zefman78

Yessir, that was some folks from here in lafayette. They had 35.40lbs for the win, a 52lb 10 fish stringer for the sunday and a 68lb 10 fish stringer for both days. They were c-rigging and jigging humps in tennessee bay

Heading up Sunday for a little father son time with my dad. He's not much of a fisherman so i hope to put him on some fish! Anybody have a report from the Lowes Creek area or know if we can find some haygrass there?

Interesting I completely missed those road beds... You guys like to fish where they intersect or troll along them until you find some baitfish? As far as me fishing the wrong side of Palo Gaucho... WOW! I thought i was doing everything right, following the creek channel and all LOL. Just goes to show you, i got some learnin' to do!

Catt, so after fishing the bend Sunday and Monday and trying some "new" areas and different types of fishing than im used to, I have some questions. I have been really trying my hand at this "Offshore Structure" fishing thing with absolutely no success. Lets take a look at N 31.41091 W 93.72012 on Acme Mapper. As you can see, we have a large hump, sitting next to a creek channel and the channel has a nice bend towards the south west corner of the hump. I thought FOR SURE i'd be able to find some fish in this area. I Approached the hump from the Northeast corner, making sure to throw some cranks, and texas rigged plastics 360 degrees around the boat. I threw into the VERY shallow area with bushes sitting in about 4 FOW, I threw over the contour lines that had depths from 4 Fow down to 15 FOW. No bites, so i moved my boat to slowly troll along the creek channel side of the Hump-- working north to south. This time i placed my boat in 15 FOW throwing up to 8ft and down to 30 FOW. After working that entire side, i noticed large schools of baitfish, some cover, and was thinking the whole time that it was only a matter of time before i hooked up with my first offshore bass. Wrong. I ended up fishing this area for close to two hours with not so much as a tap. I fished very slowly, threw Trigs, cranks, traps, worms, spinner baits, and jigs-- quite literally everything i had tied onto my 7 poles. Ok, SO Catt, looking at these coordinates, how would you have approached this area? How would you have fished it? All in all we had a good trip fishing areas im more comfortable with. We boated 40 or so fish in two days of fishing, but 30 of those fish came in 1 hour of lucking upon some schoolies and im dying to become more consistent on the bend. Ps. some other offshore structure spots we briefly fished include: N 31.42086 W 93.74548 and N 31.41837 W 93.74385..... Not one fish boated in any of these areas.

South of the bridge.

Well today was a tough day for us. Started with 5 fish within the first 20 minutes of fishing. All of those fish holding to cover in 4-6ft near deep water (40ft). Nothing for the next hour and then my buddy landed a 6lber around 9am. Not another bite till 1230 and that was the last we had any recollection of bass being in toledo bend until the sun sunk under the horizon. We caught 2-3 more before we HAD to leave flipping in the bushes and i broke off a BIG fish right at the boat. We threw everything we had on em.

Alright, we got on the water at 130pm today and had one fish till 430, then we found a point next to deep water, close to 4-6 ft flipping brush and found some schoolies where we caught about 30 in 30 minutes. It was AWESOME. ALL schoolies were caught on traps. One crawfish color, another gold black back orange belly. There were about 10-12 keepers but we kept 7 of the biggest (almost 4lbs. ) Wind kicked our ass most of the time but every fish was caught on a protected area from the wind ( those areas were tough to find)

Tmac, welcome! I'm a newbie here also and i have to wait till the afternoon til she wants to come out but glad she does! There were three contours where i was fishing. A 10 to 20ft ledge, a 20 to 50 ft ledge, and a 50 to 70ft ledge. All crank bites came on the top of the 20ft ledge and I was fishing a dt22 bluegill. All of those fish were the smaller fish of the morning. All bigger fish were at The bottom of the 20-50ft ledge on a t-rig. Almost all those bites came on the first nudge after dragging if off 20ft, finally reaching 50ft.

Tmac, welcome! I'm a newbie here also and i have to wait till the afternoon til she wants to come out but glad she does! There were three contours where i was fishing. A 10 to 20ft ledge, a 20 to 50 ft ledge, and a 50 to 70ft ledge. All crank bites came on the top of the 20ft ledge and I was fishing a dt22 bluegill. All of those fish were the smaller fish of the morning. All bigger fish were at The bottom of the 20-50ft ledge on a t-rig. Almost all those bites came on the first nudge after dragging if off 20ft, finally reaching 50ft.

Catt, we caught four one or two pound bass and 5 or 6 two or three pound strppers in slaughter... Strippers on the flats and large mouth pulling spinner baits out of buckbrush and visible grass on the banks

Catt, i fished slaughter pretty hard. Deepest water i found was 35ft, just northeast of the point that the boat lane dead ends. Fished that flat to the left, where to two creeks meet. Could get bit for anything. Admittedly, i should have tried a few more creek beds in there. With the weather conditions being post cool front, fairly windy mornings and bluebird skys following that, how would you have approached these last few days? When you guys say, find flats with deep creek channels nearby how deep are these channels?... I caught fish on flats next to 70-80 ft and way down at those depths, is that luck?! Haha... But that 15ft +/-3ft is tough for me to find patterns!

