HitmanFO

Hey always, don't know if you've been there much, but Dam B/B.A. Steinhagen Lake is quickly becoming my favorite fishing spot (when they don't have it drained... lol), and luckily so, since it's the closest to where you and I live. Me and a buddy took my two boys up yesterday and caught 25 bass in less than 3 hours. None of them were keepers, but we had a blast, using spinnerbaits and C-rigged flukes. My 7 yr old caught his first bass unassisted (he cast, he reeled, he landed the fish, without me having to do a thing)... and then a second. Making good memories! I've located 3 spots which are sure-fire producers... always catch something... just haven't found the "big bass" hangout yet! I'm working on it, though... gonna find them sooner or later. I HAVE caught some keepers, in the 2-3lb range, but I don't catch keepers every trip. I live in Kountze, and I can leave my house and be on the water in less than an hour; saves a lot of time and $$$ for that quick weekend trip when a drive to the Bend or Rayburn is out of the question. I figured I'd drop you a line, since you're in Lumberton. I run my 19' Champion out there, no problem with depth or stumps, for the most part. Since my weekends on the Bend generally turn out like yours (a full day of fishing with only 2 dinks to show for it), it's nice to get my confidence back by spending a few hours on Dam B and hauling a bunch in!

Just picked up a H-N-L map for Rayburn at lunch today. I checked the cove where we fished and it is number 1, Fire Tower Cove, just two coves north of Parker Point. It does have a "Sandy Creek" flowing into it. Soooooo.... sorry for the confusion, guys!

When I just HAVE to scratch that fishin' itch during the work week, I grab my UL and head down to the creek, leaving the bass boat and baitcasters at the house. My favorite lure is the Strike King Bitsy Minnow... it ALWAYS produces! Big enough that the bass grab it... small enough that the crappie tackle it too... I've caught more fish on that lure fishing the creek than any other bait or body of (fresh) water I've been on. I've been looking at that little worm in the store when I pick up replacement Bitsy Minnows... I guess I'll have to try one now!

Looking at a map online, I was fishing the biggest cove between Big Caney and Parker Point. It has a creek that flows into it called Sandy Creek. The next named place from what I am calling Sandy Creek, heading toward the dam, is Parker Point. Then there is the Sandy Creek Recreation Area, and then Plum Creek is just another cove further toward the dam than Sandy Creek Recreation Area. I know I definitely was not down that far. I was told that Rayburn actually has 3 Sandy Creeks that flow into it, so maybe I'm calling it Sandy Creek when it is not actually named, or maybe goes by a different name... it has a Sandy Creek flowing into it, so that's why I called it that! If you know the correct name, please let me know! It was only my 2nd time to be on Rayburn. Here are the coordinates, per Google Maps: 31.111593,-94.226604. You can just cut and paste these coords into a Google Maps search bar and it'll show up.

