A5BLASTER Posted May 31, 2020 Posted May 31, 2020 So first off I want to thank Catt for starting this thread. And also all the great guys that have added knowledge over the years. I wouldn't know have of what I know now without this great knowledge base but. Sometimes to much knowledge is a bad thing. Let me explain. So I take off this afternoon, thinking I'm going to go hit this cove real quick like and then go find something deep and try for some big girls. Well guess what I never leavt that cove, had a school there that was just on fire, can't even remember how many 2 1/2 to 3 pounders I landed. I landed enough to wear the paint of a kvd 1.0 crank and lose 2 barbs off the back hook. I know I was in the 85 plus fish area landed when I shut it down right at dark and they were still going nuts. I get home, shower up and start thinking, man if I had done this are dang why didn't I try that. Then it hit me. You big dummy you just brought home a 8 bass stringer of 2 pounders and nearly had a 100 fish day with a square bill crank. Sometimes knowing alot can get in the way of what's important. Just enjoying the fishing and time on the water. 6 Quote
Bass_Fanatic Posted May 31, 2020 Posted May 31, 2020 Sounds like a great afternoon. The late afternoon bite has been ridiculously good! You’re right, sometimes it’s better to just keep it simple. Good job! 2 Quote
FreshorSalt Posted June 1, 2020 Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) Hello guys, I’m looking to see if anyone could help me with bait/tackle shops in the Indian Creek area. We will be staying in a camp around hwy (255) & E Texas road area (2168).Thanks in advance for the info. Finally get a trip back to Toledo Bend after 4 years away but I have never been way down south before....BTW great group you have here props to you all!! Edited June 1, 2020 by freshorsalt 1 Quote
A5BLASTER Posted June 1, 2020 Posted June 1, 2020 49 minutes ago, FreshorSalt said: Hello guys, I’m looking to see if anyone could help me with bait/tackle shops in the Indian Creek area. We will be staying in a camp around hwy (255) & E Texas road area (2168).Thanks in advance for the info. Finally get a trip back to Toledo Bend after 4 years away but I have never been way down south before....BTW great group you have here props to you all!! Toledo town tackle in Toledo town is going to be your best option. 2 Quote
FreshorSalt Posted June 1, 2020 Posted June 1, 2020 I was fearing that would be the answer I would hear. Was kinda hoping maybe a small store closer would have some live bait maybe a little tackle supply. Since Toledo tackle is 45 minutes one way. Thanks for the info. 1 Quote
A5BLASTER Posted June 2, 2020 Posted June 2, 2020 1 hour ago, FreshorSalt said: I was fearing that would be the answer I would hear. Was kinda hoping maybe a small store closer would have some live bait maybe a little tackle supply. Since Toledo tackle is 45 minutes one way. Thanks for the info. Y'all going to be on the La or TX side? There is a small shop in Hemphill as well but I don't know all what he carries, my dad buys his troatline shiners at that shop. As far as bass gear, Toledo town is going too have the most options to fill your itch. 1 Quote
FreshorSalt Posted June 2, 2020 Posted June 2, 2020 22 minutes ago, A5BLASTER said: Y'all going to be on the La or TX side? There is a small shop in Hemphill as well but I don't know all what he carries, my dad buys his troatline shiners at that shop. As far as bass gear, Toledo town is going too have the most options to fill your itch. It’s on the Texas side we are all the way back at the end of the Indian Creek cove 1 Quote
Bass_Fanatic Posted June 2, 2020 Posted June 2, 2020 33 minutes ago, FreshorSalt said: It’s on the Texas side we are all the way back at the end of the Indian Creek cove Your actually closer to tackle addict on Rayburn than Toledo tackle and tackle addict is 1000x better. It’s like a brick and mortar tackle warehouse. 3 Quote
FreshorSalt Posted June 2, 2020 Posted June 2, 2020 25 minutes ago, Bass_Fanatic said: Your actually closer to tackle addict on Rayburn than Toledo tackle and tackle addict is 1000x better. It’s like a brick and mortar tackle warehouse. Bingo!!!That is what I needed 29 minutes from the camp. Thanks for y’all help ?? 3 Quote
Dougw Posted June 2, 2020 Posted June 2, 2020 Just an FYI... Gal at Big Bass Marina told me yesterday she was informed by her live bait supplier that there is A looming shortage of live bait, shiners specifically, starting to ramp up. They’re talking about mixing in European carp same size as the shiners to fill out an order. I don’t know a thing about European carp but I wonder if that’s even legal to introduce a non- native species to the lake. But, for all I know they’ve been doing it for years... 1 1 Quote
