catches a 2# spot minutes later and that was our last keeper of the day.  We finished with 4 fish for 12.37.  

 

Saturday we decided to forego the frog bite and swing for the fences.  First thing in the morning we didn't see a single fish deep.  So, we run to the bank and catch a few shorts.  After the sun came up we moved out deep and starting marking really good groups but couldn't get a bite.  We decide to run to the frog bite again and I start hearing rumblings from above.  I look at the radar on my phone and the entire Sam Rayburn lake was covered by a red thunderstorm.  I tell my brother get ready we are about to head in.  We go sit in the marina and watch a great lightning show.  After all that we go back out and catch more short fish.  So, we didn't weigh a fish on Saturday.  Overall, it was a fun time but a little disappointing after catching that good fish on Friday.  

 

Funny story, as we are sitting at the marina during the weather I show my brother the pic of the storm over rayburn.  A guy sitting in the rocking chair next to us asks if it was bad over at Rayburn.  I told him the whole lake was engulfed in a storm.  He says his son is fishing the Basschamps on Rayburn and doesn't have enough sense to come in if it gets bad.  I laughed and said to my brother, "I bet Josh (bassfanatic) is fishing that tournament."  The guy next to us says, "my son's name is Josh."  I tell him Josh's last name and the guy says "yep, that is my son."  Super nice guy as is Josh's brother.  Sure is a small world out there.

[Catt]

@Amateur Hour Cool story!

 

I have said & will continue to say this has been a weird spring.

[Bass_Fanatic]

My dad told me he met you.  It is a small world lol. We ended up in 39th in basschamps with 15lbs.  I was on a good drain bite last week. Hit 3 drains and had 23-24lbs.  One drain I made 3 cast and caught 3 over 4lbs.  I just knew it was going to get better and I could catch 20-25lbs in the first couple hours.  Well, as usual, that didn’t go as planned.  The drains were empty. We then went out to a school of barfish to see if we could catch 1 big bass in.  Last week we had one over 6lbs out of them, this week, a billion barfish and 2 12” bass lol.  Finally started flipping bushes and caught a 5.5lber and a limit.  Should have done that all day, but the weather shouldn’t have had them in bushes.  But fish don’t always do what they “should do”.  We finished .5lbs from a check.  An 8lb  would have won it for us, so I feel like we fished to win, just didn’t work out. 

[Amateur Hour]

Funny you mentioned the drain fish leaving.  We found a couple of groups in the drains on Wednesday and they were gone by Thursday never to return.

[Dougw]

Going old school... Ended up sending every piece of electronics I have on my boat back to Lowrance for repair/replace. I’ll be there, Toledo Bend, for 4 days, starting a week from tomorrow, and I may or may not ever leave Pirates Cove/ Caney Creek.

 

Fishing an open tournament Sat. on a lake I’ve fished, a lot, over the last 10 years. Ain’t too worried about it. The fish are still shallow and I’ve got a pretty good idea of where they’re at n’ what they want. That said... 9#’s won a 2 day tournament there 2 weeks ago and it only took a tad over 6#’s to win a 2 day tournament last weekend. These ain’t no “beginners” fishing either. These guys know this lake well.

[RCCA]

Sounds like you really don't need all that extra pinging noise. I turn mine off when they're shallow anyway. Good luck. 

[Catt]

@Dougw Kick Bass!  ?

 

[Dougw]

12 hours ago, Lil Joe The Grinder said:

Sounds like you really don't need all that extra pinging noise. I turn mine off when they're shallow anyway. Good luck. 

You know.... that's an interesting comment. It will be interesting to see if I get more bites w/o any electronics!

[RCCA]

Yes Sir, I'm almost certain it helps me when very shallow.

[ranger392xt]

What about the trolling motor itself - you leave it on constant or momentary when fishing down a shallow bank?  I certainly prefer wind drifting with occasional corrective bumps but that doesn't always line up.

[Dougw]

I have an Xi5 trolling motor and when I'm going down a bank I have it in "heading lock" and running very low, 12-25%, all the time. When... IF... I hook up I hit anchor lock until I boat the fish. Then continue on with heading lock.