Dougw

Nope... Told a buddy of mine Huff caught'em 'zackly like some of the folks on Bass Resource said they needed to be fished right now. Suspended, off-shore, following bait fish. That's how Huff caught'em. Like a lot of folks, that's is without a doubt my least productive/least confidence style of fishing. I cry like a two year old at nap time when that style of fishing is required to be consistent.

I listened to Toledo Bend it said "Go fish somewhere else!!!" LOL... After seeing the pro's results I don't feel quite as hopeless. 'Least I got company now! Last time I was there conditions were similar to what the pros faced. Overcast, warming/rising water. I weighed in 10.86#s. That would of been good for 73rd place - after two days! "...turn off the tech and just drop the tolling motor and fish." N' That's 'zackly what I do once I give up... Just caught the big fish on the wrong day last time!

Man... I ain't been this wrong since right before my divorce was final!

Catt’s gonna be P.O.’d with you giving up his lawnmower pattern!!!

Johnston - Replaces a 2#er with a 10#er otherwise he's at 15#s. Gleason - Replaces a 2#er with an 8#er otherwise he's at 14#s. Huff - Catches a 6#er and a 4#er late to replace 2 - 2#ers otherwise he's at 14#s. Only 4 - 20+#s sacks. From some of the best Toledo anglers in the country. Admittedly under some rather tough conditions. And, except for the late catches so noted above, it could of been only a single 20# sack on day one! I'm not sure if they've "adapted" or simply got "lucky"... I'm leaning towards the later. Lucky they know the lake well enough to guide them to places that could potentially be holding a day altering fish... or two. I'm not suggesting all the big fish are dead. I am suggesting that there are not as many big fish as there were. Lakes cycle just a matter of fact. Big fish don't live forever and they certainly don't all survive being caught/released.

Well sorta.... Time for history lesson. Grass eating carp were introduced into Lake Austin. Big fish were caught in record numbers for the first 2-3 years after that. Then the bite went away and has stayed away. This is not a Toledo Bend size lake. Easily scanned from dam to dam. The fish simply aren't as abundant as they were. It's turned into a wake board mud hole. Grass eating carp were introduced into Coleto Creek power Lake. First 2-3 years big fish were caught in record numbers. Then the bite went away. And stayed away. Recent efforts have yeilded 1.5-2# fish. This is a 3k acre power lake in South Texas. There's only so many places for fish to go, very unlike Toledo Bend. Easily scanned from headwater to dam. The fish ARE NOT THERE. Choke Canyon - Lake dropped 20'. Grass died. First 2-3 years Big fish catches recorded in record numbers until all grass was virtually was gone. Gar took over. 8 years later it's starting to make a come back. Toledo Bend. Grass eradication program implemented coupled with flood conditions eliminated most grass bed on Toledo Bend. First 2-3 years a record of 10#+ fish were caught. Then the catch rate fell off and remains off at this point in time. To suggest that all the fish have changed AND that fishermen can't figure that out in 2-3 years is a bit of an overstatement - my opinion. The fish have changed tactics - they had to. But still... they're fish. They're contained in the same body of water. From grass to what? Wood... Rock... structure vs cover. They, the fish, don't have an infinite set of options to choose from. For me the pattern is "slap you in the face" obvious. Grass is eliminated followed by 2-3 year spike in catch rates/size followed by down turn in catch rates/size which is maintained until grass is restored - if it's restored. The catch rate declined in each instance AFTER a peak of 2-3 years of phenomenal catch rates. In the case of Lake Austin and Coleto Creek cooling pond the catch rate has never recovered. In the case of Choke Canyon only have the return of both the water level AND the grass has catch rates begun to return to historical normal levels.

blueback herring and spotted bass....

Don't forget to bring food! There are no fish in Toledo Bend!

