Dougw

What's the steam.... urrrr.... I mean water temp now?

And the problem with that is?????

Appears they're pulling the lake down. Anybody gotta clue as to why?

Yup... getting tough... 2 day championship George Jeane won it with 19+. I'm pretty sure that's the weight he had after day one as I was told day one leader had ~20#s. Tater came in second w/18+#'s and Donnie came in 3rd w/15+#'s About that drop shotting.... LOL.... Yeah I was having so much fun with the spoon I thought "Now would be a good time to chunk the drop shot too! Well I did. I tried vertical at different depths just holding it stationary. Boy that got boring in a hurry. So then I tried casting it out a ways, get the line tight and just hold... drag.... hold... drag. Let's just say that went on until it hung up and I broke it off and quickly returned to spooning!

Spent the last week on Toledo Bend.... 6/1-6/7. Had out ABA championship 2 day tournament on 6th and 7th. Got there on Monday. By Wednesday I was ready to put it on the trailer and go home. Then Thursday came and it was like someone flipped a switch. I only caught 4 keepers on Thursday but that was mostly because when I caught a good'un I left. Friday I didn't do much and didn't catch a single keeper but I wasn't really trying. I had my "milk run" of 5 spots that were holding good fish! And then I woke up! Saturday I made my milk run. First stop put a 2#er in the boat then nothing for the next 45 mins. Went to spot two - nothing. Spot 3 - nothing. Spot 4 - nothing spot 5 - nothing. Went back to spot 1 - nothing. So I ended up weighing in 1 fish that weighed 1.93#s. Yeah.... that's about right. Day 2. Facing a threat of heavy wind I was debating making the trek across the lake. As we headed to our boats after the Sunday morning meeting. George Jeanne said that the forcast was for 20-25 mph winds after dinner. But... He also said he was not crossing the lake. Welp... If George ain't crossing I ain't crossing. Went to main lake point on LA side which would'a been spot #6 yesterday. Caught fish and marked fish there on Thursday. Roll up on the point and in about 4 cast put a keeper in the boat. Ok good.... No not good. Never put another black bass in the boat. But that's OK 'cuz here is where it got fun for me. I'd already ceded the tournament. So at this point it didn't matter maybe I had a shot at big fish. So I'm idling around the point looking and what do I see??? How about this for starters.... Screenshot_2020-06-03_08.48.03 by Doug Wei, on Flickr So... I hit spot lock n' started spooning. Realize I'd never caught a fish spooning until Thursday. Had '0' confidence in it but that's what this situation called for - so I did it. Sooo... On the second drop I got bit... set the hook and the fight was on! YeeeHaww... Turned out to be a ~3# drum... 'least I got bit. Dropped again... another bite... another drum.... I must'a caught 50 or so drum over the next 3-4 hours. Some were bigger than this and some were smaller than this but they all fought the good fight! 20200607_114225 by Doug Wei, on Flickr I was having a blast in the middle of the championship tournament catching - drum. I must be sick! But I was learning and gaining confidence in a technique that I had only tried a few other times. And if you're going to fish Toledo Bend on a regular basis it's a pretty important technique to know. After about 30-45 mins. of slaying drum I figured I should idle around and just see if I could find some bass, large mouth type. So... I move 50-100 yards and come upon another school. Drop the spoon and tap/boom... more drum. But that's still ok by me. Heres some screen shots of what I was seeing.... Screenshot_2020-06-07_10.16.28 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2020-06-07_10.16.19 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This next pic is from my bow unit. The left sonar is the Airmar TM185HW on the transom set to 150Hz. The right sonar screen is from the Xi5 built-in 83/200 transducer set to 200Hz. Screenshot_2020-06-07_09.50.32 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This is from the console HDS Carbon downscan and the Airmar showing the same conditions contrasting downscan to 2D sonar. Screenshot_2020-06-03_08.48.03 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This is a shot from the bow HDS Carbon w/built-in transducer. You can see where I'm dropping/lifting the spoon. Screenshot_2020-06-02_15.19.16 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Then of course there's the "What tha' hell is that?" moment and it turns out to be.... 20200607_115240 by Doug Wei, on Flickr I ended up spending the entire day on that one point. I learned a bit about spooning. Because there were so many fish there I got to try different things. The school of fish, most times, covered the water column from 15' to 25'. When I'd lift the spoon up above the schooling fish then drop it only say 1/3 of the way through the school, working the top portion of the school. I'd catch white bass - little ones. Then I'd drop the spoon to the middle of the school, I caught some crappie that looked like this... 20200607_100922 by Doug Wei, on Flickr That's a 14", fat as can be crappie. I caught 3 in all that looked very similar to that one. I was using cheap Cotton Cordell 3/4" spoon. I put a swivel on it and swapped out the stock hook for a mustad feathered hook. I caught so many fish they completely removed the feather and anything else used to attach it to the hook - on two separate hooks. The feathers were not required to catch these fish but I will say I caught fish more frequently with the feathered hooks. All in all I caught drum, crappie, catfish and bream from the same school(s). I kept kinna hoping I'd drop the spoon on a giant largemouth below the school but the drum had that area locked up it seemed like! The following is just some random screen shots I took while have a blast getting my butt kicked in a bass tournament! Screenshot_2020-01-17_13.24.29 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2020-06-02_14.54.34 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2020-06-03_09.26.34 by Doug Wei, on Flickr This is with the Lowrance "Fish Reveal" enabled just to see what it looked like. As I general rule I don't use that feature. Screenshot_2020-06-07_12.42.59 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

