So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[Dougw]

19 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Both lol

Aaaaannnnddd...we have a winner!!!!!

[JarrodMc]

Just back from a short trip to the lake. More time working at the camp than fishing but got out a little. Some good schooling action early AM (5:30 to 7:00) with blacks up to 3lbs.  I found a ton of offshore fish but all spotted rats. Saturday AM - on a whim - I fished some submerged hay grass and caught several 2-3 lbs blacks in Six Mile. Chatter bait. Swim bait on underspin. Swim Jig. Forgot how much fun it is to fight a 2 lb fish through grass.  Fun trip.  Lake is fishing good right now. 

[CRosh]

Well, my brother and I took our father to the lake for the weekend.  Got camp set up Thursday and then took a ride to look at a few landings.  Put our game plan together for Friday morning.  Leave out before daylight to Blue Lake launch, launch boat and idle out of channel and then break boat over for it to die immediately.  Checked kill switch, bulb, etc. and everything seemed normal but motor would not roll over.  Put trolling motor down and started fishing back to landing.  Wind picked up blowing directly into our face and had to troll through the wind to get back to landing.  3 people in boat, we weren't moving fast with what seemed to be 20mph winds.  we moved about a hundred yards in an hours time.  There was a gentlemen a couple hundred yards away anchored up fishing that we hollered and waved at for several minutes.  We got a couple looks but he wouldn't pick up boat and come help tow us in.  After probably 30 minutes of screaming and waving, two boats from several pockets over came to the rescue.  Got towed back to landing, loaded up and back to camp.  Talked to a mechanic for some quick adjustments but seemed like switch box was out.  spent rest of day Friday up and down the lake looking for a switch box and someone to install it quickly.  After some help, still no power to the motor.

Took boat back to camp, put on charge and decided to fish around the North Toledo Bend state park landing Saturday morning with only the trolling motor.  We stayed in the couple coves right close to landing and boated 8 small fish with 4 drops right at boat.  Caught some on a frog early, a square bill, a small hot spot lipless, and a t-rig.  Water was just slightly stained and around 82-84 degrees.  Loaded boat up around 10 and went back to camp for lunch.  Put on charger and decided to make a quick trip again in same area for the evening hours.  fished same general areas around the landing that evening and put another 4 small fish in boat with a couple of drops.  Water was 84 degrees for the evening and majority of fish came on the little bream colored hot spot lipless.  Boat is now at shop getting looked at.  So, without a motor and pushing every inch out of trolling motor with the help of some wind, we still was able to salvage the trip and boat a few fish.  Lake is up and looks good if you want to fish some flooded bushes or backwater grass!

[Catt]

@CRosh Did that on our trip last year to North Toledo Bend State Park. 

 

Nice save though ?

[A5BLASTER]

3 hours ago, CRosh said:

Well, my brother and I took our father to the lake for the weekend.  Got camp set up Thursday and then took a ride to look at a few landings.  Put our game plan together for Friday morning.  Leave out before daylight to Blue Lake launch, launch boat and idle out of channel and then break boat over for it to die immediately.  Checked kill switch, bulb, etc. and everything seemed normal but motor would not roll over.  Put trolling motor down and started fishing back to landing.  Wind picked up blowing directly into our face and had to troll through the wind to get back to landing.  3 people in boat, we weren't moving fast with what seemed to be 20mph winds.  we moved about a hundred yards in an hours time.  There was a gentlemen a couple hundred yards away anchored up fishing that we hollered and waved at for several minutes.  We got a couple looks but he wouldn't pick up boat and come help tow us in.  After probably 30 minutes of screaming and waving, two boats from several pockets over came to the rescue.  Got towed back to landing, loaded up and back to camp.  Talked to a mechanic for some quick adjustments but seemed like switch box was out.  spent rest of day Friday up and down the lake looking for a switch box and someone to install it quickly.  After some help, still no power to the motor.

