So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[Catt]

The first real cold front of the year has arrived on the Bend with temperatures this morning in the mid-30s and a possible freeze warming in effect for tonight. Lake temperatures are in the low 70s and color is slightly stained to stained with the southern main lake clear except in back of some creeks.

Rattle Head spinner baits (RSDW02) in 3/8 oz double willow (silver/gold) with a chartreuse/white skirt is accounting for excellent numbers.

Cold fronts will scatter and suspend bass keeping the DD22s productive; with the clear skies the silent version (bluetreuse) is out produce the rattling models.

Light Texas rigs and jigs are producing larger bass for those of us with patience to work the deeper outside grass lines.

Gene Larew 7 ½ Salty Ringworm in Junebug Blue tail, 3/16 oz tungsten weight, 3/0 Mustad straight shank hook.

Terry Oldham's ¼ oz #09 coon tail, Rage Tail Baby Craw Amber/Green/Black

[E_Meola]

Catt,

I'm confused...how are you using 1/4 oz and 3/16 oz weights on t-rigs and jig heads with all the wind? does it make it to the bottom before being under your boat?

[Catt]

Position your boat where you're casting with the wind

Winds 10 mph or less: 3/16 oz

Winds above 10 mph: 1/4 oz

I never fish a Texas rig with a weight above ¼ oz.

[JBF]

Catt,

Thanks for the great information. I enjoy it and looking forward to getting to the Bend soon.

JBF :

[Bull]

Catt, thanks for the information. What wieght do you use for your Carolina rigs?

[Catt]

Carolina rig: 3/0 straight shank hook, & 30 of leader

Depths out to 20': 3/8 oz weight

Depths of 20-35': 3/4 oz weight 

[bcody]

Well, we leave early Friday morning for Toledo where we'll be staying a little north of the Pendleton bridge.

Weather looks like:

Friday 73/53  20% chance of rain

Saturday 70/48 40%

Sunday 67/53   40%

Since my wife will be with me, quanity is way more important than quality. Hopefully I can get her chunking a spinnerbait so she can pick up a few, although she's not scared of a t-rig.

I'll be sure to post a full report when we get back

[Catt]

Water Temperture: 62 mornings - 66 afternoons

25-35' structure in the 1215, San Miguel and Lanan areas

Carolina Rig or Drop Shot

[JBF]

Catt,

What about the Patroon area and just South of the Bridge ?

Thanks,

JBF

[Catt]

Catt: James Gaines Boat Lane from the mouth of Corsey Creek south to the intersection with the North-South boat lane. Check out the creek coves on the south side of Patroon 

fishingcajun: Good call, Catt  I fished those the points of those coves my last trip, picked up a few, but was searching more than fishing. How about the grass beds Texas side of James Gaines boat lanes, there was plenty of fish on them a month ago, but i didn't try last trip.

Catt: The reports I've received on the James Gaines Boat Lane area has been about the points with nothing on the grass beds.

Areas south of the bridge look up Jack (fishfordollars) Yates replies

[JBF]

Fishfordollars,

Hey Jack any idea where to fish south of the bridge?

Thanks,

JBF

[Catt]

Fishfordollars,

Hey Jack any idea where to fish south of the bridge?

Thanks,

JBF

Do a little research of this tread & you will find your answer

[fishfordollars]

Fishfordollars,

Hey Jack any idea where to fish south of the bridge?

Thanks,

JBF

Leaving at noon today. If you are near Carrice Creek look for my wraped Skeeter.

[fishfordollars]

Been dealing with my mother's health. Have not been on the lake in a while. nothing ever changes over there. concentrate on outside grass, points and mouths of pockets around the creeks and you will catch fish. that's what I'm going to do this weekend.

Been so long since i made a cast i may chunk the rod out in the lake. I can't wait.

[Dam Yankee]

Good to see you get out a little bit Jack. I tried to take some of your advice yesterday and ran north from the Army rec. Got to Cypress bend and motor RPM's dropped and it got loud. I shut it down quick but, I have a bad feeling the oil injection drive gear (plastic) broke and I have a burnt powerhead. Pullin it off this weekend to determine how much damage is done. Hope you have a good fishin weekend.

[fishfordollars]

Well, Toledo Bend Saturday was Cold, Windy, and Wet. Our club launched out of Indian mounds. I won the tournament and never got over 1/2 mile from the ramp. Fished the outside points and ledges of several creeks concentrating on the grass lines where it fell off the grass from 3' to 30'. Caught the big bass of the "T" on the third cast, weighed 5.07. Four cast later boated a 4.83. Both on a Stanly wedge 3/8oz spinnerbait. white with silver/gold blades. Skirt was white with 6 strands of gold. Only two bites i got on a blade all day.

Did not catch another keeper until 1:30. From then until 2:30 i caught 7 more keepers on a Lucky Craft R.C. 1.5 crankbait. Just casting up to the grass edge and slowly working it off the edge out into 5-7' water. My five best weighed 15.87. There were only 7 other fish weighed in by the other anglers, all of them were fishing plastics. I never got the first bite on plastic. Will post up a pic of the two lures later today. Our club weighed in a total of 27.14 lbs, so it was very tough. I caught only six other fish under the 14" mininum for the day.

