So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[Bass_Fanatic]

I wish I had a good report, but...

Fished Friday, 3 fish in the back of Hurricane Creek.  Biggest 3.5lbs.

Fished tourny Saturday, went back to the back of Hurricane Creek.  I knew there were fish there.  In the first 30 minutes I broke on 2 BIG fish and my partner pulled the hook out of a 6+.  Guys pulled in right behind us, moved into 1ft of water in the thick buck brush and pulled out 5 3lbers.  I stayed there the rest of the day in a hundred yard stretch and managed to catch 2 keepers that went 5.2lbs and one short fish.  May go back next weekend.

Cant wait for our meet up too...even tho I have no chance...haha   ;D

[Ranger 251]

Catt,

You really wacked them.  Looks like the LOBI was a week too early.

Are we still on for March 27th?  If so, I will need to make some reservations.  Likewise, I don't have a chance in winning but looking forward to learning.

[Catt]

As far as I know we are still on for the 27th 

Everyone is responsible for their own reservations.

[Catt]

I wish I had a good report, but...

Fished Friday, 3 fish in the back of Hurricane Creek. Biggest 3.5lbs.

Fished tourny Saturday, went back to the back of Hurricane Creek. I knew there were fish there. In the first 30 minutes I broke on 2 BIG fish and my partner pulled the hook out of a 6+. Guys pulled in right behind us, moved into 1ft of water in the thick buck brush and pulled out 5 3lbers. I stayed there the rest of the day in a hundred yard stretch and managed to catch 2 keepers that went 5.2lbs and one short fish. May go back next weekend.

Cant wait for our meet up too...even tho I have no chance...haha ;D

That's 13 bites total which is normal for this year, so you better make em count

I pulled an end around on y'all, with 95% of the anglers targeting the same 5-7' of water they have for the last month now. I idled right on around them on the way to the back of the creek channel coves, although we caught in 3-5' of water I heavily targeted the 3' in buck brush.

I know it's 3' in the buck brush cause my boat is in it

With temperatures in the mid-70s to lows in the upper 40s-mid 50s this pattern should hold for the next few days.

Start at casting distance to the outer (break line) edge of the buck brush with lures mentioned above. Next move in 1/2 of that distance mentioned above, now you are probing several feet into the buck brush. Finally it's down just a Flippin Stick & Jig, looking of openings in the buck brush I troll my way into the buck brush.

[FROG11]

Well, kind of weird to me, but the fishing was better last year when we fished Toledo and we fished in 40 degree weather + rain every single day we were there last year at this same time.  We fished from the 4th - 7th, this is how it went for my boat:

Thursday - fished near where we stayed at Alpine in Palo Gaucho most of the day and it was MUDDY in there!  That was the worst water I saw the whole weekend...and of course it's the creek we decide to stay in!    But we fished from morning until lunch, then took a break, and fished from about 2:00 until 3:00 in Palo Gaucho and only caught 2 that morning...1 on a senko and 1 on a trap..both ~15" fish.  Then we moved over to Lowe's Creek to fish the afternoon and were able to pick up 2 more fish on back to back casts off of a grassy point with traps(gold/black and rayburn red).  That was it for Thursday..3 people fishing my boat and 4 fish caught, 3 on traps, 1 on senko.

Friday - we knew we wanted to seek out some better looking water, so we ran across to the only other creek we know pretty well, that's the Negreet area.  So we ran across the lake and fished over there and it was better than Thursday.  Only 2 people in my boat that day and we only caught about 5 fish that day..all on traps and all off of 1 point in a cove off the main creek that has deep water.  Still using the same gold/black traps mostly...that's all we could get a bite on..as much as tried to force feed them plastics    Some other boats in our crew caught em better that day though, so it gave us some hope..a few of the other boats caught 10-14 fish, something like that...with a few decent ones mixed in(2.5-3.5 lbers).  All with the same story..only thing they could get bit on was traps...and that the fish came from grassy points/areas. 

Saturday - this was the best day my Dad and I had in our boat.  We didn't even really fish the afternoon, but we caught 12 fish with 7 or 8 keepers..again, all on traps.  Caught a 4 lb 3 ozer that day too, which I know isn't a giant for T-Bend, but a fun fish to catch anyway  And I caught it fishing right behind one of the other boats in our crew, so it was a satisfying fish to catch  ;D But we caught 11 of those 12 fish within the first probably 2-2.5 hours of fishing that day.  We had a milk run of about 5 spots in Negreet that we fished for just a few minutes each and we caught some off of each one.  We had some stuff to take care of that afternoon, so we didn't get to fish much then.  Some other boats went south and fished housen and caught a few that afternoon though, mostly small..but did get a 4-08 on a buzzbait. 

