So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[Bass_Fanatic]

Good luck Bearonthewater...I will be up there tomorrow for another day trip. Wish I could stay for a week or so though! Look for grass in 8 fow and throw a trap if you just want to catch fish. Ive been catchin my better fish on a jig though in deeper water. Should be fun, the fish should be back on after this last front!

[Bull]

Headed up tomorrow to Six Mile area for a week. My camp is in the Hickory Ridge Cove. Good luck to all.

[Bull]

In response to Long Mike and the Mechanic at Six MIle. That is awesome, it is very hard to find someone of that calibur. My camp is not far from his shop. My neighbor has recomended him before. I ran a Yamaha on a 20' Ranger. I wonder if he works on Yamaha's? Might need him in a pinch.

[six-mile C-Rig]

Just a reminder, Bass-n-bucks championship is tomorrow and sunday, weigh in at cypress bend. Im sure there will be some big sacks brought in.

[Long Mike]

In response to Long Mike and the Mechanic at Six MIle. That is awesome, it is very hard to find someone of that calibur. My camp is not far from his shop. My neighbor has recomended him before. I ran a Yamaha on a 20' Ranger. I wonder if he works on Yamaha's? Might need him in a pinch.

I had forgotten the mechanics name, but coincidentally today I received a PM from another member who reminded me that the guy's name is Alton Carlton. He apparently owns the Dealership. If he can't help you, I guarantee you that he will know someone who can - and who will also be a stand-up guy.

[fishnla]

Just a reminder, Bass-n-bucks championship is tomorrow and sunday, weigh in at cypress bend. Im sure there will be some big sacks brought in.

On day one the they had a couple really good stringers (one over 29 lbs.), but overall looked like a low average. I was expecting better than that, but the wind was probably rough. I was at the LSU vs ATM game yesterday and the wind was blowing pretty good, maybe if the wind isn't as bad today more people will get on them.

[six-mile C-Rig]

yes, i was at the weigh in.. 29, 23, 18,18,18. then it dropped off major from there. The wind was non existant saturday morning. and never got bad. I think the weights were down over-all because fish are simply scattered everywhere, deep and shallow.

[Bass_Fanatic]

I fished mid lake area (Carrice and Slaughter) and only caught 20 fish yesterday, but I did have one that went 7.25lbs. All fish caught in 20 fow on 6xds and a 3/4 oz football jig. Fished shallow, but nothing to show for it.

[fishnla]

Bad timing for club tournament. We'll blame that one on LSU for scheduling their bye week for this past weekend. We took on some major water crossing the lake Friday (water up to our knees inside the boat), broke a HDS 10 unit, and the trolling motor stabilizer bar slammed straight through the front deck. Saturday wasn't any better but we didn't get quite as stupid. Sunday was a little better got to run, but it was still pretty windy. Anyways not many fish caught this weekend. Everyone caught there keepers in less than 8 fow. Graphs didn't have much activity on them this weekend, either shad and no fish or fish and no shad. The few times it looked active we didn't get a bite. I'm not saying that they are shallow now, but with the front its the only thing that worked.

[jchief]

I really want to thank all you SOB's for making me want to be at the lake more than ever...........

Just kidding, well maybe.............

Been battling hip issues and had surgery on it a month ago. No boat on doctors orders. I have not been to the lake in about 3 months. Plan on heading up in a couple of weeks if the doc says ok. Go back the 8th.

You guy's catching on jigs, are you pitching the grass edges or grass at all, or timber??

Thanks. Can't wait to get back to the camp at Buckeye

[six-mile C-Rig]

Bad timing for club tournament. We'll blame that one on LSU for scheduling their bye week for this past weekend. We took on some major water crossing the lake Friday (water up to our knees inside the boat), broke a HDS 10 unit, and the trolling motor stabilizer bar slammed straight through the front deck. Saturday wasn't any better but we didn't get quite as stupid. Sunday was a little better got to run, but it was still pretty windy. Anyways not many fish caught this weekend. Everyone caught there keepers in less than 8 fow. Graphs didn't have much activity on them this weekend, either shad and no fish or fish and no shad. The few times it looked active we didn't get a bite. I'm not saying that they are shallow now, but with the front its the only thing that worked.

I havent been in 2 weeks now, and it seems you are confirming the same thing im hearing from friends. Shallow is the only thing consistant right now. I'm headed up friday. Ill give the deep bite a shot, im gonna hit 2 or 3 spots, if there isnt anything there i guess im going to man up and flip grass. I hate fishing that way, but it seems as though im not gonna have much of a choice.