Well, here's how my day went Saturday... not as planned, but here's how it went. When me and my buddy got to Caney Creek at 5:30am, the wind was already blowing pretty stiffly. We put in about 6:15... after motoring out, and seeing the white caps on the lake already, I decided to just head south and find a cove to hole up in until it got full daylight... I wasn't brave enough to put the Champion in that kind of chop until I could see! I headed straight south in fairly rough water... Big Caney was OK, Church House was being blasted, the next cove was too, but Sandy Creek was relatively protected, so I turned in there. Went back about halfway, dropped the trolling motor in about 17' of water, cast into 9' of water with a blue/chrome/orange trap, and pulled one in the boat on the very first cast! It was a GREAT way to start the day! We kinda let the wind push us into the back of the cove, fishing all down the north side of Sandy Creek. The bite was good, but we only landed one keeper. We only caught one or two in the back... all of our fish came from the north side, halfway back into the cove. Once we reached the back of the cove the sun was up and I decided to tackle the wind and waves and shoot across the lake to Veach. The Champion handled it WAY better than I expected... it was actually pretty fun! When I pulled into Veach it was like a Sonic drive-in on the north side... boats lined up about a hundred yards apart from the western tip all the way to the back. I counted 13 before I finally just gave up on fishing there. The only spots open didn't look very good. The coves on the south side held at least 1 or 2 boats, and they were fighting a pretty good breeze. I went ahead and ran all the way to the back of Veach, went into that cove in the very back south side, and fished all the way up in those creek channels. Again, caught some bass, but no keepers. Fished it with the Rat-L-Trap, spinnerbait, and Tx-Rig worm... buddy fished it with a Senko and Tx-Rig worm. Still caught all of mine on the trap... came up with nothing on the others. After getting tired of catching dinks, I ran up to Harvey to go fish the lily pads and try to stay out of the wind. No dice... 3 boats in the pads. So we fished a few spots on the north side, and the biggest thing I caught was an 18" catfish on the trap! That was a first. Lost my trap, my favorite spinnerbait, and a new swimbait over there... kept getting tangled up and accidentally breaking the line or wrapping it up in the trolling motor because it was so tough to maneuver the boat in the wind/waves. Ran out to Black Forest and some of those coves after that and fought the wind and waves... no joy. Ran back down to Big Caney but there were plenty of boats there. Church House was still fully exposed to the wind and waves. So I went ahead and went back into Sandy Creek. We fished up and down the north bank 3 times and caught all of our fish in one spot... halfway back, along the north side, the boat sitting in 13-17' about 100' from shore, casting into 9-10'. I don't know how often it is like this, but there was a break line where one type of grass ends (milfoil?) and the hydrilla begins. I lined the boat up with that break, just FYI... no other reason that I was just using it as a point of reference to keep the boat in one spot, because that's where I noticed I was catching them all at. I pulled in my one keeper of the day on a Carolina-rig fluke in watermelon red. It was an amazingly beautiful day out there... saw otters, ducks, a pair of bald eagles... deep blue sky, no clouds, cool weather... so it was a joy just being on the lake. And, I landed quite a few fish, just none with a decent size! Even my keeper was less than 2 lbs. So, it was a great day to enjoy nature, a great day to learn a little better how my boat handled and get some experience with rough open water, and a great day to wet a line and relax... just not a great day for the big bite! Jack, I printed out this thread and took it with me, but wasn't able to put much of it to the test... but I'll hang on to it for next time!

Jack, you just described exactly what I'm planning for tomorrow... fishing Black Forest down to Sandy Creek on the west side, putting in at Caney Creek. I really want to run across to Veach, but I've only had my Champion for 3 weeks and do not feel I am experienced enough to handle stiff winds and rough water on the main lake yet! I thought about running across early in the AM and heading back after a couple of hours... but probably will just run up the west side and work my way down south throughout the day. That should give me plenty of good fishing. FYI, I printed off some Fishing Hot Spots maps of the area that I found on a website, plus got a Navionics/Hot Maps Explorer DVD of Rayburn and spent a couple of hours with it last night. I printed off this thread and marked them up with all of your pointers, of course! I will let you know the results... hopefully I can do your info justice. Thanks a bunch!

Bigtimfish, my two cents, just to reinforce what Catt said... I had a buddy fish the mouth of Sandy Creek last weekend (on the Sandy Creek side of that point that projects toward the island at the end of Six Mile) and he and his partner caught all of their keepers in 16-18' of water on the outside grass line with Tx-Rig trick worms. He said he caught a bunch of 13-inchers in shallower water, with various topwater baits and plastics, but his keepers were coming from deep water. Since Sandy Creek and Six Mile are right next to each other, I figured I'd throw this out there for your information... I know it doesn't answer your direct question, but it does reinforce what Catt suggests! Good luck! I'll be trying to figure out Rayburn this weekend...

Alwayslooking, you're right! 6 months ago I was fishing with a $13 Shakespeare spincaster from my canoe on a creek with 1 bag of finesse worms I'd had for years... then the fever hit. Now I've got Revo's, a big tacklebox that is overflowing, and a 19' Champion bass boat. Oh, and the highly agitated wife that comes with all of that.... ;D More than all of these other fishing tips, I need someone to give me tips on turning HER into an angler so she'll quit giving me a hard time about my fishing trips!!! Jack, will let you know when I get the map... I got a buddy that doesn't fish much anymore that has a Rayburn map he is supposed to give me tomorrow... not sure what kind it is, yet. Like I said, the first thing I'll do when I get my hands on it is sit down and read through these posts and start marking it up! 'preciate it!