I was there Wed-Sat for my monthly ass kickin'... Water temps. 58-62 warming and rising. Soooo... I headed shallow - sorta. Wednesday - Creek at BigBass Marina was really muddied up but clearing.... Worked that creek with jig/one knocker. Nuttin'. Headed to the Texas side in search of cleaner water. Tried throwing the A-Rig some. Caught zero. Tried forcing myself to try different techniques but felt like I was wasting my time. Soooo... Picked up the 1/4oz. one knocker n' went to work. Caught several fish in Housen with the biggest somewhere around 5#s. Those fish were probably 4-5' deep and holding around wood. In Housen I was fishing one of the many humps in the middle of the bay that had visible wood stumps/laydowns. I also tried the same thing that worked for me in December - backs of creeks in Six Mile. It wasn't working in January! Thursday - Put in at BigBassMarina. Worked the channel going back from the ramp. Tried jig, square bill and one knocker. Nothing doing. Then it got cold.... then it started raining.... Then I put the boat on the trailer @ 10.45am. Took the time to do some thinking - yeah it hurt. Made the decision to stick with what I have confidence in this time of year under these conditions. 1/4oz. one knocker and C'Rig. Then... if I got on a particularly good bite I'd see if if could make some other stuff work. Friday - Implemented plan hatched Thursday. Fished all day on the Texas side. Started off at the main lake points shallow with one knocker. Caught a few short fish. Move off shore on those same points. Caught some more short fish and a few keepers/swimmers. Went to one of my main lake docks and chunked a C'rig magnum trick work in about 8' of water. Caught my first keeper. Went into a nearby cove. At the mouth I chunked the one knocker around visible cover - stumps. Got about 1/4 of the way back and moved to a steep sloping bank. Chunked a 1/4oz jig to a stump that was about 2' off the bank. THUNK.... Surprised I still knew what that means - set the hook! Boated a +/- 7#er. That fish was in no more than 18" of water. After hitting every stump, of which there were hundreds, in this cove I gave up. Never got another jig bite. Went back out to main lake points - started catching fish again. No keepers but at least I was around fish. On that note I called it a day.... Saturday - Game plan - Go to Housen where I caught the good fish Wednesday. Then head up lake to a place I'd done ok before. Then go to the are where I caught the 7#er which also has the main lake points where I was catching short fish the day before. Saturday - Game plan???? what game plan???? Started chunking one knocker 200 yards from the Army ramp blast off dock. Caught one short fish in about 15 minutes. Now it was time to run.... Decided not to go to Housen. The place in Housen was further than I wanted to run for a maybe coupled with the fact that there could be someone on the spot when I got there. Soooo.... Headed up lake. Stopped in one cove w/stumps in the back on the way to my primary locations. Raked the area with the one knocker and pitched the jig on a couple of dozen stumps... Nuttin'... Ran to my main lake dock that I've caught some decent fish on/around. Chunked the c-rig and on first cast boated my first keeper... ~8' of water. After no action for the next 15 minutes moved to the main lake point I had caught several short fish on the day before. Wasn't long and I had 2 more keepers in the box. I kept getting bites but they had to be small spots... Every once in awhile I'd stick one and get it to the boat. Time to move... Move to the cove I'd caught the 7#er in the day before. C-rigged the point going in... Caught a short fish. Then picked up the one knocker and started pulling it past visible stumps. Thunk! - 3.25#er. Now I have 4 fish and it's only 10:30am. Looking good.... Fast forward 3 hours. It's now 1:30pm and I'm still sitting on 4 fish. And... nasty looking weather is headed this'a way from the north. So I start moving. Went back to the dock where I caught the first keeper. Nadda. Ran to another main lake dock chunked the c-rig. After I made multiple cast I finally get a bite... Boat it and it's another keeper. Put it in the box. That makes 5. Weather is really looking fuggly.... Start running south. Run 2-3 miles, stop, fish, weather catches up. Run another 2-3 miles stop... fish... weather catches up. Did that a few times until weather wasn't gonna be denied. Put it on the trailer @ 2pm in the rain. 15 minutes later it was done. Sho'nuff looked way worse that what it ended up being. But I wasn't putting the boat back in the water. Weigh in... Tater won it with 14+#'s. Second was 12+#s and I came in 3rd with 10.87. Big fish was 3.95(Tater) My big fish was 3.17#s Got 30 or so days to lick my wounds and then try it again!

OK.... another "squeaker".... Question is... what'cha'y'all gonna do next year?????

Why do you have more confidence in the floro rig over the braid rig? Or is there another reason you prefer the floro rig?

I don't chunk the A-rig alot but I do catch'em on it. I'm still trying to get more confidence in it but its hard for me to put down the 1/4oz. OneKnocker.

I had a lot of problems getting hung up and losing rigs with the open swimbait head/hooks. I started using Owner's weighted twistlock CPS hooks and rigging the baits texposed and pretty much solved getting hung up. Works extremely well in the grass..... I use 1/4oz version of these hooks and a 5 bait rig.

LOL... yeah I know! I wuz just tongue n' cheekin' it for you Tiger fans!