[Dam Yankee]

I went yesterday. Caught 1 on frog. 4 on spinnerbait and one on C-rig. Grass is the common denominator looks like.

[Bearonthewater]

Stayed at Fin N Feather 10/19 thu 10/26...........What a GREAT place!!

A bit proud to report back on my trip for last week.........especially since I've never fished the Housen area before.

Fought the winds Sat. 10/20 thru Tues. 10/23.........so I chose to stick around Housen Bay. Remembering some tips and trends I've studied here, my typical outings included fishing weed lines at humps in the area, covering wooded areas near creek channels, and hitting the windblown points.

Most productive depths / patterns were found 8 - 12 FOW, near creek channels…….especially if they held underwater trees & wood. Slightly stained water seemed to produce the best.

Daybreak topwater action produced a few keepers on BPS slim dogs and zara spooks.

Caught a few on KVD 1.5 in Green Gizzard Shad and Paca Craws in Magic Craw color.

No real big fish........mainly 2 to 3 lb keepers.........lots of throw backs……..but I was plenty happy with that. Most productive pattern came when I started ripping traps through the weedlines and the areas I previously mentioned…..especially near wood. Tried different color traps, but silver with blue back and orange belly was the trick. I threw spinner baits, Rapala DT10's, Senkos, and other worms with some but little success.

Finally made my way to Six Mile on Wed. and did ok with similar patterns.

Ran down to fish some piers near Mill Creek Bay that Catt mentioned here on this thread.

Caught my biggest of the week there …4.52 lbs (Thanks Catt!!).

It was a very memorable week……My wife got some awesome photos of the local wildlife and the beautiful scenery that God has provided for us to behold. What a treat it must be to be able to experience that on a regular basis……..

Just thought I’d share my little bit of success with those who have contributed so much here on this thread. In particular……Thanks a million Catt….Thanks Bass_Fanatic….Thanks SkeeterDon…..Thanks Six-Mile C-Rig…….Thanks FishinCajun….Thanks FishnLA……and Thanks Dam Yankee

I look forward to continued reading your posts here……and my next trip to the Bend.

[Bass_Fanatic]

Nice report Bearonthewater...sounds like a dang good time and that was some awesome pics! Im heading back up there Saturday if the weather cooperates. Sounds like everything is happening shallow right now, but I refuse to give up on my deep fish. We will see I guess...

[BulletDon]

Nice Report and glad you all had a great time. Cannot wait till I get back to the bend. Love that place.

[Dam Yankee]

Had a good morning and good afternoon bite. For me topwater produced along the edge of submerged grass with a heavy fog it lasted for quite a while and was fun topped off by a better than average spinnerbait bite along the same grasslines. My afternoon bite with no wind was from points with a few submerged logs and timber. That produced the best catch of the day at 6lb. 8oz in 25-30 ft.

Had one of my better days on the Bend and caught and released more than a limit which is not a common occurance with me! Still trying to figure things out.

[fishnla]

Sound good Dam Yankee wish I could be thinking about fishing, instead of the game that we just lost. Glad you had a good day on the water. I'm gonna try some salt water here by the house tomorrow.

[six-mile C-Rig]

definitely an afternoon bite this past week. Got on the water friday afternoon around 430. Went to an offshore hump, and baitfish were everywhere, and fish busting them all around. Caught somewhere between 35-40 fish. None bigger than 2 1/2 pounds. Mixture of LMB, kentucky's, and whites. I tried to catch some bigger fish on bottom with tx rig, in the same area, but nothing. Fish were biting ANYTHING that resembled shad. it didnt really matter what you threw. I got them on cranks(shallow and deep divers), trap, and jigging spoon.

Saturday, fished all day. Fog kept me near the boat launch until about 830. It was literally so foggy i could barely see 30 yards. Fishing near the launch, topwater with a spook, caught 3 shorts, and lost a solid 4. She jumped 5 or 6 times and finally spit the bait. Went to 2 offshore areas, nothing at either place, no baitfish or fish on the graph. Went and fished shallow mats from 930-2. Caught 7 fish doing this. 5 shorts. A 3lb and a 5lb. All on a swimbait. took a break for a while, then around 4 went to previous offshore areas, and it was just as it was on friday. Baitfish and fish everywhere. Nothing of any size though. Lots and lots of 12-13 inch Kentucky's and LMB. Probly caught 25-30 between 430 and 530. Then left to watch LSU squander the game away as usual.

Now is definitely the time to take a novice fishing. Find some baitfish on the graph, drop down a jigging spoon, and hold on. It really was that easy.

[BulletDon]

Awesome report six-mile. Good job.