Sunday - only fished from about 7:30AM until about 9:30AM in Negreet and we caught 8 fish, 7 keepers.  No real big ones..caught a couple of 2.5 lbers.  The other group of 4 went south and fished Housen and I think they said they had about 13 fish on various reaction baits like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, frogs, traps, etc..and a few on worms.  They did catch a 5-00 on a spinnerbait too, other than that, smaller fish though.  That group fished from morning until about 11:15 I believe..so they were out there a bit longer. 

Overall, it was a decent trip.  Had 3 nice ones caught over 4 lbs...a 5-00, 4-08, and a 4-03 on a spinnerbait, buzzbait, and trap respectively. 

I wish we could have found a plastics bite somewhere...we caught the majority of our fish on plastics last year fishing in 40 degree weather with rain..go figure.  But this year, other than in Housen the last afternoon/morning, if you weren't throwing a trap, you weren't catchin' fish.  Needless to say, I made a million casts this past weekend 

Justin

[Bass_Fanatic]

And to think I threw I a trap half a day Friday...

Gave up on it and caught all my fish on plastics and/or jigs Friday and Saturday.  Not many, but a few.

[Catt]

Justin, from what I count that's 56+ (Some other boats went south and fished housen and caught a few that afternoon though, mostly small) bass in 4 days or 14 bass a day average which is good for this year.

I must ask did y'all fish the back of the coves? 

[FROG11]

Justin, from what I count that's 56+ (Some other boats went south and fished housen and caught a few that afternoon though, mostly small) bass in 4 days or 14 bass a day average which is good for this year.

I must ask did y'all fish the back of the coves?

Well, we had 9 guys on the trip with us.  So 14 bass a day for 9 guys = not exactly great.  ;D  But we did catch them alright.  Most of what we fished was grassy points/secondary points..the fish we did catch there were never hugged up to the bank, so we figured running points might be our best bet.  Most of the fish we caught came in about 5-8' of water with traps around hydrilla.  We saw a ton of suspended fish in the grass on our graph the entire trip..every time we'd get in anywhere from 8-14' of water where there was submerged hydrilla, the fish would be all over it..just couldn't get em to bite.  We tried backing way off and fishing plastics slowly through those areas, tried cranking them, nothing worked on those suspended fish. 

We didn't fish shallow much..especially not in the very back of coves/pockets.  Again, with so many fish graphed in 8-14' of water suspended in grass, we didn't figure the fish would be in 3' of water around all that buckbrush we could see on the bank.  We tried that some, but never even got bit shallow. 

Justin

[Catt]

We are fishing scattered buck brush but we aint on the bank 

[palo gaucho]

nice..

[Ranger 251]

Catt,

I am in for the 27th.  Any decisions where we meet up?  Just let me know.

[FROG11]

We are fishing scattered buck brush but we aint on the bank

Yea we don't know where to find 3' scattered buckbrush that ain't on the bank   So we did the best we could  :

Oh..and to add to my report from earlier...water temps we found while we were there ranged from about 50-55 degrees for the most part.  We did see some temps a little above 55 in the back of a pocket off of Turtle Beach area in Negreet..but for the most part, 55 was about the highest temp we found in the afternoons. 

Justin

[Catt]

We are fishing scattered buck brush but we aint on the bank

Yea we don't know where to find 3' scattered buckbrush that ain't on the bank So we did the best we could :

Oh..and to add to my report from earlier...water temps we found while we were there ranged from about 50-55 degrees for the most part. We did see some temps a little above 55 in the back of a pocket off of Turtle Beach area in Negreet..but for the most part, 55 was about the highest temp we found in the afternoons.

Justin

So you couldn't find any in the back of Salter Creek near the 191 bridge area Huh

[Bass_Fanatic]

Catt, have you fished the Sam Migel Pass area...around all those flats between the islands?

I fished it for about 30 min without a bite, but there must have been 40 boats in there last Friday.  I may be going back Saturday, so looking for some productive water...if all else fails, I will be in Lanan once again!!

[Catt]

Catt, have you fished the Sam Migel Pass area...around all those flats between the islands?

I fished it for about 30 min without a bite, but there must have been 40 boats in there last Friday. I may be going back Saturday, so looking for some productive water...if all else fails, I will be in Lanan once again!!

I haven't been passed the bridge lately but I've heard it's slow like every where but getting better daily.

