So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[jcdogfish]

For me fishing deep is a marathon.  You can fish a lot of great places but not get bit.  Sometimes you just don't find them in the area or if they are there they are not biting.  Sometimes if you see them you can trigger one and fire up the school.  Other times not.  If you watch major league fishing the guys are always talking about how there has to be good fish offshore.  In that format their time is limited like most weekend fishermen.   Those guys know they can spend hours offshore chasing ghosts.  And they know more than I do for sure.  I know they can pick good structure but that does not guarantee them success.  Thats why most stick to the shallower bite for the limited time they have.   I too am from a very shallow water area.  Deep fishing is tough on me too but even a blind hog finds the slop from time to time.

[RSemmes]

For me i am just curious because i fished a good bit of the Indian mounds area. I spent a good 2hrs riding ledges and long points and never really found any deep. I even tried fishing the bank a little with no luck, but it was my last resort since i am trying to learn to catch/locate them in the deeper water. I will say, the only 2 fish i caught were deep and the bigger fish that spit my partners bait was in the same area. I am assuming although we did not catch much that i could have still been in the right area? Maybe i just could not get them to bite. The fist spot we went had fish scattered, i did not find them schooled up much, but we did get that little bit of action. How do you guys locate a productive channel swing? is it a matter of just riding and checking to see if the fish or on it or not? or specific things that you look for on a map to decide whether you will even check that particular channel swing out? I went to one in the negreet area close to those 2 islands, i fished the channel swing just north of that first island where the point comes out from the island and had a ton of structure/woods but did not have one bite. I am new to fishing channel swings so this was my first actual trip fishing some. Do you fish the inside part of the swing (the flatter part) or the steep side or is this relative to the time of year?

[Bend Crazy]

Hello Gents, Just joined the forum this morning. Will be heading to the Bend later today to look deep for some big bass. Will let you know what I find. After this cold front I think they will be back out deep, I hope.

[Catt]

1 hour ago, Bend Crazy said:

Hello Gents, Just joined the forum this morning. Will be heading to the Bend later today to look deep for some big bass. Will let you know what I find. After this cold front I think they will be back out deep, I hope.

 

How Y'all Are!

 

Looking forward to a report!

[Bend Crazy]

10 hours ago, Catt said:

 

How Y'all Are!

 

Looking forward to a report!

Finally got on the water at 3:00 PM and fished till 5:30 PM.Water temperature was 55.5 all over the Pirates area. Found Shad from 16 - 35 feet but no fish around them. Picked up one Yellow Bass in 33 feet. Tried Dropshot Jigging Spoon and Football jigs. Not a good report but better than sitting at home watching T.V. Major wind tomorrow from the south, 25 MPH may have to trailer over to Texas.

[Bryanhester]

On 12/28/2016 at 4:11 PM, bassarmy7 said:

question for ya guys. I have been following this thread for awhile now and have recently gotten a fishin yak. where would be the best place on Toledo for fishing from a kayak to find a lot of good fish. Ive tried paradise and pirates coves, army rec, park site 7 on the texas side and launched from the bridge in indian creek. I have fished this lake with friends on boats before and we were always on fish but that was also running from spot to spot. thanks guy

Fished Tuesday in housen and ended up with 12. Best 5 close to 18lbs. Caught fish from 2 ft to 20ft. Water temp stayed constant at 53 degrees. Spoon, jerkbaits and jigs. Next week is shaping up to be pretty good for shallow fishing !! 

[mguidroz]

Heading up tomorrow after work with the family. We are staying at Fin & Feather.....so you know where I will be fishing. I don't plan on leaving the cove. I will post report. Y'all be safe and good luck.

 

[RonnieF]

Thanks for the report Bryan.

Good luck mguidroz. Ought to be nice. Funny how mid January we can be in shorts and flip flops.

 

The better half and I are headed up either Monday or Tuesday through the weekend. I saw on FB a 10+ was caught out of Huxley just recently on a jig in 8' of water. I'm thinking I might trailer south and spend a day exploring.

[RCCA]

See y'all in Housen Saturday   Thanks for the reports and good luck. 

[swglenn]

We will coming in about noon and will spend the night a F&F and fish Saturday as well.

 

[Catt]

Hurricane

[mguidroz]

Thanks RonnieF and same to you. If y'all see a blue and white (black bottom) Phoenix stop by and said hi. I will be there Friday evening to Sunday.  

Catt what about BULL?

 

[ladyfishkiller]

I found this thread and Catt's other threads this week and have been reading through them trying to learn and get a new look on how to fish.  I have a camper up at Pleasure Point SRA and am always looking for people to fish with and learn from.  This weekend I plan on trying to go find structure with my sonar units around some of the spots I have been looking at on my Hook-N-Line map.  Instead of shooting off to the Texas side or up North my plan is to look at spots around Pleasure Point.  Any suggestions or advice are greatly appreciated.  

[mguidroz]

 

11 minutes ago, ladyfishkiller said:

I found this thread and Catt's other threads this week and have been reading through them trying to learn and get a new look on how to fish.  I have a camper up at Pleasure Point SRA and am always looking for people to fish with and learn from.  This weekend I plan on trying to go find structure with my sonar units around some of the spots I have been looking at on my Hook-N-Line map.  Instead of shooting off to the Texas side or up North my plan is to look at spots around Pleasure Point.  Any suggestions or advice are greatly appreciated.  

