Marshfly

Catt, what do you know about Lake Arthur?

We've done Toledo Bend for last year's fall and spring breaks and while we are looking there again, I'd like to find a couple of other options to bring the family to for a week in early October. It will be me, my wife, and our two boys 2 and 7 years old. There needs to be a good selection of VRBO or AirBnB places for rent on the water or cabins on the water with boat dockage. What are your favorite places in East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama?

You can do that when someone else pays to fix stuff when you hit a tree.

It does. Even if it just reinforces my plan to target drains from spawning areas mostly.

So, since the majority of the Elite tournament bass were caught deep and ready to spawn, does that mean that a lot of that will happen in the next week or so with the full moon?

The house we are renting is on the LA side between Yocum and Pirates Cove so I'll be fishing the south end. Sounds like I need to spend a little time looking shallow but not hesitate to move deep if I'm just not making it happen there. @Catt I want to thank you for starting this thread so many years ago. I'm on my third read through it and pick new things up every time. The analysis that you did with Acme Mapper helped a ton and is a great starting point for me. What an awesome way to give back.

Back to the learning! We are heading up to the lake next Thursday for a week. Is the spawn pretty much over and I'm now going to be looking at post spawn bass retreating back off the points and drains or are there still plenty of shallow bass to be caught? I had a really mediocre experience last fall catching just enough fish to tempt us back. I've learned a lot since turning my attention to bass locally after that trip and hope that pays off this trip.

For those of you that get mad that you can't continue to wear your glasses when the clouds come out, I have a pair of Smith glasses for overcast days in the Polarchromic Lens. Its a photochromic version of the Chromapop so gets lighter as the sky gets darker. They also work awesome if you trout fish in heavily wooded streams so you can still see fish and where you are wading. As much as I love my glass lensed Maui Jims for bright days, I end up wearing these most of the time for how bright they make things in not perfect conditions.

We have another Toledo Bend trip in a month and a half. I feel like I need to reread both this thread for the third time and the Spoonplugging home study books but don't have time for both. What to do, what to do.

I just can't get over how ugly the Talons are. They look 3 or 4 times the diameter of my Blade. Also, the saltwater guys won't touch a Talon. They just don't hold up like the Powerpoles do. All of our south Louisiana guides run Powerpoles.

I read that he was putting it on an 18ft Laser. He didn't say a specific budget either. haha.

I normally go Albright but if you are having problems you might have too much difference in the diameter of the line and leader. Try doubling up the thin line you are using. I'm usually using 20-40# Suffix 832 so don't have to do that.

While Powerpoles may be almost useless on Toledo Bend, with respect to the marsh and swamp, I totally disagree. As someone that spends 99% of his time fishing the marshes and swamps of South Louisiana, whose last boat had a stick anchor, and new boat has a Powerpole, there is absolutely no way I'd go back to no having one. The ease of hitting the button on the remote around my neck while the wind or current is trying to blow me across the marsh when me or my fishing partner has a fish or wants to pick apart a specific spot is WELL worth the price of the Powerpole. You just simply aren't going to use a stick anchor to sit in a spot for 3 minutes to get multiple casts in. You'll hit it with a couple casts and move on past. The ability to stick the anchor in and pivot around it in the current or wind is amazing in allowing both anglers an equal opportunity to fish spots as well. Move a little, anchor for a minute, move a little, anchor for a minute. I'm tired just thinking about doing that without the Powerpole.

Go with a Palomar for attaching any lure to any type line while bass fishing. As a matter of fact, I use it for everything unless I get offshore and can't pull it high with higher pound test stuff or if I'm fly fishing for trout when I need something that doesn't eat so much line. Knots breaking really just should not be an issue.

Went out this afternoon in the Orange Grove canals and the water was extremely clean everywhere. Fish were hitting well all afternoon if you had the right speed to your presentation, no matter the bait. Ended up with 6 in the live well in a few hours with two over 3#. A buddy that was fishing the same area boated a 4.5-5# fish on an unweighted stick bait fished slow. Mine were all taken on baits that move. Intentionally not giving out all the secrets...gotta leave something to figure out.

I've been able to find decently clean water in that area the past few weeks every time out. I've been going at least twice a week since Christmas. Look at your google maps. Find backs of canals. Most will have cleaner water the further you get from the Intracoastal and the more cuts there are into the marsh. You may have to search a bit. If you can see your bait 6 inches or more into the water the fish can see your bait.

I would love to hire a guide for a day while we are there in April that can spend the day really teaching me about fishing lakes for bass. Home based in Houma, Toledo Bend is a whole new world to me. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

We booked the same place we stayed at in October for the middle of April. It's directly across the lake from Housen. Absolutely pumped. I also have upgraded my electronics so I have an LSS2 in the transom and a downscan transducer on the TM. I'll be watching this thread closely for the next couple of months.

Definitely Greg Hackney. His home area is the same area I fish in south Louisiana and from watching his videos he seems like he'd be a ton of fun to spend a day with.

Thanks guys. Now just to figure out how a lot of this lake specific stuff translated to our shallow bayous and marshes.

I've been lurking the forum for a few weeks now. I have been saltwater fishing all of my life and just really started bass fishing this summer here locally. I made my first trip to Toledo Bend this past week with the family and that really opened my eyes to everything I don't know yet. I fish out of a Maverick HPX-V18 flats boat. Kind of like a really light bass boat that will do 60mph but I can still pole around the marsh chasing redfish with a fly rod. I just wanted to introduce myself.

And then on Friday the front came through and screwed everything all up for the rest of my trip. The end. Haha. Seriously, this is an awesome place and it will be a regular trip for us from now on. As with anytime you fish, seeing a huge fish swim away after setting the hook on a thump in the lilypads that didn't quite connect will just keep drawing you back. Here's to a lifetime of trying to figure the Bend out. This thread just made it a little easier and I am learning a ton going through it for the third time. Thanks guys.

Lunchtime update. The cove I fished yesterday was quiet this morning so i ran across to the Texas side to fish the edge of a flat heading into a creek. One fish came on a T-rig 10.5" redbud worm fishing the drop-off while the boat was in 10'. The other 4 came on the same rig and a watermelon senko tossed on the edge of the hay grass. Man, there are some big fish that hang out under that stuff. As I was approaching I saw a couple bail for deeper water that made the 3# fish I caught yesterday look like a baby.

I had a good afternoon for my first time ever at the lake. Fished by myself for an hour and a half about 3:30 and my first fish was a 3.1# on an unweighted Texas rigger Senko in the reeds in about 2 feet of water. Then saw the stripers hitting shad and trolled that way and nailed one on a blue back, silver trap, because, I had never caught a striper before. Then went to grab the wife and kids for a boat ride and found some stumps in an area where the boat was in 15ish feet of water and I was casting towards shore to probably 5 foot of water. Picked up another three that were an inch either side of legal and had a few more that just didn't hit it hard enough to connect. All on that same rattletrap. Can't wait for the morning. I'll probably start the day in that same stump field.

The plan is to launch at Kite's Landing since it's only a couple of miles from the house we rented. Is that launch in good shape. Do they have fuel and ice?