So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[Catt]

2 hours ago, samwise2u said:

@Catt, gotta ask you since you are the one that started this tutorial.

 

Do the fish stay on the "highway" from deep to shallow year round? Moving along it as the seasons change? In other words, once they find the structure with the breaks/break lines and cover along the way do they stay in that general area for life?

 

Trying to find them in this BIG body of water has not been easy.

 

What you'll find is resident bass population the stay within a certain distance from the shoreline & a resident population the stay offshore.

 

Offshore bass will spawn offshore in waters deeper than the shoreline bass.

[samwise2u]

12 minutes ago, Catt said:

Offshore bass will spawn offshore in waters deeper than the shoreline bass.

 

Yep, once again, you have taught me something.

 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

 

[Catt]

2 hours ago, samwise2u said:

 

Yep, once again, you have taught me something.

 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

 

Y'all welcome

 

Tommy Martin has pictures from the 70s of bass spawning on top of stumps out on the main lake.

[RSemmes]

Fished all day yesterday, caught 18 bass in 8-12' of water Carolina rigging a fluke. Looked deep and on hunps and nothing, fished banks and no fish. Everything seemed to come in first half of creeks. Today we had 7 good fish 3-4lb range and 3 smaller fish all caught on C-rig. Almost all of these fish came off of one spot. Fished today until about 2 when the wind blew us off of lake. Fished everything extremely slow!!!

[Adamsnyder]

Posting on here because its more active... but I'm fishing a high school tourney solo on Sat. and need most help I can get.. anybody have anything?

[Bass_Fanatic]

50 minutes ago, Adamsnyder said:

Posting on here because its more active... but I'm fishing a high school tourney solo on Sat. and need most help I can get.. anybody have anything?

Go north and flip bushes

[swglenn]

We had planned to have a group of six fish today, Friday, and Saturday. After we saw the weather forecast only three of us fished today and caught 23. Fished shallow like we did last week. All fish caught in less than 5' of water. Didn't have to measure many but didn't have any size to them. Water was slightly stained in the back of the creeks. Wish we had seen RSemmes' post earlier and tried that. We stayed after the wind switched trying to finish the last limit. The temperature dropped to 50 at 5 PM. We had less than 5 minutes of a light shower as the front came through so there was no rain run off mid lake. I don't know what the wind will do to the water clarity. We will probably be back Monday and Tuesday.

[Hook'em 79]

Catt, what a great thread you have put together here. I have read through much of it and was curious if you felt the 1215 area would be a good place to spend a day in this time of the year?

[Catt]

On 2/3/2017 at 7:12 AM, Hook'em 79 said:

Catt, what a great thread you have put together here. I have read through much of it and was curious if you felt the 1215 area would be a good place to spend a day in this time of the year?

 

From Logansport to Burksville!

 

One can follow pre-spawn/spawn from January through May by staring up north moving south.

 

1215 is great year round

[Marshfly]

We booked the same place we stayed at in October for the middle of April. It's directly across the lake from Housen. Absolutely pumped. I also have upgraded my electronics so I have an LSS2 in the transom and a downscan transducer on the TM. I'll be watching this thread closely for the next couple of months.

[duckaholic25]

Im headed out to the bend this weekend and was looking for some advise. Im thinking about putting in a sepulvados and going back in san patrico creek. Is this a good starting point or is the water too low in that area?

[Bass_Fanatic]

1 hour ago, duckaholic25 said:

Im headed out to the bend this weekend and was looking for some advise. Im thinking about putting in a sepulvados and going back in san patrico creek. Is this a good starting point or is the water too low in that area?

It's low, but you should be fine back there. The fish are shallow!

[swglenn]

We fished Monday and until noon today keeping shallow. 12 keepers on Monday with the largest being 4#. We had 8 by lunch and then the wind picked up blowing 20 gusting to 25. We fished to dark picking up the next 4. Decided to move this morning to the Indian/Buck area because we haven't been there this year. Surprised to see very little grass in this area compared to a year ago. Picked up several throwbacks and finally a couple of keepers. Much slower than Housen. We are probably not fishing for a couple of weeks, buddy is going out of town, reason we left early today. Interested if anyone else wants to go. RSemmes, I need to learn something besides fishing shallow.

[Marshfly]

I would love to hire a guide for a day while we are there in April that can spend the day really teaching me about fishing lakes for bass. Home based in Houma, Toledo Bend is a whole new world to me. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

[RSemmes]

Darold Gleason or Jason Courville. 

