So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[mguidroz]

High pressure and blue bird skies....who cares. I wish I was at the lake.

[Bass_Fanatic]

Fished Champs yesterday.  Wasn't our day for sure! Started out with a boat cutting in front of me and when I let off the gas, the nose fell and caught and grew me a complete 180. Scared my dad pretty good lol. Got to my first spot and hooked up with one over 5 on my 5th cast and she threw it. Caught a 5 and a 4 and about 50 1-2lbers. Then my dad hooked up with a good one. Got her inches away from the net and the hook just popped out. I dove in the water after her.  Didn't get her of course. She was easily over 7, might have been closer to 8. Should have had 24-26lbs, but instead finished up with 15. Caught 60 or so fish and had fun, but was frustrating to say the least. My dad said it took a month to sink in that we won the first one on Rayburn, but only took a second to sink in that we lost this one as we watched that big one swim away.

Congrats to Will Walker and Stephen Mitchell. Good guys and a heck of a sack. Sucks to catch 30lbs and come in second. Congrats to the winners also

[cmitch05]

Long time lurker....First time poster....Appreciate all the great reports and insight.  I got a question about purchasing new electronics.  Not seasoned by any means at fishing deep (SOUTH LA BOY), but really want to learn...my boat recently was flooded after the high water in march and lost both my GPS units.  Boat was parked at in laws on Vernon lake in anacoco.  Units were lowrance 26 hds xbows x  2.   Yall got any recs on what I should purchase with my insurance money...looking at gen 3 7 lowrances?  What transducers do I need and other accessories?  Also, what mapping software should I install?  Thanks for any input.

[Bass_Fanatic]

The new lowrance scare awesome, but may want to consider Humminbird just for lakemaster chip. The lakemaster chip will not work in a lowrance and IMO it's the best chip for the south end of the lake.  I've got 2 Onix 10's and I love them!

[kdietz]

First time poster! Looking forward to learning a lot from this group!

I'm heading to Toledo Bend next month for my first time on the lake. I'm staying in the mid lake area. I'm expecting summer patterns in deeper water? Can anyone help me eliminate water and suggest a couple of areas to key on?

BTW, I'm making my way through this long post and am making notes!

 

 

[A-Jay]

8 hours ago, kdietz said:

First time poster! Looking forward to learning a lot from this group!

I'm heading to Toledo Bend next month for my first time on the lake. I'm staying in the mid lake area. I'm expecting summer patterns in deeper water? Can anyone help me eliminate water and suggest a couple of areas to key on?

BTW, I'm making my way through this long post and am making notes!

 

 

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

A-Jay

[roblo]

Bass_F

have a question, when you jumped in after your dads bass, was the water cold? 

I feel for him, that's the worse thing to see, a nice one get off so close to the boat!

Had to wade out the other day at the ramp, water still has a slight kick to it, lol

[Catt]

16 hours ago, kdietz said:

First time poster! Looking forward to learning a lot from this group!

I'm heading to Toledo Bend next month for my first time on the lake. I'm staying in the mid lake area. I'm expecting summer patterns in deeper water? Can anyone help me eliminate water and suggest a couple of areas to key on?

BTW, I'm making my way through this long post and am making notes!

 

 

It would greatly help if you tell us where ya staying!

[cmitch05]

Is there a big difference in the gen 2 vs gen 3 lowrance units?  May get the 9 inch gen 2....is n avionics the way to go with mapping software for lowrance....appreciate the reply another site....those onix units look sweet....a Lil out of my price range, but appreciate the reply

 

[kdietz]

2 hours ago, Catt said:

It would greatly help if you tell us where ya staying!

San Miguel SRA cabins

[Bass_Fanatic]

4 hours ago, roblo said:

Bass_F

have a question, when you jumped in after your dads bass, was the water cold? 

I feel for him, that's the worse thing to see, a nice one get off so close to the boat!

Had to wade out the other day at the ramp, water still has a slight kick to it, lol

Cold was the last thing on my mind lol.  It was about 10:30 so the sun was shining and water was high 70's so it wasn't bad. The worse part was watching he fish swim away, knowing along with her went $3-4K 

1 hour ago, cmitch05 said:

Is there a big difference in the gen 2 vs gen 3 lowrance units?  May get the 9 inch gen 2....is n avionics the way to go with mapping software for lowrance....appreciate the reply another site....those onix units look sweet....a Lil out of my price range, but appreciate the reply

 

The gen3's are faster and clearer. They also are touch screen and have buttons, where as the gen2's just have touch screen.  They are both great units.  If the onixs are out of your price range, atleast give the Humminbird helix a look. They are very affordable, are great units, and support a lakemaster chip, which to me is a big advantage.

[kking]

I agree that the lake master chip is a huge advantage.  I have an onix on console and may be selling my 1197 to try to put a helix on the front.  The helix has a Very clear screen and much faster processor than the older models.  Good luck!

[kdietz]

28 minutes ago, kking said:

I agree that the lake master chip is a huge advantage.  I have an onix on console and may be selling my 1197 to try to put a helix on the front.  The helix has a Very clear screen and much faster processor than the older models.  Good luck!

I'd suggest going Onix on the front so you can network! Big advantage! 

