So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[Catt]

@HunterSmith ask all the questions ya want

 

The key is not the depth or the grass, the key is the structure!

 

Grass on structure, wood on structure brush on structure, rock on structure is what we're looking for!

 

These are "cover" & form "breaks/breaklines", bass use breaklines to move along structure.

 

Every lake in the state of Texas is man-made & river channels, creek channels, or bayou channels are the lifeblood of that body of water. 

 

"When you say you start a creek/river bed and work shallower, what do you mean?"

 

Before this lake was built the entire floodplain of the Sabine river basin was mapped in detail. I have in my possession some of those maps which do not show shorelines.

[Clinton john]

10 hours ago, Catt said:

 

Bring those to Lacassine

The frogs or the bass lol.

[Catt]

6 minutes ago, A5BLASTER said:

The frogs or the bass lol.

 

Depending on weather both!

 

Going in the morning if the rain let's off, don't mind rain but 6" is a bit much!

[Clinton john]

I'm getting ready to head out in this rain up here today.

 

Ribbet bite should be awesome in this rain today.

[Redseal]

Good morning guys. I fish the Sealy big bass this weekend and I'll give you my report. Friday caught 15 to 20 between 3 and 4.59 lbs. most on 3/4 oz football jigs. Targeted wind blown humps in salter and the ridges of Tennessee bay 12 to 18 Fow . Key was using sidescan to find and wood. Sat we repeated the same pattern on Tenn and the cypress slash area of Jessie Lowe lots of quality fish between 3 and 4 but no $$ fish. Sunday we fished Hurricane till 10 with only 4 small fish. Moved back to Tennessee bay to finish the day with numbers but no money fish. Caught fish on c rigs , jigging spoons, with the bulk caught on football jigs

[Catt]

@Redseal Merci Beaucoup

[Catt]

@A5BLASTER

[Clinton john]

Catt, I hope that's not your truck.

[Nitreaux]

Can't wait to hear the story behind this.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Catt, I hope that's not your truck.

 

Nope! Not mine!

 

He pulled over to close to the slope, slide straight down!

[Troy85]

So I've been reading thru this post to help and prepare myself for my trip to TB this weekend.  I've seen it mentioned many times about bass using structure and breaks to move from deep to shallow water.  Which brings up a few questions.  How far are these bass moving when they are moving from deep to shallow, are we talking about a a mile? Couple 100 feet? 

 

I know bass don't really "migrate" long distances like speckled trout(beach/bays summer, inner marsh winter), but how far on average would you say a bass will move around?

[Catt]

@Troy1985s

 

What we find on Toledo Bend & on most bodies of water is there are a percentage of the population that stays offshore their entire life never once seeing a shoreline & there's a percentage of the population that stay within a certain distance from the shoreline.

 

Have far they move depends on season, structure, & available food source.

 

A few years back 2 double digit bass were caught around Housen' & Six Mile, both were weighed at Toledo Tackle & released there. A couple weeks later both bass were caught again around Housen' & Six Mile, both were weighed again at Toledo Tackle. DNA samples take both times showed it was the same bass. 

 

How far by water do you think it is by water from Pendleton bridge to Six Mile?

[Troy85]

Based on Google maps, roughly 15ish miles from the mouth of Housen to P. Bridge.  That's pretty impressive for those bass to find their way back.  Those bass has been caught and released, how far do you figure most move under normal circumstances?  When you say that a particluar fishing area should be "near" deep water,  what rough distance do you consider "near"? 

 

I plan on fishing shallow most of the time, as that is really my only strength based on where I usually Bass fish.  I'd like to find areas that are near deep water.  I'm just trying to get a rough of idea of how far is too far(based on current season).  I'm sure I sound like a fool, but i have only fished in a man made reservoir 3 times in my whole life, so I don't know much about how to fish them.  Other than what I read online.

[Catt]

There's no "set" distance!

 

Some structure I fish is within casting distance of deep water while some are 100 yds or more. The lake is moving towards solid summer paterns so the bass have no reason to move far other than feeding.

 

You have to look at breaks/breaklines connecting the deep water to the shallow water. Shallow water can be the shoreline or offshore humps & ridges, the easiest to find is the shoreline.