It's been well over six years since i have caught a decent string from this area. Only reason i stayed in the area was the wind. It kept all but one of our boats from running north or south. The only club boat that took a chance and ran south to Housen Bay(Hurricane Creek) came in with one 2 lb. fish. Glad i didn't try it.

I did spend the 10:00-11:00 hour doing my good deed for the day. One of our members lost the use of his trolling motor. I got sick of him motoring over my fish to do a wind blown float across my most productive area. Took his boat to the bank, traced down the wiring problem, and sent him out of my area. It didn't help him though, he only weighed in a single bass weighing 1.93 lbs. Bernie, if you read this, you owe me bud.

The back on the L.C. is green. Just does not show it well. i was fishing a treble hook for a trailer on the spinnerbait, just don't have it on when the picture was taken. If you are paying attention, you will notice the difference in the skirt & material. That's all I'm saying about it. It matters during the course of a day as to number of strikes for me.

Jack

[Catt]

Jack, I know where you were fishing

We will be dealing with frontal conditions for the next 4-5 months, select an area and work it over slowly and you'll catch.

[fishfordollars]

Yep, you know exactly where. If you are going up to try to win a few dollars let me know and i will zero you in on those ledges. It's pretty amazing the deep water in that area considering the amount of water that has come out of the lake. Front of the boat is in 3' and the rear is in 30'.

If you head into the creek with the boat ramp start out on the left grass covered point out at the mouth. Instead of working your way in, turn and follow the breakline out to where it intersects the big hump just to the south. Water falls from 3-4' out to 35' quickly. There is a hogback with grass on it you cannot see, that's where the two best fish came from.

Good luck

[Catt]

Jack it has always amazed me the number of people that totally ignore that creek, they will launch there, blast out & in of there at 60 mph but never once drop the trolling motor.

For what ever reason that area produces better the worse the weather gets, I can only remember once when it produced when it was nasty weather. It also produces well in the dead of winter probably because of the rapid depth changes.

[fishfordollars]

Yep, at least a dozen boats ran out of the creek by me(One while I was hooked up) and only one other boat came back in to fish that area during the day. It was two kids in a new Nitro with a 250 hung on the back. They said they were fishing the Up and Coming Tournament so I tried to help them. Not sure if that is a circuit for the younger guys or just a one time thing, they had Louisiana tags on the boat. Great idea though. No idea how they finished. You have any info on that?

[Catt]

I don't know anything about the Up and Coming Tournament trail but when you Google it Up and Coming Outdoors.com comes up, TFF shows the same link. Coming Outdoors.com is American Bass Anglers district 43 & 45 sanctioned tournaments.

Jack, there is a hump at the mouth of the first cove to your left, is it above water?

[fishfordollars]

Nope, but the points run a long way out into the lake before the grass disappears. I caught fish off both of those points and around the southern most point there is a pocket that I  culled my two smallest fish from. That's the farthest i got from the ramp. Just could not see making a move.

[Catt]

The hump I'm talking about is in the mouth of the first cove to the left as you enter off the main lake. I guess you would call it the eastern most point of that first cove; anyway there is a hump that is usually just barely visible at higher lake levels. If its visible study it real good and file it under things Catt said, it usually holds some where near by a small to medium school of bass with a kicker of 5-7 lbs. This whole area we are taking about is the first structure bass come to when entering from the main lake, the corner of the cove I'm talking about back out to the main lake is a feeding flat.

If it grass dies off enough while the lake level is low that entire flat from the mouth entering that creek and south all the way to the next corner will be excellent come springs high water.

Was it rougher than when we fished it?

[fishfordollars]

Not in that area. The wind was out of the NW so we were protected. Talked to a couple of guys that had run from just north of lowes creek. The passenger was still wide eyed. The boater said it was awful over on the louisiana side. One look at the nonboater told the whole story.

[bcody]

Alright guys, so the wife and I's anniversary weekend was a success...

We stayed at Emerald Cove (which was pretty nice), drove acrosss the bridge and launched at Holly Park marina.

Friday we fished that evening for a few hours. I started out on a small grassy point in Corsey creek and caught 10 total with 2 keepers on weightless senkos. They were mostly in 2-4 feet of water and on the edges of the grass line. The wind was next to nothing.

Saturday morning was nasty as it was way cooler and drizzling rain. The wife wanted to go anyway, which was awesome. We fished in the back of patroon close to the launch sticking with the grassy banks and points. We picked up 6 with a keeper before it started raining a little harder and we weren't dressed for the rain. That evening was a little different. The wind picked up and thats when we started throwing spinners and 1.5 RC's.We caught a few on each. It was our most productive outing. Same deal, edges of grass on wind blown banks. The wife even boated her biggest ever, 3 1/2 lbs.

Sunday we fished for an hour and a half in the back of patroon again, we caught 6 with 2 keepers on spinners. That made our weekend total of 30 with 7 keepers.

Thanks to everyone for the info. I love this thread.

Spinnerbaits were Stanley Compact 3/8 oz Chart/White

Senkos were black and blue laminate

RC was white shad

IMG_0208 by A Pure Hobby, on Flickr

IMG_0210 by A Pure Hobby, on Flickr

IMG_0217 by A Pure Hobby, on Flickr