So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[alwayslooking]

Catt, where do you get moon rise and set times? my astro tables tell me moon overhead and underfoot, local weather gives me sunrise and sunset,,,just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. i should ask why you prefer these times also. thanks

[Catt]

HitmanFO; depending on weather patterns we could stay in a summer mode until late September and with the nation under a supposedly an El Niño this will probably be true this year.

alwayslooking

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

Why? it's cooler at night  

[bassturbator]

Hi. I want to introduce myself as a new member of this forum. I live in Houston, originally from Louisiana and fish Toledo Bend twice a year for the past 15 years. I fish with Long Mike and his coonass friends at Toledo Bend, Caney Lake and in the Atchafalaya Basin. Catt, have you ever fished the humps at Devils's Pass between Housen and Six Mile? I fished there over 8 years ago when the lake was very low and we caught lots of nice fish but have not repeated this type of success since then.

[Catt]

Friends with Long Mike huh we'll try not to hold it against you

Catt, have you ever fished the humps at Devil's Pass between Housen' and Six Mile?

The humps at Devil's Pass is one of those spots that if I'm running between Housen' and Six Mile I gotta stop; you may not win a tournament there but you'll most likely cull.

Personally I like the lake level around 168-169 but yea I remember that low water year very well. In 06 it was at 164.49 and 98 it was at 163.77

[SUZY-Q]

Can anyone here tell me where the area referred to as "sunken bridge" is?  I know that it is somewhere between Mill Creek and Six Mile.  Thanks.

[Catt]

Can anyone here tell me where the area referred to as "sunken bridge" is? I know that it is somewhere between Mill Creek and Six Mile. Thanks.

Yea I do but my map is on the lake

[SUZY-Q]

That's not helping me at all!  :-[

[Catt]

What's happening on the Bend?

We will be deeply entrenched in summer time patterns well into September; aint leaving the camp until 2:00 am or later and staying out 8-9:00 am

Lake conditions

Level: 169.26

Generators: Currently shut down

Temperature: mid to upper 80s

Areas: Indian Mounds & south

We are working the first 10 yards of the outside grass lines on

Points both on the main lake and in the major creeks in 15 to 25' +/- 3'

Ridges, and humps on the main lake and in the major creeks in 12 to 25 feet +/- 3'

Techniques: Texas Rigs, Carolina Rigs, and DD22

Lures: Rage Thumper Worm, Rage Smokin Rooster, & Rage Lobster

Colors: Red Bug, Okeechobee Craw, Blue/Chartreuse and Shad Belly/Green Flake Back.

The kicker fish lure is still

Stanley RFE-Jig 5/16 oz; Black/Amber-Chartreuse/Orange accent

Trailer: Rage Tail Baby Craw Okeechobee Craw

Terry Oldham's Trailer Hitch Jig, 3/8 oz Black/Blue

Trailer: Rage Tail Baby Craw Sapphire Blue

[bassturbator]

Thanks Catt for the invaluable information. Long Mike, myself and 2 others will be at Toledo Bend Sept. 17 to 21st. I am going to use some of your techniques and fish some of the areas you recommend. We are staying at Fox's Lodge and will fish Housen, Indian Mounds, Lowe's Creek & Six Mile. I especially want to fish the section of Lowe's Creek you described earlier.

[Long Mike]

Alan, at long last, welcome to the forum.  It's about time that you cured yourself from your rectal/cranial inversion syndrome. Catt is the guy who came by the cabin briefly last year.

[Catt]

Alan, at long last, welcome to the forum. It's about time that you cured yourself from your rectal/cranial inversion syndrome. Catt is the guy who came by the cabin briefly last year.

Look forward to spending more time with y'all this year

[bassturbator]

Hi all. Catt, I used to fish a roadbed directly across from the opening of Hurricane Creek which was on the other side of the boat lane in relation to Hurricane Creek. This roadbed cuts through the trees starting at the boat lane which is between Fox's and Fin & Feather. You have to know where to enter the road bed and we used to follow Bob Hauser through the trees and start fishing the road bed where it comes out of the trees into the big open flat across from Community Hole. I used to always catch fish on this roadbed but have not in the last few years. Any suggestions or comments?

[bassturbator]

One more question for Catt. Have you ever been able to discern a roadbed and pre-lake cabin/house foundation on the southside of the hump off Millionaire Point.  If so, have they produced. We have access to a 1957 topo map of the area which is where this info comes from..

[Catt]

Bassturbator to answer your first question that area is extremely well known and is hammered hard weekly so the key to success is week days.

I know of a 12-14 old homesteads, some with concrete slabs, some with brick piers, none or that productive at least not the foundations. What I do find productive is the overall homestead; the road beds, fence rows, any ponds or troughs, tree lines created by plowed land and many other irregularities.