[RSemmes]

19 hours ago, swglenn said:

We fished Monday and until noon today keeping shallow. 12 keepers on Monday with the largest being 4#. We had 8 by lunch and then the wind picked up blowing 20 gusting to 25. We fished to dark picking up the next 4. Decided to move this morning to the Indian/Buck area because we haven't been there this year. Surprised to see very little grass in this area compared to a year ago. Picked up several throwbacks and finally a couple of keepers. Much slower than Housen. We are probably not fishing for a couple of weeks, buddy is going out of town, reason we left early today. Interested if anyone else wants to go. RSemmes, I need to learn something besides fishing shallow.

 

I am still learning myself, but we can set something up and do some exploration for sure. What i have been doing is spending a lot of time on the Navionics app on my phone and computer mapping potential spots out and i check them when i am in search mode. It also doesn't hurt to have the hot spots map and the hook n line map as well. The last 2-3 trips i have had we checked multiple areas deep and did not locate any out on the main lake. We were able to locate a few this last trip off of the main creeks in deeper water and the rest were caught in 6-8' off of a main lake point. PM me your info and we can try and link up when i am in from offshore. 

[Wesleyc_08]

Do y'all think this little front messed them up? Planning on heading up on the morning.

[Kidflex]

Finally was able to get out on the water today. Launched outta 944. Water was way low. Never fished back there when the water was this low. Was hoping to flip/pitch buck brush but most were out of the water and on dry land. Managed to get a few pitching. Had to change plans and just work points and that seemed the be fairly consistent. Didn't kill em but got 11 nice fish with a 4lber being the biggest. Water clarity was decent in bull and ashmore. Temp was 64-66. Fish bit multiple lures....d bombs, rattle trap, chatterbait, trick worms and jerk bait. Most of what I seen ware folks ripping rattle traps on flats. Glad to see hydrilla growing! Tight lines y'all. 

[Catt]

@Kidflex ya try stay in the creek channel in the back of 944?

[nauticnation89]

Just found out about this and working nights ive read a freaking lot all the way back to 2008 , definitly very cool ....We have a place in Lows and do a small buddy tounry every year by alpine marina. With that being said its march 31 and april 1 this year. I lgrew up on trout and reds and snapper but am learning more and more about freshwater (mainly bass) and have a few questions. In that time CATT that part of the lake what should i be looking for as in banks, buck brush, creek beds, points ect. and also depth that time of year and is that time of year really pre,during,post? .......last year we got lucky and caught a schooling group busting shad in grass and got our bag limit all on frogs and buzzbaits by indian mounds with a kicker 7.28# but other than that one year we do about average or just below. I dont fish freshwater enough to learn it like yall but i recently sold my offshore boat and have a bay boat so i can do fresh and salt in and a kid on the way its a cheaper way i can still enjoy fishing. And just the challange of something im just really learning about is freaking addicting. Thanks and now i have this ill keep yall posted on the mid lake undates

[Kidflex]

5 hours ago, Catt said:

@Kidflex ya try stay in the creek channel in the back of 944?

I caught the better fish in the little pocket where the creek(bull) runs right up to the bank. There were around 15 boats in bull creek. I've never seen that many people back there the last few years. About half the boats were working the creek channels for white perch. 

[Catt]

@nauticnation89 How Y'all Are?

The way the lack of winter is going we are looking at an early spawn. Under normal conditions April 1 would be spawn/post spawn. With everyone beating the shallows to a froth I might be thinking offshore!

 

@Kidflex 169' is closer to normal than 172'!

 

I actually dislike the spawn because too many people in my way!

 

944 goes a long ways back & holds fish year round

[Catt]

I've caught more fish year round out of Hurricane, Bull, & the south bank coves of Housen' than anywhere on the lake!

[FlukeJr]

Haven't posted in a while, but I read this thread on a weekly basis. Just got back from a weekend at the Bend. I am very concerned about the total lack of vegetation??? I've never seen it this bare. This is what destroyed Caney, and a few other great fisheries. Does anybody have an explanation on what happened? Our favorite lake will go downhill fast if we don't see a return of the vegetation that's critical to the health of the lake. Other than that rant, we did ok and caught most of our fish at staging locations on creeks with quick access to shallow spawning areas. I'll hang up now and look forward to y'all's theories on the vegetation issue.   

[Slefler]

There was an epic amount of water moving through the Bend last Spring so a lot of it got washed out which is why there's such a big decrease in the Giant Salvinia there. It may not be the exact cause but after watching a video from a drone of the spillway last year of all the water flowing out I can tell you that it certainly didn't facilitate the growth and continuation of the main submerged vegetation.