Dougw Posted June 8, 2020 Posted June 8, 2020 Spent the last week on Toledo Bend.... 6/1-6/7. Had out ABA championship 2 day tournament on 6th and 7th. Got there on Monday. By Wednesday I was ready to put it on the trailer and go home. Then Thursday came and it was like someone flipped a switch. I only caught 4 keepers on Thursday but that was mostly because when I caught a good'un I left. Friday I didn't do much and didn't catch a single keeper but I wasn't really trying. I had my "milk run" of 5 spots that were holding good fish! And then I woke up! Saturday I made my milk run. First stop put a 2#er in the boat then nothing for the next 45 mins. Went to spot two - nothing. Spot 3 - nothing. Spot 4 - nothing spot 5 - nothing. Went back to spot 1 - nothing. So I ended up weighing in 1 fish that weighed 1.93#s. Yeah.... that's about right. Day 2. Facing a threat of heavy wind I was debating making the trek across the lake. As we headed to our boats after the Sunday morning meeting. George Jeanne said that the forcast was for 20-25 mph winds after dinner. But... He also said he was not crossing the lake. Welp... If George ain't crossing I ain't crossing. Went to main lake point on LA side which would'a been spot #6 yesterday. Caught fish and marked fish there on Thursday. Roll up on the point and in about 4 cast put a keeper in the boat. Ok good.... No not good. Never put another black bass in the boat. But that's OK 'cuz here is where it got fun for me. I'd already ceded the tournament. So at this point it didn't matter maybe I had a shot at big fish. So I'm idling around the point looking and what do I see??? How about this for starters.... Screenshot_2020-06-03_08.48.03 by Doug Wei, on Flickr So... I hit spot lock n' started spooning. Realize I'd never caught a fish spooning until Thursday. Had '0' confidence in it but that's what this situation called for - so I did it. Sooo... On the second drop I got bit... set the hook and the fight was on! YeeeHaww... Turned out to be a ~3# drum... 'least I got bit. Dropped again... another bite... another drum.... I must'a caught 50 or so drum over the next 3-4 hours. Some were bigger than this and some were smaller than this but they all fought the good fight! 20200607_114225 by Doug Wei, on Flickr I was having a blast in the middle of the championship tournament catching - drum. I must be sick! But I was learning and gaining confidence in a technique that I had only tried a few other times. And if you're going to fish Toledo Bend on a regular basis it's a pretty important technique to know. After about 30-45 mins. of slaying drum I figured I should idle around and just see if I could find some bass, large mouth type. So... I move 50-100 yards and come upon another school. Drop the spoon and tap/boom... more drum. But that's still ok by me. Heres some screen shots of what I was seeing.... Screenshot_2020-06-07_10.16.28 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2020-06-07_10.16.19 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This next pic is from my bow unit. The left sonar is the Airmar TM185HW on the transom set to 150Hz. The right sonar screen is from the Xi5 built-in 83/200 transducer set to 200Hz. Screenshot_2020-06-07_09.50.32 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This is from the console HDS Carbon downscan and the Airmar showing the same conditions contrasting downscan to 2D sonar. Screenshot_2020-06-03_08.48.03 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This is a shot from the bow HDS Carbon w/built-in transducer. You can see where I'm dropping/lifting the spoon. Screenshot_2020-06-02_15.19.16 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Then of course there's the "What tha' hell is that?" moment and it turns out to be.... 20200607_115240 by Doug Wei, on Flickr I ended up spending the entire day on that one point. I learned a bit about spooning. Because there were so many fish there I got to try different things. The school of fish, most times, covered the water column from 15' to 25'. When I'd lift the spoon up above the schooling fish then drop it only say 1/3 of the way through the school, working the top portion of the school. I'd catch white bass - little ones. Then I'd drop the spoon to the middle of the school, I caught some crappie that looked like this... 20200607_100922 by Doug Wei, on Flickr That's a 14", fat as can be crappie. I caught 3 in all that looked very similar to that one. I was using cheap Cotton Cordell 3/4" spoon. I put a swivel on it and swapped out the stock hook for a mustad feathered hook. I caught so many fish they completely removed the feather and anything else used to attach it to the hook - on two separate hooks. The feathers were not required to catch these fish but I will say I caught fish more frequently with the feathered hooks. All in all I caught drum, crappie, catfish and bream from the same school(s). I kept kinna hoping I'd drop the spoon on a giant largemouth below the school but the drum had that area locked up it seemed like! The following is just some random screen shots I took while have a blast getting my butt kicked in a bass tournament! Screenshot_2020-01-17_13.24.29 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2020-06-02_14.54.34 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2020-06-03_09.26.34 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This is with the Lowrance "Fish Reveal" enabled just to see what it looked like. As I general rule I don't use that feature. Screenshot_2020-06-07_12.42.59 by Doug Wei, on Flickr 2 Quote
Bass_Fanatic Posted June 8, 2020 Posted June 8, 2020 The bass bite has gotten tough on the south end of Toledo. But at least you found a lot of fish and had a good time! Learning that spoon will help you tremendously. I always have one tied on and ready to drop. I fished Tuesday and Friday morning on Rayburn and evening on Toledo. Rayburn is still fishing really well, but Toledo is getting tough again. We did manage to find some big fish, but just not many bites. Tuesday evening we caught 15 and had a 7, 5, and 4. Friday evening we had a 5.5, 4.5, and 2 more 4’s. Drop shots and 6xds caught most all of our fish. 1 Quote