GREAT post... much more than I would have dared ask you for. I'm going to print this out, look at some maps, and stash it in the boat for the next trip. I haven't bought the Hook N'Line map for Rayburn yet... they're all sold out at Gander Mountain, and I forgot to check Academy down here last week when I was buying stuff for the boat. Anyhow, I will definitely put this info to the test and will let you know the results. Thanks, John

I fished out of Caney Creek two weekends ago, in the cove right to south of the boat ramp, and the next cove over from Churchhouse cove, again south of Caney Creek. Came up with one keeper and a few dinks, fishing worms, Tx-rig and wacky (only fished for about 2 hours). Had some nice blow-ups on buzz baits, but never hung one. I'm going to go back and fish that side again... thinking of fishing the flats heading right into the main lake there and heading north toward 147 to hit the coves along the west side there (based upon conversations with friends that have fished Rayburn successfully). What would you do coming out of Caney Creek, Jack? That weekend was the first time I'd ever fished Rayburn. Catt made a statement on his Toledo post that I'm thinking about... he said he fishes the main lake early in the morning, instead of the hitting the coves early like most other people do, since the main lake is less windy in the morning. In the past few issues of the Lakecaster many anglers are saying they fished "main lake grass in 12' of water", with jigs, DD22's, and worms... I'm thinking about heading out there and finding some grass early on and trying it out, instead of fishing the coves first thing.

I gotta post a big THANK YOU to Catt as well. I've looked for similar posts on other lakes I fish, like Rayburn, and Stillhouse up in Killeen... nobody else comes close to the amount of good information and tips that this thread has!!! And like James said, no matter where I'm fishing, I'm constantly using what I learned on this thread. This is the first year I've done serious bass fishing... I'd still be bank-beating with those black worms with the pink tails that I bought at Wal-Mart 10 years ago if not for this thread! Now I can talk shop with the best of them, and am teaching my "beginning angler" buddies about cover, structure, slow-rolling a spinnerbait, throwing a Tx-Rig worm into 25' of water instead of onto the bank, getting away from the bank, reading their depth finders and maps, etc. etc. etc. I'm going to have to do some pre-planning on a Toledo trip soon and arrange to meet him and shake his hand! Thanks to Catt and everyone else that contributed to the thread! We just need a similar one that covers Rayburn now...

Some friends of mine were hauling them in this weekend on a similar rattletrap, Catt, except it was blue on top with chrome sides and bellies. One guy was jigging and ripping his... the other was swimming it... both ways produced. They pulled in one bass that regurgitated a baitfish that was almost identical in size, color and shape to the blue/chrome rattletrap... no wonder they worked so well. I fished nearby, catching them on chartreuse buzzbaits and black/chartreuse spinnerbaits. My first buzzbait catch, that bass blowing up on top of the water, was GREAT! Remember, I just got serious about bass fishing this year... never fished a buzzbait until this weekend! Bought a bass boat Friday too... now there's no hope for me. :'(

"The metabolism rates of bass are at its highest during summer." Right - I misspoke! The metabolism increases as the water temp increases, so the metabolism is highest when the water temp is highest, mid-summer. Maybe a better phrase would have been "activity speeds up"??? The water cools down, the bass become more active, fattening up through the fall... sorry bout that! So, both anglers are right... just talking about two different "styles" of bass... shoreline bass and main lake bass. Makes perfect sense to me! Thanks Catt!

