So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[blanked]

6 hours ago, Catt said:

 

The majority of the bass I catch I don't see on my graph!  ?

 

What kind of electronics are you using

[blanked]

My 4 year old lakemaster is terrible for toledo.  Is a newer version a major upgrade?    Using a helix

[Bass_Fanatic]

2 hours ago, Amateur Hour said:

Having fished with Bassfanatic several times when he says to fish hard spots that is where he starts searching.  He will target these hard spots because that is where the majority of the fish will hold in that area.  Spending time looking at a mucky bottom is not an efficient use of your time, because most of the fish are not there.  When we fish together we mark some fish then start casting the entire area.  Some of the fish we catch are what we saw and some are not. Your down imaging is only looking at a very small area of the bottom.  If you see a few fish on your DI then you can probably bet there are more that you are not seeing.  I am sure he will clear this up if I am off base, but that is how I understand it.   

 

Also, if I am fishing a group of fish with a dropshot I can feel when that bait reaches a soft bottom.  You can feel the weight kind of bog down.  When I feel that I reel it in and throw it back to my target.  I am far, far from being someone that should be giving advice, but that is how I do it.

Pretty much spot on! Hard bottom is key. And what you see on your graph is only a fraction of what is there. The DI beam is very narrow.  Just last November I caught 81 bass off a spot that I saw about 12 fish on.  I only fish when I see what I’m looking for, as Amateur Hour said. Hard bottom+a group of fish set up right.

17 minutes ago, blanked said:

My 4 year old lakemaster is terrible for toledo.  Is a newer version a major upgrade?    Using a helix

HUGE difference. The new v4 card or the Plus v2 card has the entire lake in 1’ contours.

[Amateur Hour]

27 minutes ago, blanked said:

My 4 year old lakemaster is terrible for toledo.  Is a newer version a major upgrade?    Using a helix

I have the V3 HD map and it is impressive.  

[Clinton john]

7 hours ago, Catt said:

 

The majority of the bass I catch I don't see on my graph!  ?

 

I can't remember the last time I caught a fish I seen on my graph. I use it more for water temp, depth and bottom layout.

 

I think most folks have to have the electronics because they seen such and such pro useing them. That and never really learned how to break down a peice of water and think like a fish.

 

Case in point I fished behind 2 nitrous this morning in a set of coves close to my house, they were constantly checking their graphs. Never seen them even try to set a hook.

 

While I was sitting in 5 foot of water throwing a ribbet frog up too 6 inchs of water and catching the bass staging in 2 to 3 foot of water on the up wind side of brush tops and grass pads.

 

Ohh and a big big big big thanks to Catt for starting this thread without it I would have never learned how to break down a peice of water and think like a bass.

 

Without it I would be face locked on my electronics screen wondering where all the bass in the lake is.

[Dougw]

Bass are inquisitive - they hear something they're most likely going to check it out. I mean... what else do they have to do? Sooo... just because I don't see fish on a really good bottom I'm typically not going to move off without at least a few cast. If I make that cast and I'm dredging up muck/algae I'm out of there in a heart beat. But I also know bass will travel, depending on the conditions, quite a ways to check something out. That's why I'll make repeated Loooooong cast to the same place. Give's the fish a chance to locate what they're hearing. That's not to say I will "always" do that. I got a few spots on ColetoCreek, south of Victoria, TX, that I will float over. IF I don't see fish... I'm outta there!

 

And... as good as today's electronics are they still struggle to separate fish from the bottom when they're hugging the bottom.

[Catt]

4 hours ago, blanked said:

What kind of electronics are you using

 

3 hours ago, blanked said:

My 4 year old lakemaster is terrible for toledo.  Is a newer version a major upgrade?    Using a helix

 

I'm gonna shock y'all ?

 

I'm running a Lowrance Hook2 4X Series Sonar with GPS!

 

When graphing an area I'm not necessarily looking for bass, I'm more concerned with finding baitfish.

 

If I'm fishing a tournament I will not even graph the area prior to tournament day, they will either be there or they want.

 

The biggest 5 bass sack I ever caught was close to 40# off main-lake structure I hadn't graphed in over a month. I had fished that structure many times & knew it held big fish. 

 

When I worked at Academy customers would come in asking for "fish finders", I would take them over to the lure section. They would say no electronics, I'd laugh & say you mean depth finders!

 

Y'all gotta understand I got close to 50 yrs of waypoints in my head, my electronics get me close, my lures find em!

 

[OCdockskipper]

1 hour ago, Dougw said:

Bass are inquisitive - they hear something they're most likely going to check it out...

I see that happen all the time during the Spawn with the bass who aren't locked onto beds.  A couple of times every day, I will spot a bass that is kind of mulling around & I inadvertently get closer to it than I prefer.  More often than not, their reaction is to leisurely swim towards the boat, to check it out.  A few flee in terror, but most, if there aren't any sudden movements, want to see what that big floating thing is.

[blanked]

So if hard bottom is that big of a factor I should see rip rap areas loaded with bass.  I dont

[Catt]

29 minutes ago, blanked said:

So if hard bottom is that big of a factor I should see rip rap areas loaded with bass.  I dont

 

Riprap is more bank than bottom ?

 

Keep in mind "hard" bottom isn't necessarily rock or shell.