I don't fish there much but I believe there are a few humps just north of the launch. You can also try the LA inlands and Army rec cove...

[Catt]

6 hours ago, mguidroz said:

Catt what about BULL?

 

Bull what! 

 

Kidding, Buck Bush in the back near creek channel.

 

@ladyfishkiller look at Caney Creek & tell me ya don't see structure!

[RSemmes]

Anyone heading up to Toledo Bend next weekend? If all goes well, i will be up Friday-Sunday. I have a friend who is at the lake right now who caught 19 keepers, from his picture he had 4-5 nice ones. He did not go into much detail, but he was catching them between 10-20' of water. He mentioned that they were high in the water column and caught almost all of them on flukes. 

[jacob2000]

So we have a HS bass tournament on Rayburn, tomorrow, and I know patterns will be a little different on Rayburn, but does any one have some tips or maybe suggestions as to where to launch or a general area to start?

[keithM]

Hey everybody it has been a while, but I have been trying to follow.  I do have a question. Since I am new to using a fishfinder can someone tell me which chip I need to buy for my Lowrance Mark 4 chartplotter fishfinder ? Do they have a chip just for Toledo Bend or is it for southern lakes too ? Thanks for the help in advance .  I will be on the Bend fishing for the last week in March .  We will be staying at South Toledo Bend State park . So if any of ya'll see a black and gold ranger stop and holler at me .

[Bend Crazy]

Hello All, I have been on the lake since Wednesday afternoon and for me the fishing has been terrible. I am working on finding deep fish and it is harder than you would think. Water temperatures are as follows; Caney Creek - 63 lots of shad no fish, Friday Housan Bay 59-60 some shad but did not find the Bass, today fished Oil Well Branch for the first time, did not find shad but found the fish on deep points, temperature started at 56 in AM and ended at 58, boated 5.

Quick question - new to forum, if I save this link will any new pages come up or will I always go to page 234?

Edited January 15, 2017 by Bend Crazy

[RCCA]

It was really Friday the 13th weekend for me!  One trouble after the next. Finally got to fish today after all the mishaps. Caught 14. Mostly on a trap, c-rig, and drop shot in 5 to 20 ft. All those are weird for me too. Cranking battery died and I couldn't jump it for some reason and had to troll back to Fin and Feathers. How special lol 

[Wesleyc_08]

I been following this thread for a while and decided to join the forum. I fished Saturday in housen. Caught 2.... it's pretty obvious I don't know what I'm doing. Still trying to learn the lake and different patterns but it's getting pretty old going to Toledo and not catching anything then get home seeing most people had a awesome weekend and caught a bunch of fish. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Guess there's always next weekend. Good luck eveybody!

[Catt]

Everyone I'm talking are saying the same thing, they're catching from bank shallow out to 30' with various techniques working.

 

Couple guys launched at Fin & Feather headed west to the first big cove, positioned the boat a little over casting distance from the bank. The guy in the front worked the bank to the boat & the guy in the back worked deep water.

 

They put the trolling motor on low & headed to the back of Housen'. The boated 35 with a 6.8# kicker.

[Wesleyc_08]

4 minutes ago, Catt said:

Everyone I'm talking are saying the same thing, they're catching from bank shallow out to 30' with various techniques working.

 

Couple guys launched at Fin & Feather headed west to the first big cove, positioned the boat a little over casting distance from the bank. The guy in the front worked the bank to the boat & the guy in the back worked deep water.

 

They put the trolling motor on low & headed to the back of Housen'. The boated 35 with a 6.8# kicker.

That's awesome. I fished the flats in Housen everywhere from 5-20 foot with a Carolina rig. Got 3 bites all day. I been fishing Toledo for a while but just getting serious about it and really struggling over the past couple years. Unless it's the spawn I can't seem to catch them.

[ladyfishkiller]

On 1/13/2017 at 4:02 PM, Catt said:

Bull what! 

 

Kidding, Buck Bush in the back near creek channel.

 

@ladyfishkiller look at Caney Creek & tell me ya don't see structure!

Yes, lots of structure over there.  I was gonna check out that area yesterday, but somethings going on with my trolling motor and giving my interference on my sonar.  I got my Buck Perry book in Friday and started reading it Saturday.  Now, when I look at a map or a lake I look at it totally different.  so, I didn't fish Sunday and caught a couple the little bit I did fish Saturday around a creek channel in deep water that had breaks around it and breaklines where fish could move from the deep to the shallows.  After getting off of the water Saturday and looking back at my map, I think I could've moved deeper than the 15' I was fishing in and moved closer to the creek channel and had better luck.  All in all it was a good trip because I learned some knowledge I can use next trip.

[mguidroz]

Well I didn't get to fish much but had a great time with the family. I fished in Bull (front 1/3) and the south side of Housen near the mouth Sat. from 7:30am-2:00pm. The water temp. was 62-64 in Bull and 55-56 at the mouth. 15-20 fish caught on rattle traps and TR baby brush hogs. The biggest was 6lbs caught at the mouth in 15'. The majority were caught in 4-8 feet.