LSUh20fowler

Rooms are 75 per night at Big Bass.

3/15 - Pre fishing for V&M tounament. Launched at Big Bass,fished some small coves between Big Bass and Negreet. Caught a couple short fish and (2) 3.6 lbers on watermelon red wacky worm and spinnerbait. Wind was kicking butt so picked up boat and launched at Pirates Cove at noon. Fished main lake points and secondary points. Caught 21 bass with 5 biggest going 18 lbs. All on wacky worm in watermelon red and watermelon purple. 3/19 - Tournament day - Launched in Pirates cove. Big north wind blowing kicking butt. Ended up with 5 for 11.54 back off the bank in 6 -8 ft. Caught one punching hay grass and 4 on wacky worms. Wind really limited us on where we could go. Trying to convince the wife I NEED one one of those big fiberglass boats loaded with powerpoles, but she ain't biting.

Yea, but the wind and waves were a little too much for my lil 19 ft boat. With my recent foot surgery, I can't handle the bouncing too much right now.

Made a day trip Sunday with my son. Launched out of of Turtle Beach and stayed in Negreet Cove the whole day. Started out flipping buck brush in back of Salter Creek. Produced nothing. Seen some guys catching white perch. Bounced around out in the main cove throwing spinnerbaits and squarebills. Caught one short fish on squarebill. Got desperate, so picked up the wacky worm, which I hate. Quickly put a little pattern together to save the day. Wacky rigged sinkos in junebug or any dark color on cypress trees. Tried around boat docks but didn't pick up anything. 5 biggest went for 10.5 lbs. with putting 12 in the boat and lost 2 at the boat.

I wanna say around 25 lbs. Someone had one over 10 caught. Heres a few shots I got over the weekend while recording. Still learning how to interpret certain things.

My son and I fished the Rat L Trap tournament yesterday. Didn't do good. Only brought 3 fish to the scale for 7 lbs. Friday - Lauched at Big Bass Friday morning , with plans to explore do run and gun scouting. From the start, my Lowrance gave out on me. Didn't have all the maps I had been putting together for the past 2 weeks. Went to Lowes, Six Mile and Indian Mounds. Only throwing traps and echo squarebills. Picked up a few short fish. Not being able to see my contours, depth and water temp, I got aggrevated. Went back to dock and sent my son on fishing in Big Bass cove. I drove 2 hrs back home to get my laptop so I could try and reload the latest update for my unit. By 4pm I was back at the boat trying updates with no success. Got on phone with tech support trying hard and soft reboots with no success. 5:30, jump in truck on our way to Bass Pro in Shreveport. Picked up new unit and back to the boat my 9pm. All good after getting my maps uploaded. Saturday - Went to Corsey Creek area, Carrice and Lowes, Just couldn't find good fish on traps. Threw red, gold, chomes, etc, just short fish. Jumped back over to Yokum and picked up some more short fish. At the end of the day, didn't have anything really figured out. Water temps were perfect, Couldn't ask for better weather conditions. Sunday - Started in the very back of Negreet Creek cove. Picked up a couple short ones on chrome and black back in hay grass. About 9am, decided I was trying to force myself to fish what I didn't want too. Back home, one of my confidence baits is a chartruese squarebill. Chartruese is the one color I haven't ever heard people mention for Toledo. Tied on my echo squarebill and started beating wood. Ended up catching 12 fish, with only 3 for weigh in. Stayed in Negreet all day, working bluff walls where the creek ran closest to points. Had to deflect it off something to get bit. Wouldn't go for a stop and go retrieve. It almost killed me not picking up my flipping stick with all the buckbrush and grass. My son and I got to spend some quality time together and we had a good time. Got a tournament back home this weekend at Indian Creek but we'll be back in 2 wks to Toledo, and it won't be with traps. Thanks for all the good info on this site.

15. Tournament Hours and Check Points will be given at registration and are the responsibility of each entrant. Any boat ramp may be used, however all boats will take off in numbered order at first safe light from host marina. 16. Penalties: There will be a half (.5) pound penalty deducted for each dead fish weighed - in. There will be a

Spent Saturday (2/13) scouting for the Rat L Trap tx next Sunday. All we threw all day was traps and Echo squarebills. Launched out of Turtle Beach landing.Started on the east end of Boones crossover. Didn't find anthing. Ran into Salter Creek cove. Picked up 2 fish about 2.5 lbs each. Both on traps. Then went to south side of Negreet Cove along the channel. Two fish all day. But spent a good portion of the day scanning and looking. I'll be back Tuesday and Thursday checking out the Texas side. Pretty much just been studying maps trying to get a game plan together. I'm a die hard shallow water fisherman so I need to find good grass.

I've been studying my maps and will be spending Saturday there and a couple of days next week. Mostly be a lot of riding and scanning. We don't have much of a chance but I enjoy tournament fishing and the only way for me to learn Toledo is to get on it.

Yea, just traps and squarebills all day. We'll be coming Saturday and staying at Big Bass to fish Sunday.

Any of ya'll fishing the Rat L Trap tournament on the 21st ? My son and I will be there.

Anyone know the water temp around the mid lake area ?

Thanks, just sent a message.

Yea but all I found was his rates for guiding fishing trips.

I was told that Tommy Martin had a mapping chip made for Toledo but I can't find it anywhere online. Anyone know of a place that sells them ?

Haven't finished reading all the way through this thread yet but working on it. With doctors approval on Wednesday, I'm looking to go do some scouting at the bend. Been studying my maps and plan on doing a lot of looking with my graph. I've become addicted to the "insight genesis" and recording and making my own maps of my local lakes. Anyone else use insight genesis ? Plan on scanning and checking out places I see on the " hook and line" map and compare to the map I scan. As far as a report, my son and his friend fished from Friday and Saturday ended up catching 19 bass with the biggest 4.5. All on rat l traps and T-rigged watermelon red plastics. They fished around Housen and Mills mostly.

Yea Catt, I might have a lil Cajun in me. Cross of Sonnier and Courville.

I got (2) 8's and (1) 9 lber last year out of Chicot. Mostly fish Chicot, Indian Creek and Henderson swamp. But want to learn deep structure fishing and no better place than the Bend.

Been following for a while now and appreciate and enjoy all this info. I'm just starting to fish the Bend since about 20 yrs ago. Growing up, we had a camp at Kites landing and then at Pirates cove, that we spent every weekend at. Just had surgery on my foot for plantar fasciitis, which I've been fighting for 2 yrs. Its tough getting old and I ain't even old yet. Hope to be there for the Rat l Trap tx later this month, if the doctor gives the approval.

I use braid on all rods except my crankbait rods. For cranking I use straight fluorocarbon. Most of my fishing is in grass / cypress lakes with a stain so braid works best for my most cases. I do fish one lake that is clear and for that I tie on a flouro leader to the braid.

My frog rod is a 7' Hammer MH Fast. Can sling it a mile and pull them out the nasty stuff. Lews 6/4; Hammer 7' MH F; Power Pro 65lb braid

Hi ya'll. Just signed up last night and figured I better introduce myself. I'm 38 yrs old, work offshore, live In Ville Platte and fish most of my 14 days off. I'm just ate up with figuring out different bodies of water and how to catch the dang bass. I have a 19' Tracker w/ 90 Optimax and a flatbottom boat with 15 Mercury for shallow waters.

What part of the Calcasieu you fishing ? I grew up fishing it around Kinder but its been many years since I've been. Im always ready to fish. I have boat and gear.