Just an FYI... Gal at Big Bass Marina told me yesterday she was informed by her live bait supplier that there is A looming shortage of live bait, shiners specifically, starting to ramp up. They’re talking about mixing in European carp same size as the shiners to fill out an order. I don’t know a thing about European carp but I wonder if that’s even legal to introduce a non- native species to the lake. But, for all I know they’ve been doing it for years...

Yeah... I was just south of the bridge when that storm hit. I had just finished hitting one cove and was heading for the next about 1/2mile away. I figured I had time to make the run and I did but boy howdy you didn't wanna get caught in open water when that puppy hit. Minimum 50 mph straight line winds got the lake P.O.'d in a hurry. Blew for right at 1 hour then took another 30 mins. for the lake to calm down!

I used to could fish - now I can't. Well... more accurately I used to could catch fish and now I can't. Wednesday I caught 10 fish. Maybe one or two would'a been keepers. Really maybe only one and really really probably none would have kept. I'm scanning but not seeing squat. I get on the bank and beat it to death and can put some fish in the boat but there's no quality. Toledo Bend has been, and still is, my biggest nemesis. Saturday I sat on one main lake hump/point for two hours. Caught 2 14" fish. The day before I had scanned and seen nothing but fished anyway. While I was fishing a school of 4-6#fish came up busting shad in about 16 fow. No... I didn't catch any ov'em. Yeah, I know what you mean about a picture not doing justice to those size fish! ? I had a lot of trouble deciding to tell that event. I started to tell what happened later in the day in the back of Housen how I had to fight off a 12 foot alligator, by chunking full 12 oz. bottles of coke at it, that was trying to eat an 8# crappie that choked a 10XD I was throwing in 4' of water. That ever happen to you? Man, getting that 10XD out of that crappies mouth without decapitating it was a real challenge! Now I'm just waitin' for some ya'hoo to come along n' call me a liar! Mark my words it's gonna happen!

Ahhh yes.... the pictures... when I got back to the cabin I was fixin’ to upload’em only to discover - I forgot to put some film in my S10+ phone!?

A day like no other!!! Got on the lake at 7:00. Supposed to be a nice day with a slight chance of thunderstorms. Hahaha... who says weather folks don’t have a sense of humor? Anyway... Put in at BigBass Marina go to Texas side and hit Oilwell area. I look for fish on the various humps and ridges but no luck with that so I start banging the bank with a 1/4oz. One Knocker. Put one dink in the boat. This ain’t working. Lotta thunder, little bit of lightening and rain... yeah that’s gonna help. In between rain squalls I decide to head to a hump that no one knows about but me - and perhaps whoever put the brush pile on it. This hump is just north of millionaires point. It tops out at 22’ and has a near ledge drop on one side. Oh yeah... it also has a brush pile on it! The 10XD will just nip the brush pile. I’m chunking it with a Dobyns 805 and pulling it back with a Revo Beast 4. That reel is kind of like a Shimano Curado 300 - on steroids. On the very first cast I get hung up in the brush pile - or thought I did. I was getting ready to break out my brand new Hounddog lure retriever when the brush pile started moving! Well I’m no scholar but I do know what to do in this situation! I lean back on the Dobyns and start cranking on the Beast. For awhile there the match was a draw between me and the brush pile. Finally I started making progress taking in more line than I was letting out. I’m not sure what I’ve hooked on to. Catfish? Gar? Submarine? After what seemed like hours I finally get my first glimpse of what I hooked. It’s a bass - the biggest one I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s HUGE!!!! I manage to get it in the net and in the boat. I start screaming like a frikkin maniac! I rummage through the boat and finally find my scale to weigh this monster with. Takes both hands to hold the scale! Finally the scale blinks then displays the weight - 14.2#s I weighed it 3 more times and each time it settled on 14.2#s. So I’m guessing it weighed 14.2#s. I get my phone and take multiple pictures. Then not knowing what else to do I release the fish. That, my friends, was the beginning of the day like no other! For the next three hours I sat on that spot catching a fish on almost every cast. I’m talking BIG fish. The very next fish weighed 13.8#s. Of my best 5 NONE were single digit fish - NONE!!! For the record books - 14.2 + 13.8 + 12.6 + 10.12 + 10.6 + 10.1 - 71.42#s!!!!! Each time I caught one, took a picture and released it I figured that was the last one. In all I caught 108 fish. None was under 6#s! Truly a day like no other!