[cmitch05]

Appreciate the replies fellas....I'll keep ya posted

 

[bayouXpress]

i think graph choice should be based on maps and maps of the areas you fish most. Thats the reason I went with lowrance.  More options of satellite imagery maps for south louisiana. (legend cartography, E-standard mapping chips)  For toledo I purchased the navionics premuim south chip.  i believe the only satilelite overlay option for mapping on hummingbird is the navionics platinum.

Maps chips can get expensive.  

[kking]

18 hours ago, kdietz said:

I'd suggest going Onix on the front so you can network! Big advantage! 

All about the coin involved ?.   Am I mistaken in the onix and helic being able to network?

[RCCA]

I have two Lowrance 8" Gen 2's with navionics maps without touchscreen. I like buttons. I'm old. It's good but I'd sure like to have Humminbird 360 on the front!  If I could stand a foot controlled trolling motor I'd switch lol. Is the Lakemaster chip really that much better than the top of the line navionics?  I have no clue cause I've never seen one. 

Sorry. Lost my manners for a sec... welcome new people and good luck all! 

[Bass_Fanatic]

13 hours ago, Little Fish.... said:

I have two Lowrance 8" Gen 2's with navionics maps without touchscreen. I like buttons. I'm old. It's good but I'd sure like to have Humminbird 360 on the front!  If I could stand a foot controlled trolling motor I'd switch lol. Is the Lakemaster chip really that much better than the top of the line navionics?  I have no clue cause I've never seen one. 

Sorry. Lost my manners for a sec... welcome new people and good luck all! 

On the south end, the lakemaster chip is that much better. North of the Indian mounds its 5' counters, but from the mounds south it's 1' contours and pretty dead on accurate. Plus you can shade depths which really helps a lot too!

[keithM]

Thanks for the reports guys . Is anyone going to weigh in for the Elites tournament ? I would love to go but unfortunately I am on call starting tomorrow . I will be coming over there June 2 3 and 4 for the Lineman rodeo tournament , that's the only one I have ever fished . My son and I fished it last year had a blast !!!!! so we are going to make it a yearly trip. We will be staying at Bridge bay . I don't have much experience fishing deep water but after reading these reports  I am going to commit to it this trip and do my best  ... if I can just get 5 to weigh in I think I will be happy...LOL I am determined to learn how to fish this lake and still looking for some land or a camp to buy preferably on the Louisiana side because I will be coming from Mississippi . any advise will be greatly appreciated !!!!!!!!!!! thanks

[kking]

3 hours ago, keithM said:

Thanks for the reports guys . Is anyone going to weigh in for the Elites tournament ? I would love to go but unfortunately I am on call starting tomorrow . I will be coming over there June 2 3 and 4 for the Lineman rodeo tournament , that's the only one I have ever fished . My son and I fished it last year had a blast !!!!! so we are going to make it a yearly trip. We will be staying at Bridge bay . I don't have much experience fishing deep water but after reading these reports  I am going to commit to it this trip and do my best  ... if I can just get 5 to weigh in I think I will be happy...LOL I am determined to learn how to fish this lake and still looking for some land or a camp to buy preferably on the Louisiana side because I will be coming from Mississippi . any advise will be greatly appreciated !!!!!!!!!!! thanks

The best advice I can give is to just stick to it even if you want to go shallow.  I'm still new at it but learning every trip out.  Some of the things learned are good, some aren't but still learning.   Good luck!

[Kidflex]

Looks like KVD is off to a good start on the elite series tournament. He has always struggled on Toledo. I'd like to see him win here. 

[june-bug]

I was really surprised at how many of the anglers started and stayed shallow all day. I still think it will be won offshore but just goes to show you with the tail end of the shad spawn and water being up there's still a fair amount of shallow fish.

[Kidflex]

Congrats to kvd on a well deserved win. Looks like he figured out Toledo bend this time. Well next weekend is the big bass splash. Let's just say I won't be anywhere near Toledo bend next weekend. Way too many boats on the water! Good luck to anyone on here that's gonna be fishing it. Hope ya get a big un!

[RCCA]

Congrats to KVD!  BF, he backed you up on stage on how accurate the Lakemaster Chip was!  I'll take your word for it lol 

I'm raring to go back but I won't be anywhere around for that circus either.  The following weekend though

[j bab]

How do I find good spots off shore for deep cranking / c-rigging? From what I understand you need to find spots with depth change or structure or bait or all of the above, but how do you know what spots are gonna have structure? Do you have to go in blind the first time and look at your graph to figure out which ledges have structure and which don't?

For example this weekend KVD caught a lot of his fish in 20ish feet on a deep crankbait. I tried that in a couple different spots. One spot was throwing on a drop off on the edge of a big flat where I saw some fish on the graph. I tried both throwing uphill and throwing parallel to the drop off. That was 15-25 feet. The other spot I tried was off a main lake point where I had just located several big balls of bait fish. Threw the deep crank, a c rig, a jig n craw, a tx rig from different angles... Not a bite. 

Now I know I can't expect to do as well as KVD, but I was at least expecting a couple bites. Those spots sounded very promising... I located bait and fish on the graph on spots with deep water access... Please share what I was doing wrong. Could have been boat position, could have been the wrong color bait, I don't know. Also feel free to link me somewhere else if this question has been answered, I haven't read all 200 pages of this thread yet!