[bullet20]

just talk to a buddy that been on t.b. all week,said he's been catching alot but mostly 2-3 lbs.. He's fishing south tx.

also said he heard of a 14 lber caught on texas side?and maybe a 2nd 14 lber. I  had a ggod on for the lobi but lost her at boat,how many time's that happens :'(

[Fury]

Heading up to Negreet Thursday March 18th for a little pre-fishing and then a club tournament on Saturday. We usually do pretty well this time of the year as most. I will report the outcome of my trip when I return.

[HomeBrewerDude]

Hi all yall.  I've been reading this thread outside in (its LONG).  I'd like to ask a couple of basic questions. Before I get too winded, Thanks to Catt and others for writing their knowledge down for others to share and add.

I have some very fond memories of T Bend from when I would go out there with my family when i was growing up. I remember trying to catch those huge brim down on the bottom near the boat slips...the small ones always took my worm before the big ones would move. And I remember fishing and fishing all day... nothing but fishing and eating, maybe a quick dip every now and then.  Hurricane creek seemed like a mystical place when i was 10... we'd haul butt for ever to get there and then pull into this cove with timber sticking up out of the water like giant fishing rods.   

So now my dad and I are planning a trip out to T Bend for anywhere from 3-5 days of fishing at the end of March.  I'd like to make the most of it since I now live in Wisconsin and don't see my dad as often as I'd like.

1) If anyone wants to offer a few coves for general all purpose any conditions type of fishing that would be wonderful. Its a giant lake and narrowing it down a bit would be good.

2) Any good suggestions on where to hole up at night?  Looks like some places are starting to fill.  Six mile reported being booked. We're up for camping if the weather is decent, but cheap room would be okay too.  Boat slip with electrical hook up and fuel a plus.  Any suggestions?  South end preferred and we'll be coming in from the Texas side.  All you folks seem to know the lake very well... whats the collective think on where to over night?  Marina or nearby town motels/campground?

3) Any good places to eat nearby? While the beer and cheese are great in Wisconsin, I sorely miss southern food so chicken fried steak, biscuits & gravy, fried catfish etc *will* be consumed in large quantities.

I guess thats enough questions. I thank you in advance!

-HomeBrewerDude

[Catt]

Texas Accommodations

Sportsman's Marina & Cafe (located just north of the 6-Mile bridge)

9848 Highway 87 South

Hemphill, Tx 75948

Ph (409) 579-3292

Boat launch, Tent camping, Restaurant, Rooms/cabins

Lowe's Creek Park & Marina

RR 4, Box 383

Hemphill, Tx 75948

Boat launch, Tent camping, Rooms/cabins

Fin & Feather Resort

255 Fin & Feather Drive

Hemphill, Tx 75948

Boat launch, Restaurant / meals, Rooms/cabins

Fausto's Fried Chicken

Highway 87 N & Fm-83, Hemphill, TX 75948

Fat Fred's Grocery, (great food) 480 Sabine St. Hemphill, TX

[palo gaucho]

Ide try fin and feathers its been redone and looks good and the rooms are nice, also its not far from "hurrican creek" and resturant is pretty good and they have a little bar if you want.....

[Catt]

Fin & Feather is $75 per night/$450 a week & up from there plus not tent camping.

Sportsman's Marina si $28.50 per night but it is a small room with a bunk bed & bath room, they do have tent camping. It is only a 5 minute drive to Fin & Feather where you can launch for $5 or the 6-mile launch is 1 minute away.

Lowe's Creek Park & Marina does not have any cafe' so either you cook your own or drive to town for each meal.

Indian Mounds Camp Ground is near Lowe's Creek Park & Marina but is wilderness camping only

This link list all available in the area so just ask away

http://www.toledo-bend.com/marinas/index.asp?request=south

[fishfordollars]

I will be there a week from today. Got a club tournament next Saturday. Be right back the next weekend for our get together.

[iClass]

Gonna have a lot of company FFD, The Texas Oilman's Tournament is next week.  Over 600 boats entered in that one (mine too  ) Been in Oklahoma, drilling and haven't had much of a chance since Jan to get out.  Next weekend's weather looks nice if it holds.

[fishfordollars]

Gonna have a lot of company FFD, The Texas Oilman's Tournament is next week. Over 600 boats entered in that one (mine too ) Been in Oklahoma, drilling and haven't had much of a chance since Jan to get out. Next weekend's weather looks nice if it holds.

good, maybe one of them can show me where they are.

[Needeep]

Some friends and I will be on the Bend Tue thru Fri and was wondering if anybody knows what La Nan and areas around it look like. We like to fish the areas above 1215. Probably will hit the Patroon area also. Any help will be appreciated. We only make this trip once a year so we would like to make the most of it. Bass are priority but will look for sacalait too.