[Bass_Fanatic]

I wish I had that kind of luck Saturday. I lauched at the bridge Saturday morning. Apparently there was some small tournament being held there. One guy in a boat wrapped with "The Boat Center" on it backed his boat down and just let it slide off his trailor. The boat came flying off and his prop came back and hit the back passenger side of my boat leaving a pretty good ding in the fiberglass. All the while he was in his truck just letting his boat float around. I was not very happy, but didnt want to cause any commotion. Anyway, the fishing was tough for me. Went and checked all my deep stuff. Caught about 10 fish deep, one being about 3.5lbs. I moved shallow and caught about 5 knots and then went home at 3. THat was my last trip up there till February probably. Disappointing considering the amount of fish and size I had been catching, but oh well, thats why they call it fishing I guess.

[Dam Yankee]

I saw that boat. He was on the south end late in the day. That boat was running where there was not a lane in an area that I know to be stump infested. I stopped fishing to see what a boat hitting a stump would look like but, he never hit one. Don't know how though.

[fishingcajun]

Went up to the bend last week for one day, got the boat out of Toledo Fiberglass with a new shine and Talon for this spring. 4pm-dark. I didn't catch a fish, partner had six with two really short keepers. 1215 area, shallow grass. Had a few boat around us, same results. Might add, I think it was 2-3rd day after the front, blue bird conditions.

Fished a couple of hours early the next day with my brother, we caught a few short fish, then i had to head home.

Got a call from my brother later that day, and he had landed his PB 8# large mouth. Caught on zoom trick worm. He was fishing in Sammy Gill, just working outside area of lily pads, 5' water with a good 14' creek and timber leading up to the shallow area. We fished this area the week before, and found a ton of bait and fish just couldnt get any to bite.

later work calls

[Dalton Tam]

Its been a while since I've posted anything but I thought this would be a good place to post this. My friend and I took second place in the Boat U.S. collegiate Sam Houston invitational on Nov. 17-18. It was tough and there wasn't alot of heavy sacks brought in but we managed to find one spot that paid off for us in the tournament. This stretch couldn't have been more than 100 yards long but the way it was set up was key for the fish to be there. It was in the back of a feeder creek up Negreet. The shad seemed to be in the back of the creek and the bass were there as well. What made the spot so good was that the channel swung in really close to the bank or should I say a small flat that run out from the bank about 30 feet or so. Every now and then you'd see shad running up on the flat and the bass would follow up and strike a few times. The stumps just off the flat where it dropped to the channel was where most of the fish were suspended in about 4-5 feet. I say that because the bait that caught 90 percent of our fish and the bigger fish was a kvd 1.5 square bill. We caught them off the stumps and also just out in the open sometimes. Not sure how many we caught but it was enough to bloody my fingers up. Mostly 2-2.5 lb fish but there were some better fish mixed in. We ended up catching 16.04 lbs on the first day and 14.48 on the second day. giving us a two day total of 30.54 lbs. We were beat by Danny Isles who had 33 something pounds as a two day total. Needless to say it was a close race. Wish we could have pulled it off but hey, that's tournament fishing for ya! Other than that I had a great time and caught alot of fish. Oh I also caught a 3.5 pounder in about 23 foot of water on the first day just texas rigging a rage craw with a 3/8 oz weight. Also in the same area but in a brush pile right on the point of the creek channel a little closer to the mouth of the creek. Here are some photos of the tournament. I had a blast!

This was our day one catch. We weighed in at fin and feather btw.

First fish of the day on day 2. Clost to 5 lbs.

Day two catch along with the other Louisiana Tech team that fished

[fishingcajun]

Congratulations on a good finish.

Great report with good detail. Anyone should be able to look for that pattern in the back of their

own area and find fish. I believe we had a similiar report a couple of weeks back from slaughter

creek.

[Dalton Tam]

about two weeks before that. My friend was catching em in the grass punching with a 1 Oz wieght. catching some pretty good ones but we couldnt get any bites in practice and we saw several college teams that were doing it on tournament day and didn't do so hot. Danny Isle went south of Housin so I'm not sure what he was doing. My guess is that he was on some fish up six mile. He lives right up six mile and that's his domain. LSU Shreveport didn't weigh in a fish on day one but on day two they came in with a 16 some odd pound sack. They said they were fishing in 20-30 feet of water. They had an 8.5 lb kicker and swear up and down they had another one on as big or bigger but I have no clue as to where they went. Caught it on a heavy jig on the bottom is what they told me. I think if someone wanted to find BIG fish, that's what I'd be doing right now.