Catt, this may be just a guesstimate on your part, but I have a question related to the water temp and how fast the fish move toward shallower water. In late August/early September I fished Toledo Bend and the surface water temp was about 90 deg. In early September there was almost a solid week of rain and cool weather. When I fished on Sept 18-19, the surface temp was a constant 80 deg, from 6am til I got off the water in the late afternoon (there was heavy cloud cover and a cool breeze all day). I was told, by those "in the know", prior to fishing that weekend, "The bass are going to be shallow! With this cool weather they are going to be really shallow! Fish the bank, the weedlines close to the bank." etc. etc. Now, my thoughts were, "It has only been this cool for a little over a week... and all of a sudden all of these bass are coming out of the deep water, AFTER ONE WEEK of cool weather, and piling up on the bank???" :-/ How would you characterize the move to shallow water? A sudden charge toward the shallow water once the water cools down and the bass' metabolism speeds up, and has the majority of the bass in the shallower water in a matter of a few weeks? Or a slow, gradual shift toward shallower water, where the majority of the bass are in the shallows after a couple of months of cool weather/water? I've heard in both ways... both from experienced Toledo Bend anglers... the "quick" version from a tournament angler, the "slow" version from a retired guide. Consequently, my buddy and I stuck the boat in the 15' of water you've drilled into us and my buddy fished shallow and I fished deep, for the most part... him believing the tourney angler, me believing the retired guide. Made for an interesting day of fishing! What is your take? I don't think you've steered us wrong yet... From my experience that weekend, all of the keeper bass I caught were in 16-22' of water, EXCEPT the biggest one... he was in 4' of water. My buddy put a dozen or so small ones in the boat from shallow water, but his keepers came from 10' or deeper. So I would lean toward the "slow" version as being more true, though both versions probably have elements of "truth".

By the way, my buddy bought the Sidewinder at Ann's Tackle on the way up there Friday... fished them Saturday, Tx-rig, and caught a few. I didn't handle any, but he did make a remark about how firm they were... he was concerned they'd be a little too rigid to get a lot of good action out of... but they did produce. And, of course, since Catt recommends them, I'll go buy a bag and check'em out for myself! :

Fishing report for this weekend. Fished in Six Mile on Friday and Saturday. Friday evening I caught 2 keepers, 1 in 16' of water on a Tx-Rig June Bug trick worm, 1 in 17' with a black/white/bloodspot Stanley Wedgeplus, slow rolling deep. My buddy came up with nothing that evening, fishing flukes, mainly. Saturday I pulled a decent 2.5 lb'er in on a Stanley Wedgeplus Firetiger spinnerbait, casting into the visible grass in about 4 feet of water, hanging it up, ripping it out, pulling it back toward the 17' of water I was sitting in. He hit it when I ripped it out of the visible grass. I caught another keeper simply by turning around in the boat, throwing a Tx-Rig June Bug trick worm into 22' and lightly jigging it for a few minutes. I caught a few other non-keepers on the trick worm. My buddy caught about twelve non-keepers throwing a Carolina-rigged fluke into about 11' of water. He also caught a 2.5 lb'er on a Yellow Magic popper. I fished topwater as well, but never even provoked a strike on a Chug Bug, Rage Tail frog, or waking the spinnerbait. That surprised me, because I was fully expecting the topwater action to be great this weekend. All of my fish came from 16-22' of water, except for the one I caught in the grass. Now, I talked to several people that had an awesome weekend fishing topwater in Sandy Creek. I talked to one guy from Lake Charles Friday night that said he caught three 5 lb'ers and two 3 lb'ers that evening on Ribbits. On Saturday, I talked to a couple and actually looked at all their fish they caught, as they were weighed. They had a nice 6 lb'er, a 4 lb'er or two, couple of 3 lb'ers... a full limit for both of them with nothing under 3 lbs, if I remember correctly. They said they fished nothing but topwater from sunrise to mid-afternoon in Sandy Creek. They wouldn't give out all the details, but mentioned fishing with Ribbits a lot that day, and said they were throwing across visible grass mats/lines, pulling up to the grass line, dragging the frog across the top, and letting it drop off the other side of the mat. Their big one was caught in 10' of water on a Ribbit... they did give up that much. Of course, they might have been jig-fishing in 30' of water for all I know, just saying that to throw us off... you know how fishermen can be... ;D But they did have the best catch I saw that day. I'm no pro, but I sure had a great weekend of fishing. Caught more keepers than I ever have before in a weekend on the Bend, including the 2.5 lb'er, my biggest bass on the Bend yet. Most of the credit goes to you guys that are contributing and sharing on this thread... thanks everybody! I guess with this cooler weather rolling in, maybe it's time to start talking fall patterns, right?