Yeah well.... I can't do anything about Rayburn but I can sho'nuff shut'em down on Toledo Bend - I'll be there next Wednesday - Saturday!

Got one on order now! Thanks!!!

Welllll... you’re getting there. Now.... tell me that fool proof method for getting my 10XD’s hung up in 20 fow back!! Thanks in advance!!!

What next????? A virtual group hug? Gimme a break. Someone post on here, hiding behind a made up screen name, and all but calls a couple of others, that post regular, liars; I'm not sure how that doesn't justify taking offense. I'm all for turning the other cheek - but only if you're looking for more ammo!

Ahhh... nuttin' but dock talk! LOLOLOL....

Chapter One in the book "How to win friends and influence people!" Well Done! Sooooo... pasted those photos of the filleted bass on SpaceBook huh??

You catch more fish in a day than I do in a year! LOL..... sad... so very sad.

Current Lake Levels Click to view NWS Lake Level Data Date/Time: 4/13/2020 4:00:00 AM Lake Level: 172.81 MSL Current Flow: 28225.00 CFS Generator 1: Down Generator 2: Running 24 hrs. Spillway Gates: 11 Gates open 2 Foot. If the spillway gates are Open,

Fear not.... “we” ain’t coming there!!! ?

The discipline to do as you mention is rather difficult to achieve. Can I assume that in the beginning the minute you saw fish you'd try to catch'em. After enjoying success of catching fish after first seeing them you became confident that if you saw fish and they were schooled up in a particular fashion you "knew" you could catch them if you tried. But until you had that degree of confidence that not only where the fish you were seeing were bass you knew from experience you could catch them if you tried - just seeing fish was not enough. I have no problem marking fish - most of the time. But catching what I see - yeah now there's the problem! And of course there's some days that seeing fish on the screen becomes the "impossible task". George Jean was talking about marking mega schools he said "Some days you can idle from Pirates Cove to Blue lake and never see a thing."

Sabine River Authority of Louisiana TOLEDO BEND PROJECT JOINT OPERATION 450 Spur 135, Burkeville, TX 75932 59839 Hwy 191, Anacoco, LA 71403 409/565-2273 337/286-5244 (Office) 337/286-5253 (Message) ADVISORY #1 DATE: Saturday, March, 28, 2020 TOLEDO BEND RESERVOIR – OPERATIONS Persons having interests in the Sabine River Basin below the reservoir are hereby advised that on Saturday, March, 28, 2020 at 19:30 hours, the reservoir elevation was 172.42 ft. MSL. Currently, both generators are operating 24 hours per day. Inflow information from the National Weather Service Forecast Center is currently being monitored. Should the reservoir continue to rise, spillway gates may have to be opened. Releases through the spillway gates will be made in accordance with the Toledo Bend Spillway Operating Guide as approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Toledo Bend Reservoir is not a flood control reservoir and can experience significant rises in elevation in a short time span. The Sabine River Authority of Texas and the Sabine River Authority, State of Louisiana emphasize the importance of keeping informed and staying safe during a rain event. Interested persons should monitor current river and reservoir levels since the Sabine River could reach flood stage and evacuation of persons, animals and property may become necessary. Up-to-date reservoir elevations and releases as well as links to specific river gauges may be obtained from SRA’s websites: www.srala-toledo.com, www.sratx.org or www.setexasrain.org. Information on specific river gages can be obtained from the National Weather Service at the following website: http://www.weather.gov/wgrfc and from the USGS at the following websites: http://tx.waterdata.usgs.gov or http://la.waterdata.usgs.gov. It went down some during the week but jumped up .4' in the last 24 hours. Both generators are still running 24x7 and the spillway gates remained closed - for now.

Think the waters is going to come up much this year?????

Nah... although I do have a few with no lips!!! For whatever reason they don’t seem to get as deep as they use’ta!

Soooo... you don’t chunk deep divers???

When I'm fishing.... I don't think I own any w/o rattles... Under "most" conditions rattling baits work just fine. Maybe... Maybe... under highly pressured conditions would I consider a silent crankbait an advantage - maybe. But that would be obvious from my second statement.