Took boat back to camp, put on charge and decided to fish around the North Toledo Bend state park landing Saturday morning with only the trolling motor.  We stayed in the couple coves right close to landing and boated 8 small fish with 4 drops right at boat.  Caught some on a frog early, a square bill, a small hot spot lipless, and a t-rig.  Water was just slightly stained and around 82-84 degrees.  Loaded boat up around 10 and went back to camp for lunch.  Put on charger and decided to make a quick trip again in same area for the evening hours.  fished same general areas around the landing that evening and put another 4 small fish in boat with a couple of drops.  Water was 84 degrees for the evening and majority of fish came on the little bream colored hot spot lipless.  Boat is now at shop getting looked at.  So, without a motor and pushing every inch out of trolling motor with the help of some wind, we still was able to salvage the trip and boat a few fish.  Lake is up and looks good if you want to fish some flooded bushes or backwater grass!

Glad yall found some even with all the problems.

 

I bet the guy that wouldnt help yall was a short fat white guy in a white skeeter with twin white power poles.

[CRosh]

would the skeeter be a center console?  If i remember correctly, the boat was majority white and i'm pretty sure it had white poles. the man looked short, but couldn't tell if he was fat.  He was "anchored" up right out of the channel to the blue lake launch.  3 people in boat screaming and waving, he looked over our way several times and just kept fishing.  I wanna say the boat was a center console, but i was not in the best of moods at the moment!  Big thanks and shout out to the nice father and son that towed us in and the gentlemen that looked motor over at the landing.  These two boats heard us hollering and came from several pockets over to help.  

[Bass_Fanatic]

Glad to hear y’all salvaged the trip with a few bass.  The fishing for us has been really good first thing in the morning, but once the sun comes up and gets hot around 10am it gets tough.  We have been catching 20-25 fish the first 4 hours of daylight then scratching out a few more throughout the day.  The late afternoon bite has been hit or miss.  One day it’s on fire and the next it’s tough.  All of our fish have been coming from 15-20’ on Carolina rigs, spoons, and a crankbait.  

[Catt]

@Bass_Fanatic Talk to me about the 6th Sense Ridge Worm! 

 

Saw em at a local tackle shop & thought deepwater structure Toledo Bend, so I bought a couple sacks.

 

I know you're busy but a report would be nice.

[A5BLASTER]

Hey you youngsters quiet it down a bit in here.

 

I cant here dr. Poll over all yall talking at the top of your lungs lmao.

[LovestoFish]

???

[Catt]

13 minutes ago, LovestoFish said:

???

 

Don't look at me! ?

[LovestoFish]

?

 

I wasn't 

[Bass_Fanatic]

Fishing on Toledo has been hit or miss.  We catch 30-40 one day then 12-15 the next.  

[BayouSlide]

1 hour ago, Bass_Fanatic said:

Fishing on Toledo has been hit or miss.  We catch 30-40 one day then 12-15 the next.  

 

Apparently your "miss" days on TB are equivalent to the best of my "hit" days elsewhere in South Louisiana ?

[Dougw]

17 hours ago, Bass_Fanatic said:

Fishing on Toledo has been hit or miss.  We catch 30-40 one day then 12-15 the next.  

Have you invested in Mega Live yet? I put ActiveTarget on my boat but have only been out once with it. On that one trip I can honestly say I caught fish I would not have caught without it. Been busy engineering an electric steer/aim system that would work on my Gambler. Should finish it up this week then I'll head back to Toledo and see how it work for real.

[Bass_Fanatic]

5 hours ago, Dougw said:

Have you invested in Mega Live yet? I put ActiveTarget on my boat but have only been out once with it. On that one trip I can honestly say I caught fish I would not have caught without it. Been busy engineering an electric steer/aim system that would work on my Gambler. Should finish it up this week then I'll head back to Toledo and see how it work for real.

I haven’t put live imaging on my bass boat yet.  We have it on all of our pontoons and it is awesome for crappie fishing but I haven’t taken the plunge on the bass boat.  It won’t be long.  About 75% of my trips are in clients boats and a lot of them have live imaging and there has been numerous times it has helped us catch fish.  It is a great tool for sure.

[A5BLASTER]

Well I hope yall wasn't waiting for me to give a report.

 

Boats are parked for the year, bow is tuned and rifle is sighted in. Been working out to drop a few pounds.

 

 

[operationgrass]

Me and the brother in law have been fishing.  Same results bass_fanatic. It’s been fun though. 