"Starting at a river/creek channel I can find a ridge that comes up to 15' that is only 20-30' wide that you will never find coming from the bank because once you reach 15' you stop. " Excellent point Catt... you are exactly right... and this is exactly what I have been doing, 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time I am motoring through 20-30' of water, see a sharp rise up to 15' or so of the depth finder, and stop and fish it, no matter how close or far away from the bank I am. I guess that's why I don't catch fish 95% of the time... ;D Well, I'm going back to Toledo next weekend, fishing the 18th and 19th. I'll definitely be fishing it differently this time. Thanks for your input, Catt and capie... it's invaluable to those of us that are seriously wanting to figure out the Bend and make it produce for us.

capie, I think I see one error I have made, based upon your input. I have fished flats, humps, points, secondary points, and good grass, but not always NEAR DEEP WATER. I'll fish the grass line in 15' of water, but the bottom may stretch flat and level at 15-18 feet for quite a ways, before dropping off to deeper water. Sounds like I need to find that grass line, but have a good drop-off into a creek channel, road bed, whatever, within close casting distance. You agree? One place I can think of like that is the highline cove on the north side of Six Mile that I mentioned in an earlier post. It has a grassy point that is above water close to land, and tapers out to a grassy point about two casting distances from where the grass first goes under water. On each side of the point is a good dropoff into 25 feet of water or so, which comes back up on either side to grass again, within casting distance of the bank. Fishing that grassy point, and along the sides of it, with Carolina-rigged plastic, produced a lot of bass this last weekend for two buddies of mine that fished it. Only a few keepers out of all of the ones they caught... but at least they were catching them. Maybe I need to sit smack dab in the middle of where that grassy point tapers off, or along the taper somewhere, and cast into the 25 feet of water, reeling back toward the grassy point, instead of sitting in 18-20 feet of water and casting toward the point.... hmmmmmmmmmm..... is that what you and Catt are suggesting??? Did a light bulb just appear over my head???? Let me know!

Catt, you are correct... I've been relating to the bank, for the most part, coming off the boat lane, heading toward the bank, finding the grass line, then turning the boat parallel to the bank (following the grass line), fishing all sides of the boat. You say you are finding a creek channel, then moving away from the creek channel until you find the grass line, then casting back into the channel while sitting on the grass line? Some of the channels are fairly deep within casting distance of the bank... do you take this into consideration, or just fish per the depth of the water? I haven't been doing that 100% of the time... many times I am cruising off of the boat lane, running across humps that aren't shown on the map, and fishing them. And I try to stay along that grass line, whether it's in 9 or 15 or however many feet of water, whether it is 10 feet or 100 yards from the bank. That's not how you do it? Critique me!!! I know I've learned A LOT of good stuff from this forum... thought I was doing pretty good following your tips/instructions/teaching, but evidently I've misinterpreted some things! Thanks for your time Catt! My fishing buddy is getting tired of hearing me say, "Well, Catt said this..." or "No, Catt said do it that way..." ;D

Fishing report: Friday evening I caught 3, one on a shallow running crankbait, two on the Stanley Wedgeplus in white/chartreuse. I had 4 short strikes on the spinnerbait, close enough to the boat that I could see the underwater action. I tried both slow-rolling (thank you Catt) and waking (thank you capierottie) it... both worked great! Had fun with the spinnerbait this evening... first time I've ever used one. Location was the south side of the Sandy Creek/Six-Mile crossover. Saturday AM I had no luck with anything I threw, though my fishing partner put 4 in the boat on Carolina-rigged plastic and 3 on a medium-diving crankbait. We spent most of our time fishing the grass points in the highline cove on the north side of Six-Mile. Saturday PM, while the storm was rolling in, we took shelter in a cove along the Sandy Creek boat lane (north side) and I caught two, throwing Tx-rigged watermelon red trick worms into schooling bass. My buddy caught a few on a Chug Bug, doing the same thing. Late in the evening, after the storm blew by, we fished Six Mile Flats and pulled in a keeper right before it got dark on a Tx-rigged purple trick worm... they seem to be working like a charm out there. The water was really low... at my buddy's house, his boat was sitting about 5 feet lower than the deck that you're supposed to be able to step off of into the boat. This also corresponded with what I was seeing on the depth finder... grass line started at approximately 9 feet, instead of the usual 15 feet. Question for you, Catt: since the water was so low, making the grass line in 9 feet of water instead of 15 feet, would bigger bass retreat to even deeper water with different structure, or would they still hug that grass line? From my experience this weekend, they weren't on the grass line... most of the ones we caught were 12-13 inches. The only keeper that we caught that was in/along the grass was on Six Mile Flats. That makes me assume that the bigger bass went to deeper, cooler water.