Dougw Posted June 8, 2020 Posted June 8, 2020 Yup... getting tough... 2 day championship George Jeane won it with 19+. I'm pretty sure that's the weight he had after day one as I was told day one leader had ~20#s. Tater came in second w/18+#'s and Donnie came in 3rd w/15+#'s About that drop shotting.... LOL.... Yeah I was having so much fun with the spoon I thought "Now would be a good time to chunk the drop shot too! Well I did. I tried vertical at different depths just holding it stationary. Boy that got boring in a hurry. So then I tried casting it out a ways, get the line tight and just hold... drag.... hold... drag. Let's just say that went on until it hung up and I broke it off and quickly returned to spooning! 1 Quote
Smalljaw Posted June 9, 2020 Posted June 9, 2020 5 hours ago, Dougw said: Yup... getting tough... 2 day championship George Jeane won it with 18+. I'm pretty sure that's the weight he had after day one as I was told day one leader had ~20#s. Tater came in second w/19+#'s and Donnie came in 3rd w/15+#'s About that drop shotting.... LOL.... Yeah I was having so much fun with the spoon I thought "Now would be a good time to chunk the drop shot too! Well I did. I tried vertical at different depths just holding it stationary. Boy that got boring in a hurry. So then I tried casting it out a ways, get the line tight and just hold... drag.... hold... drag. Let's just say that went on until it hung up and I broke it off and quickly returned to spooning! I had to laugh reading Doug's post, because the same thing happened to me 3 times recently, while graphing points and drops on the South end. Each time, I thought I'd found the glory hole, the downscan shots looked so good. Yet each time, I spooned up whites, goo (drum), and some largemouth and spots. I had no luck with a Hopkins type jigging spoon, but they murdered an old 3/4 oz. flutter spoon. As Doug said, it may not be what you're looking for, but it's sure fun while it lasts. It would have been even more fun had I been set up with a spinning rod and a 1/4 oz. Kastmaster spoon with a buck tail. Maybe next time! 1 1 Quote
blanked Posted June 13, 2020 Posted June 13, 2020 What’s your favorite summer deep water structure for numbers? Don’t mention brush piles for sake of discussion. How deep do you fish it for numbers ? 1 Quote
A5BLASTER Posted June 14, 2020 Posted June 14, 2020 1 hour ago, blanked said: What’s your favorite summer deep water structure for numbers? Don’t mention brush piles for sake of discussion. How deep do you fish it for numbers ? A hard well defined hump on the inside of a creek swing are the river swing. I don't worrie about the depth, if the fish are there I'm doing what I have too to get a bait to them. 2 Quote
Super User Catt Posted June 14, 2020 Author Super User Posted June 14, 2020 3 hours ago, blanked said: What’s your favorite summer deep water structure for numbers? Don’t mention brush piles for sake of discussion. How deep do you fish it for numbers ? IDK...I like em all ? Creek/river intersection are interesting, especially the point in the "Y". Depth? If the point in the "Y" is tight, the two creeks/river are close together & the top around 20-30'. 1 Quote
Dougw Posted June 20, 2020 Posted June 20, 2020 Appears they're pulling the lake down. Anybody gotta clue as to why? 1 Quote
Super User Catt Posted June 20, 2020 Author Super User Posted June 20, 2020 Getting ready for hurricane season, at 170+ a good tropical storm could push it to flood stage quickly. Which would mean opening all gates & flooding down stream. Quote
Bass_Fanatic Posted June 26, 2020 Posted June 26, 2020 Hey guys, wanted to let y’all know that on July 24th from 2-8 pm I will be hosting an electronics seminar at Cypress Bend Resort. Cost is $180 and that covers your dinner and the seminar. We will go in depth on settings, mapping, graphing, image interpretation, seasonal patterns, fishing techniques, and tournament strategies. Let me know if you’d like to come. Josh Sikes 2 Quote
blanked Posted June 26, 2020 Posted June 26, 2020 4 minutes ago, Bass_Fanatic said: Hey guys, wanted to let y’all know that on July 24th from 2-8 pm I will be hosting an electronics seminar at Cypress Bend Resort. Cost is $180 and that covers your dinner and the seminar. We will go in depth on settings, mapping, graphing, image interpretation, seasonal patterns, fishing techniques, and tournament strategies. Let me know if you’d like to come. Josh Sikes Is this a hummingbird or lowrance class 2 Quote
Swampghost Posted June 26, 2020 Posted June 26, 2020 He can teach both. He put on a series for my bass club once. 1 Quote
Bass_Fanatic Posted June 26, 2020 Posted June 26, 2020 57 minutes ago, blanked said: Is this a hummingbird or lowrance class We go through setting for both units. 18 minutes ago, Swampghost said: He can teach both. He put on a series for my bass club once. Thanks man. That was a good time! 1 Quote
Luv2fish! Posted July 2, 2020 Posted July 2, 2020 @Bass_Fanatic I’d love to come to the seminar at Cypress Bend! Email me the info at ra.ra8679@gmail.com 1 Quote
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