[alwayslooking]

Well Catt, i just got my copy of buck perry's guidelines course. hard to read when you want to fish but whatever it takes to learn "structure". can you help me disect the south main lake point of six mile? i use the hickory ridge boat lane to get close. the point goes out to 35, 40 ft of water at the tree line all the way to shallow. down the east bank of the point there is a grass line. have caught a couple of fish carolina fishing a slow drift from about 28ft into the 10ft area. tried to graph the point but i don't think i found any breaklines, there are some stumps down there though, lost a few baits...

[bigtimfish]

Well went yesterday. 4 fish total. Not good. Could not get 1 bite in six mile anywhere we went. None of my spots were working.  The only fish we caught were basically in the Sandy creek/willow oak boat lane. I actually found a spot through all of the grass that dropped from 9' to 20' with fish stacked. I will rethink my launch site next time I go. The whole boat lane a Sandy creek grassed over maybe 8" from the top. I could not get on plane until about the 2nd vertical standing bouy. Just got my hook n line map, no more fishing hot spots maps for me. Catt I am now officially ready.

[alwayslooking]

bigtimfish, our last club tourny was out of six mile, if you look on your map, find #18, look about 1/2 in east of there and you will find a point. that is where the tourny was won from, drop shot in 15 to 17ft of water, didn't have any luck there myself, however it worked for my friend.

[Catt]

Six Mile boat launch is by far the best launch in that area so I would not waste time trying to launch anywhere else.

Creek channels

12-18' of water

Outside grass line

Jig-N-Craw, Texas Rig, Carolina Rig

Redbug, Crabapple, CranApple or what ever you want to call it as long as it's red with green fleck

[bigtimfish]

Looking at my hook n line, I see Gilley's Point. just to the right of it is Six Mile Bay. It looks to me like a branch off of Six Mile Creek runs pretty close to Gilley's Point.And in the boat lane. Some of the creek runs into the red shaded area (fishing Area). Is it spots like this that I am Really supposed to concentrate on this time of year? Also what info can you give on Six Mile field (#23)?      P.S. The lake seemed a little low to me yesterday, is it a little low or was the grass just that thick and growing high?

[bigtimfish]

One more thing. I was in a cove yesterday around Gilly's point. The depth's were reaching 18'. No fish though. Is it because it is not quick access to a channel? I was confused. I tried the 15' breakline and could not produce a strike.

[Catt]

Six Mile Creek itself and where other creeks intersect

Lake level as of 08/17/09

Level: 169.01

Both generators: Currently running 6 hrs. / 2 p.m. - 8 p.m

Yes 169 is a little low but I prefer it at this height

The map will show you the structure but you'll have to find the grass

[capierrottie2]

Well Catt, I took a lot of your advice from the this thread and tried to put it to use this weekend and this was the results.

Housen, Six Mile

Two day total 57 fish

White Perch 7

Yellow Bass 3

Large Mouth Bass 47

White perch and yellow bass were caught using jigging spoons at Indian Mounds in 20-32 ft of water.

Large Mouth Bass were caught off of main points, near the grass lines, near deep channels in 15 to 23ft of water.

Got into schooling bass early Saturday morning and it was action packed for an hour or so.

No Big Boys.. we ended up with 5 fish that went 3 to 4lbs

Lures

White or White Chartreuse 3/8 oz White Spinner Baits double willow blades

Zoom Finesse worms, Berkley 10inch power worms

Colors

Watermelon Candy and Plum Apple

[Catt]

Summer time on the Bend

[HitmanFO]

Hey Catt, just like capierrottie2, after studying your forum posts, I put it to use and me and a buddy headed out to fish Six Mile this weekend. It was more of a "hands-on portion of the online class that Catt has been teaching" than a real fishing trip. We were only on a the Bend for about 6-7 hours, did a lot of running-and-gunning, trying different spots, studying the depth finder, checking out points, drop-offs, looking for structure, finding that grass line you opened my eyes to, and reading the map.

We wound up putting 8 bass in the boat (none big enough to get excited about; but again, we weren't really there to do serious fishing, we were there to learn), using Texas-rigged Zoom MagII's in pumpkin seed and watermelon red, and two different cranks, one a Rapala in a natural shad color that dived 4-7 feet, the other a DD22 in Bumblebee. We fished the worms across the top of the grass, dropping them off the face, and fished the cranks parallel to the face of the grass, for the most part. It was my first time to use a DD22... now it'll be used a lot, because it was a blast to fish with, and produced!

I also tried a jig-n-craw, a spinnerbait, and a Tx Rig Bass Assasin 11" worm in tequila sunrise/black; never got a bite on them. Another buddy of mine that fished up there this weekend was tearing them up on Tx-rigged trick worms... I'll have to try that next time.

Anyhow, this was only my second time to bass fish the Bend, and using your advice, caught my first keeper from the Bend! Thanks for sharing! Now we're going to go back up Labor Day weekend and use what we learned this past weekend and do some serious fishing!

[Catt]

That what I like right there; feed back