I'm driving up there tomorrow after work, fishing tomorrow evening, and from dawn til dusk Saturday, Six Mile and Housen. I'll have a spinnerbait tied on first thing! Will post results... hopefully good ones... ;D

Great, capie, I really appreciate the tip. I'll be out there in Six Mile Saturday and will give it a shot... will post my results.

Cappie, how are you fishing those spinnerbaits? Letting them sink all the way to the bottom, then reeling them in slow, letting them stay deep? Or reeling them in just under the surface? Are you going across the tops of the grass, or along the face of the grass line? Only in the morning, or all day, or only late? Hope these questions aren't out of line... just asking because I tried them the weekend before last, mainly fishing them perpendicular to the bank/weed line, keeping them pretty shallow, and didn't get a single bite. I'm wondering how the guys that are catching fish on them are presenting it. I'll be fishing Six Mile again over the Labor Day weekend and would like to try my Stanley Wedgeplus in white/chartreuse again. Thank you!

Hey Catt, just like capierrottie2, after studying your forum posts, I put it to use and me and a buddy headed out to fish Six Mile this weekend. It was more of a "hands-on portion of the online class that Catt has been teaching" than a real fishing trip. We were only on a the Bend for about 6-7 hours, did a lot of running-and-gunning, trying different spots, studying the depth finder, checking out points, drop-offs, looking for structure, finding that grass line you opened my eyes to, and reading the map. We wound up putting 8 bass in the boat (none big enough to get excited about; but again, we weren't really there to do serious fishing, we were there to learn), using Texas-rigged Zoom MagII's in pumpkin seed and watermelon red, and two different cranks, one a Rapala in a natural shad color that dived 4-7 feet, the other a DD22 in Bumblebee. We fished the worms across the top of the grass, dropping them off the face, and fished the cranks parallel to the face of the grass, for the most part. It was my first time to use a DD22... now it'll be used a lot, because it was a blast to fish with, and produced! I also tried a jig-n-craw, a spinnerbait, and a Tx Rig Bass Assasin 11" worm in tequila sunrise/black; never got a bite on them. Another buddy of mine that fished up there this weekend was tearing them up on Tx-rigged trick worms... I'll have to try that next time. Anyhow, this was only my second time to bass fish the Bend, and using your advice, caught my first keeper from the Bend! Thanks for sharing! Now we're going to go back up Labor Day weekend and use what we learned this past weekend and do some serious fishing!

Hey Catt, I discovered this website last week, found this thread shortly thereafter, and now check it every day to see what's new! I appreciate you sharing your years of experience and insight on Toledo Bend... I got the Hook-N-Line map today to start looking at everything you've described thus far. I've only fished Toledo Bend twice; the first time we caught over 120 perch in one afternoon and morning. The second time I spent 14 hours in the boat on one Saturday and only caught 3 keeper bass! > In spite of that, I'll be fishing the Bend a lot more in the coming months/years. My question for today is, how would you describe the fishing in late August thru mid-September? Many areas of the country would describe that as fall fishing, but here in good ol' hot Texas, I would think it would be more like summer fishing. I have a couple of weekend visits planned during that time and am preparing my arsenal and tactics based upon this thread and other bits of info I am gleaning off of this website! FYI, my fishing buddy's aunt lives at the private Six Mile boat ramp, and that's where we always put in at, so we'll likely do a lot of fishing from the ramp to the main lake. We found out in mid-July that the bass like to school at the submerged island/hump at the crossover between the Six Mile boat lane and the Big Sandy Creek boat lane... we tore'em up on Little George's, spoons, and Rogue's sitting smack in the middle of that island fishing 360 degrees around the boat. Water varied between 7 and 12 feet deep... we fished across the tops of the grass, 3-4 feet below the surface. Anyhow, sorry for the long "first post", but I look forward to your insight!