[Troy85]

I've been spending a lot of time looking at Navionics trying to find good areas that match what you talk about.  Hopefully I'll be successful.  As of now my plan is to fish shallow coves with creeks beds running thru them in the morning.  Then maybe switching to docks or points with deep water nearby as the sun comes up.  Also messing around with a little offshore fishing, but not planning on investing alot of time into that(as Its not my strong point).  We'll see what happens

 

Troy

[RCCA]

Troy, don't forget that you can fish shallow next to deep creek channels way out in the middle of most coves away from the bank. That has helped me a ton. Good luck. 

[Redseal]

Troy for what's it's worth. I'd say that if you're going to beat the banks , look for areas that are holding brim. But keep in mind that when we talk fishing deep does necessarily mean you have to fish the dead middle of the lake . Patterns that have worked for me lately are finding areas that rise up 6 to 10 ft from the deeper water around it , with any kind of wood to give those fish an ambush spot . That ranges from brush piles to scattered limbs

[Troy85]

Thanks for the info.  I'll be heading up there this afternoon.  I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

 

Troy

[Redseal]

Good morning , I fished sun/mon with mixed results. The wind kept me confined to Negreet . I managed to catch 13 fish with only 4 that measured. The deep pattern never showed up,so I beat the banks with a spinner bait and T rig . The wind gods allowed me to chase the deeper haunts Monday . It seemed that the overcast skies had the fish scattered and a lil harder to pattern.i fished negreet ,and the Indians mounds only managing 11 short fish

[Troy85]

The fishing was tough some days.  High winds on Friday and Sunday kept some spots that I wanted to try off limits.  When the wind did lay down on Saturday we ran from San Miguel over to Corsey Creek(Had never been to the Texas side before).  Fished some points around Corsey creek.  Ended up doing decent on Saturday, I think we had 11 total with 6 keepers, the biggest at about 4lbs.  Most fish were caught in 6-10ft with a june bug colored worm Carolina rigged.  Friday and Sunday were pretty windy and most of the fish caught weren't keepers.  

 

That storm that blew thru Sunday evening was pretty intense haha.  Me, my wife and sister in law were out Kayaking near  Miguel State park, we saw the storms approaching and realized we didn't have time to make it back to the cabin we were staying at.  We took shelter at the San Miguel park boat launch and had to call my dad to come pick us up.  Good thing we didn't try to paddle thru the storm, when those winds came they had to blowing 30-40 with higher gusts and the lighting was intense.

[Clinton john]

Yea it was bad I ended up with three trees down in the yard at my house, I live not two miles from the park.

 

Finally got to get on the water this morning at first light started on some grass and buck brush with the ribbet, me and dad had 11 bass landed by 8 o'clock biggest coming in at 3 pounds, then we went fished some points closer to the parks we fished with watermelon red and junbug, baby brush hogs, T rigged and landed anouther 14 only three of those were legel kepper size.

 

Will be back on the water this evening for the frog bite.

[Bass_Fanatic]

Glad y'all made it through the storm safely.  I haven't been on Toledo in a couple of weeks, I brought a group of boys on their senior trip to Guntersville last week and we caught 350 bass over 5 days.  Ledge fishing Toledo and ledge fishing Guntersville is two completely different worlds lol.  But I'll be back on Toledo Friday prefishing for a company tournament on Saturday.  I'll report back when I get home.  I'm hearing of some pretty good topwater action going on right now.

[Keith McKnight Jr.]

Heading to TB with my dad tomorrow. Got a tournament this weekend. I'll try to let y'all know what we do. 

[RonnieF]

On ‎5‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 10:29 AM, A5BLASTER said:

Yea it was bad I ended up with three trees down in the yard at my house, I live not two miles from the park.

 

 

Thanks for the report A5.

A5, are you closer to 1215 or 191 when you say you are 2 miles from San Miguel park? It's 2 miles from my camp to the launch at SM park. I'm closer to 1215 off Jeff Davis/North Apache trail. I have an older white Bass Cat Cougar, gold bolt w/purple trim. Stop and say hi if you ever see me. I always do some fishing in San Miguel cove from Cozy Point/Rocky Branch toward the main lake.

Hope the damage wasn't too bad. I called a lady that looks after camps down my road and she said nothing looked messed up after the bad weather.

[Clinton john]

I'm two miles by water from San Miguel park.

 

I live behind Gracies landing on hwy 3229 that road brings you to North Toledo Bend state park.

 

Blue pro crappie with a fat guy slinging a ribbet frog is me come say hi if you see me on San Miguel.

 

I know where your located use to work with a guy at ensco drilling that had a camp back in that area.