[blanked]

3 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Riprap is more bank than bottom ?

 

Keep in mind "hard" bottom isn't necessarily rock or shell.

The rip rap along the dam in areas I fish have plenty of bottom.  YMMV

[Amateur Hour]

The hard stuff we fish is generally the higher spots on a break.  When idling my graph is dark, but as I move up to a point or ledge it starts to light up indicating a harder bottom.  That is what I think of when fishing hard spots, not necessarily rock or wood.  

 

If you had gills would you rather breath silt or water?  

[RCCA]

They're born on a hard bottom so I'm sure they're smarter than most humans and go with what works to survive ?

[Clinton john]

So I ended my day at 5:30 this afternoon with my 8 legal keepers for the day. Had 3 keepers from this morning and went back out and found 5 more.

 

All on ribbet frogs. 2 to 3 foot of water staged up either on the upwind side or downwind side of buckbrush and grass pads.

 

All spots were of hard sand bottoms next to creek channels and or ditches that leed out to a main creek channel.

 

Since it was nice and cloudy today I was slinging the white with chartreuse feet ribbet.

 

Didn't get any pics put will take a pre cleaning pic for y'all tommorw before we put them under the knife.

 

With my 8 keepers I had close to 12 maybe a bit over pounds of bass.

 

Oh and I never turned my electronics on today, good old map study and learned area knowledge is what put me on these bass behind several boats loaded with the newest gear in electronics, power poles and spot lock trolling motors.

 

As always fat guy, white tshirt, camo ball cap, blue pro crappie tracker, slinging ribbets and swim baits if you find me come say hello.

 

Edit to add.

 

Didn't get to get a pic fish got cleaned while I was at theropy. But found out that of my 8 and my dad's 4 from the day before. 11 out of the 12 still had eggs.

[Catt]

3 hours ago, blanked said:

The rip rap along the dam in areas I fish have plenty of bottom.  YMMV

 

You made a random statement, " So if hard bottom is that big of a factor I should see rip rap areas loaded with bass.  I dont".

 

Then went specific, "The rip rap along the dam in areas".

 

Riprap on Toledo Bend is generally there to stop erosion & is just piled up on the bank.

 

What we're talking about is natural changes in bottom composition.

[Catt]

11 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

I think most folks have to have the electronics because they seen such and such pro using them. That and never really learned how to break down a piece of water 

 

The problem is not the electronics...it's not knowing basic structure fishing.

 

I don't care if you're fishing bank shallow or a mile offshore, if ya wanna catch bass you better understand structure & baitfish.

 

Bass follow both!

 

Today's down imaging & side scan makes seeing details easier than my Humminbird Super 30 but if you don't know what you're looking for they're both useless!

 

Youngsters like @Bass_Fanatic are not good because he can read modern electronics, he's good because he can read the lake.

[Dougw]

The reality of it for me is - I see fish virtually everywhere I go. On occasion I'll hit an area devoid of life but for the most part finding fish is not the problem. Now if ya' wanna talk about getting them to eat.... Those fish high in the water column and those that are stacked on top of each other don't eat.  I'm thinking most of the fish I "see" are decoys that the bass set out to keep me guessing and throw me off their trail!

[Catt]

33 minutes ago, Dougw said:

Those fish high in the water column and those that are stacked on top of each other don't eat.  

 

Those stacked on top of each other aint bass, it's been my experience they're Crappie. Bass tend to be more scattered out.

 

I like seeing en on the bottom or close to it but I aint much of a crankbait guy!

[Dougw]

Yeah... I'm not much of a crank bait guy either. I wanna be. Got the equipment to do it. I have caught 1 or 2 on a 10XD but... Man, it's hard for me to put that c-rig down - real hard.

[operationgrass]

How's everyone been? Been on nights since March 3 and in the middle of moving right now. Going to be in Texas from here on out! OH and waiting to launch at Rayburn only fished it once hopefully it doesnt hurt me to bad.

[Catt]

1 hour ago, operationgrass said:

How's everyone been? Been on nights since March 3 and in the middle of moving right now. Going to be in Texas from here on out! OH and waiting to launch at Rayburn only fished it once hopefully it doesnt hurt me to bad.

 

Glad ya still hanging around ?

 

I think Rayburn maybe fishing better than the Bend right now.

[Bass_Fanatic]

Hey guys, the fishing is getting great on Toledo. Yesterday we boated over 50 and missed as many as we caught.  We saw hundreds of fish on our electronics.  The fish seemed to be in 18-28’ and we caught fish on dropshot, spoons, and Carolina rigs.  The key was to get on top of the school and drop straight down on them.  It’s fun watching the. Come eat your spoon on the graph.  Nothing huge, but had 2 over 4lbs and 5 more over 3lbs.  Lots of fun for sure.  If anyone is interested, I still have May 17th and 24th open for now.  Let me know if your wanting to get your units set up right and catch some fish.

[Bass_Fanatic]

[Amateur Hour]

Nice.  Did you run across to Housen?

[Bass_Fanatic]

43 minutes ago, Amateur Hour said:

Nice.  Did you run across to Housen?

I caught the. Good in housen last week, but never made it over there this week. We stayed in Pirates cove, six mile, and Mill