Update: Heading out tomorrow but its been a fun trip with my wofe on our anniversary! This morning was pretty fun... Most consistent bite in a long time for me at the bend. Caught 8 fish with an average of about 2.5-3 pound fish and 1 at least 4lbs and another at least 5. All were caught on deep cranks and texas rigged worms on main river ledges/bends. This afternoon, went back to the same spot, not a bite. Wanted the wife to learn some other techniques and caught two in the 3-7ft depth on square bills and pop-r's. We'll be back up next month! Yall keep the reports up!

So it was a beautiful day out on the lake! Saw some nutria attacking what i assume os baitfish because the bass were hitting them hard too! Caught every fish on white/chartreuse double willow blade spinner baits in everything from 3ft on the bank to 10 ft in flooded timber. We caught one on a splatterback shallow dive crank with a yellow belly. All in all we caught 8 fish with the biggest around 4 pounds. Also worth noting that we put it at noon, didnt get bit til 445 and caught all 7 in about 30 minutes. Couple dinks on a black back, gold, and orange belly trap.

So it was a beautiful day out on the lake! Saw some nutria attacking what i assume os baitfish because the bass were hitting them hard too! Caught every fish on white/chartreuse double willow blade spinner baits in everything from 3ft on the bank to 10 ft in flooded timber. We caught one on a splatterback shallow dive crank with a yellow belly. All in all we caught 8 fish with the biggest around 4 pounds. Also worth noting that we put it at noon, didnt get bit til 445 and caught all 7 in about 30 minutes. Couple dinks on a black back, gold, and orange belly trap.

Welp, what an untimely trip! Didnt even try to wet a line today. Yesterday, threw off the bank for a little while since we got here late afternoon. With this weather, not sure if its worth going out in the morning but will probably give a go for atleast a few hours. My plan is to fish the deep side of creek channels SLOW. will probably try a shaky head, jig n craw, c rig and dt22. Wish me luck, ill need it after this cold front!

Does anybody know any good Bass Clubs near the Lafayette/Acadiana area? Fished Henderson Swamp and Big Alabama this week. Tuesday Henderson: Water temp 58 - 61, Bluebird Skies. Caught 5 Fish with 3 being Keepers all on creature baits on Points Today Big Alabama: Water Temp 59- 60, Cloudy Skies. Me and a buddy hauled in about 9 fish, one keeper. (+1 giant Choupick, bleh)

Thanks Catt

I am getting so pumped about my trip to the big pond this weekend. I have been studying the hell out of my maps and have noticed where i've gone wrong (and what i've done right) in the past. One of the Areas i have consistently fished is Slaughter Creek. My camp is so close, it's hard to not stop and fish a few points but i've never had much luck with Bass there, Sac-a-Lait is a whole other story, however. Another place i've done well, and caught my PB, is where the river turns right in front of the Bluffs. It's about a 1/4 mile south of Slaughter. I think due to numbers and quality, this location will Always be a must stop for me. All of that said, I'd really like to learn the Palo Gaucho, Lowe's and Carrice Creek areas. It seems that MANY people have year round success in these areas and they are all relatively quick access by boat for me. After studying my maps, i see many Humps, ledges and secondary points that are enticing places to fish, however with my limited map knowledge and inexperience in fishing offshore sturcture it's tough nailing down some of the more productive areas and there are so many good looking spots. Can any of you break down what makes these areas so profitable for so many anglers, wehere do i start?! Does anyone here fish these areas hard and offer some advice for a newly serious Bass fisherman?

Catt, what color, size and tail ringworms do you prefer?

That's ok Catt, Im sure i'll be making the trip up quite a bit as we get closer to spring time!

Ok Toledo Trip Confirmed! My wife and I are heading up mid-day on the 12th. She doesn't fish much but i plan on fishing the 13th, 14th, and 15th. I would LOVE to have a fishing buddy on any of those mornings (my wife will want to come out in the afternoon). Our camp is located about a 1/4 mile north of Slaughter Creek. As much as i have learned from the thread, i have NEVER fished toledo with an experienced Toledo Angler and nothing is better than fishing with someone who knows! If you're interested, shoot me a PM and i'll give you my contact info!

Thanks for the insight guys, this thread is really something amazing... finding myself reading stuff all the way back to 2010! I'll stay in touch with a report after my trip!

Hey there friends, it's been a while since i've been out on the big pond, however, i'll be returning in a few weeks with my newly purchased Helix 5 Si and i am PUMPED! has anyone used the Lakemaster chip in Toledo? How is it? Worth investing in for Toledo? Also, this is my first year ever fishing the winter in Toledo. Anybody have some good general tips on how the bass move and feed this time of year in the Bend?

Hi to all!!! I just found this AMAZING forum as i was certain that the lake had "turned on" and am ready to make the trip from lafayette! I'll be taking my future father-in-law to the lake for the first time this (easter) weekend... im excited! Yet not so excited by what i know as the common "basshole" on such a busy weekend. Anyways, I've got a place just north of Slaughter Creek (yet still south of the bridge) and was wondering what was "hot" around this area. I was thinking San miguel would be hot (but also would have a TON of boats on easter weekend). I usually fish Senkos and Texas rigs shallow this time of year on points and in grass. In the heat of the summer i've got a spot called "the bluffs" that the river bed turns right in front of. Question: What stage of the spawn are the bass in? Is it full on spawn season? I figure the weather probably knocked back the spawn season by a few weeks and we're either in full on spawn season or in post-spawn? What kinda tips can you guys give me to impress the future father in law?!