[Troy85]

On 8/4/2021 at 4:47 AM, Dougw said:

Have you invested in Mega Live yet? I put ActiveTarget on my boat but have only been out once with it. On that one trip I can honestly say I caught fish I would not have caught without it. Been busy engineering an electric steer/aim system that would work on my Gambler. Should finish it up this week then I'll head back to Toledo and see how it work for real.

How does it work in water that's 6' or less?  

[Dougw]

13 hours ago, Troy85 said:

How does it work in water that's 6' or less?  

It works just fine - surface to the bottom. The difficult deal is keeping your bait in the cone angle. Sometimes I could... Sometimes I couldn't. But I could see the fish and know they were there. The neat thing was being outside of one main lake cove. I think I was on the point north of Negreet and south of Cypress Bend. I was down scanning at the time and could see one or two fish. Soooo... dropped a spoon on'em. They swam over n' looked at it but didn't seem interested. I made some hops 1'-2' off the bottom with the spoon and there must have been 50 or so fish swarming around that spoon. I could see them swim into the cone angle. I got one bump and never caught one of those fish. Had I put a drop shot down there who knows? But I didn't.

 

For sure there is a learning curve but with only one trip I was able to make it productive for me and it showed the promise it has. I have zero regrets on the purchase.

 

One of the things that was a distraction for me was the mount. I have an Xi5 trolling motor. The very first time out I had fabricated a mount for the Xi5. It worked but it was cumbersome at best and manual tiller steer/aim. The initial unit I received was defective so the trip out with the Xi5 mount produced nothing.

 

Then I made a mount utilizing a Ram mount arm. That's what I used on my trip to Toledo. It worked but the tiller steer/aim was a PITA. Also stow/deploy was a pain in the neck though at times I had a much lower opinion of it.:>)

 

I'm finishing up my 4th shot at a workable mount that fits my Gambler and I think I've got something. It's electric steer and has a stainless steel mount utilizing and Xi5 trolling motor shaft.

 

 

[Catt]

@Bass_Fanatic What's happening in the Big Pond!

[Bass_Fanatic]

13 hours ago, Catt said:

@Bass_Fanatic What's happening in the Big Pond!

The fishing can be tough one day and good the next.  We are finding and seeing plenty of fish but they can be hard to make bite.  So,e days you have to throw a dropshot to make one bite and you can only catch 1-3 fish out of a school.  Other days they will chase a crankbait and a big worm and you can catch 12-15 per school.  Lots has to do with wind and clouds.  

[Cajun Executioner]

I am taking my dad to the lake tomorrow. I have a place in Indian Creek and I’m trying to learn this end of the lake. I haven’t been doing too good lately mostly catching spotted bass on points around Mill Creek and in deep water. Up until a couple of weeks ago I was catching small ones in 20-25 fow but they ran shallower in 10-15 fow my last trip My dad likes beating the bank but we’ve had no luck at all doing that the last trip two weeks ago. After reading your original post I am thinking about trying around Millionaire point and the McGee’s flats. I usually drag a C-Rig with a baby brush hog. 
should I fish the flats in the morning and move to the creeks mid morning? Should I even bother fishing the bank this time of the year?

[Catt]

IDK which I would hit. You want know until you try. You're gonna have to do some graphing.

 

@Bass_Fanatic will probably chime in.

[Bass_Fanatic]

5 hours ago, Cajun Executioner said:

I am taking my dad to the lake tomorrow. I have a place in Indian Creek and I’m trying to learn this end of the lake. I haven’t been doing too good lately mostly catching spotted bass on points around Mill Creek and in deep water. Up until a couple of weeks ago I was catching small ones in 20-25 fow but they ran shallower in 10-15 fow my last trip My dad likes beating the bank but we’ve had no luck at all doing that the last trip two weeks ago. After reading your original post I am thinking about trying around Millionaire point and the McGee’s flats. I usually drag a C-Rig with a baby brush hog. 
should I fish the flats in the morning and move to the creeks mid morning? Should I even bother fishing the bank this time of the year?

Both of those areas should have plenty of fish.  On the McGee flats I would start in the very back of the main lake drains in 12-18’.  After 9 am or so I would start following those drains out to 18-25’ and looking on the points.