Got on the water Wednesday. Spent time on main lake points looking but never found anything work chunkin' and winding for. Picked up a 1/4" One Knocker and started back in the coves. 1/2 way back started picking up short fish. Further back I went the fish got bigger(don't read that to say they got big - they didn't) But they did go from non-keepers to keepers. At one point I was chunkin' a 1 oz. One Knocker. Caught a 10" spot and a 12" large mouth. So much for bigger baits = bigger fish. What I figured out was. The back of the coves was holding keeper fish. BUT... that cove had to have wood in it. Could be laydowns could be stumps but it had to have some cover. Had to have a creek channel near by. That sounds easy but... all creeks are not created equal! Even if they look equal. Thursday - With what I learned Wednesday I put in at Big Bass Marina, where I stay, and started to the back of the cove. Got on the water ~7am. By 8am I had 5 that probably would'a gone 12#s. By 9am I had 7 keepers the best 5 going 13#s... or so. Started thinkin' I may be on to something. Even though it wasn't a big something it was far better than I had been doing. Friday - Soooo.... trailered down to the Army ramp. Caney Creek has a lot of coves/pockets with wood this should be easy. Ahhh.... mmmm.... maybe not. Spent a couple of hours working my way into the back of one of the bigger stump infested pockets in Cany. Caught zip as I worked my way back. Mostly I was chunkin' the 1/4" One Knocker but at times I'd sling the 1 oz. One knocker. Tried pitching a jig some. Square bill some. 1/16 oz. finess rig some. 1/4 oz. One Knocker was the only thing that caught fish. 1/2 way back and still biteless. Get 3/4 of the way back picked up a couple of short fish. Good... pattern is still holding. Well... not exactly. Get to the back and nothing at all. Zippity doo dah! Took 30 mins. to fish my way out still getting nothing. Finally get to where I can run the big'un and head back to the back of Caney. From the last boat lane marker in the back of Caney I got up front and started slinging the 1/4 oz. One knocker. An hour or so later I was in the back of Caney as far as I can go in a fiberglass boat. I have 1 short fish and maybe one keeper to show for my time/effort. Certainly not worth fishing in the tournament. Saturday... Boat 2... I light the fuse and head to the Texas side. Based on what I'd learned Wed.-Fri. I had a plan. Hit the main lake... Dang... thought there wasn't supposed to be much wind. It wasn't horrible but more wind that I had anticipated. Got passed by a Ranger in the E/W boat lane. That's a first! Not only that but he ran off and hid from me too! But I could see where he was going and it looked like he was going where I was going. Man... I hope not. He was close to where I was going but close don't count 'cept in horseshoes, hand grenades, washers and bombs. First pass produces nothing. So much for a solid game plan... 2nd pass... put a 4#er in the boat. Things are looking up. Keep slinging the One Knocker... Boat another keeper that just touches the 14" line(remember to cull #2). As the morning progresses I keep catching one here and one there. Some keep... some don't. By around 11am I have 5 that may be 10#s. By noon I managed to cull one 14" fish(actually had two of'em). But could never cull the 2nd one. Left the pocket I started in @ 1:30. Tried another creek I have done well in but zip. Ran back across and cranked my way back to the ramp in Caney with nothing to show for it. Weigh in... I weighed in first. Big fish was 4.07#s total weight was 10.24#s. 1st place was 16+#s, 2nd was 13+#s, 3rd.... and last money spot was.... 10.79#s That sack also had a big fish of.... 4.17#s. So I got bumped outta the money spot by .54#s and BF by .1#s. Still better that a sharp stick in the eye and far better than I had been doing. Which is proof positive that a blind squirrel can indeed find a nut from time to time. I didn't get to watch the game but I see that LSU eeeekkkeeeddd out another win ov'a Georgia! See what I was saying about blind squirrels???

Yup... things are fixin' to change alrighty. DougW will be there tomorrow. Fishing/catching will be on downward spiral until Sunday - when I won't be there!

I watched that entire game. Man... LSU just barely squeaked by for the win!!!!

I went to my sisters house fer Thanksgiving. My brother-in-law and nephew are part of the company that provide security for SRA facilities down by the dam. What they said wuz... "The rip-rap work has been completed. They are still pouring concrete in the spillway. All the work that required low water has been completed." I can only assume SRA is keeping the water down to ensure they have a place to put water should we get a storm before the concrete work is completed at the spillway.

The deal is that with FR you see fish everywhere you go. Can't seem to figure out species very easily. I may miss some fish using downscan but when I do see them I have a real good clue as to if they're bass or not by the way they're positioned. I'll be back on the lake in December and I'm gonna tweak the 2D settings and the FR settings to see if I can get better returns or more reliable returns. I'll get sum'mo screen captures to post as well.

Yes.... Recently made the comment on another site that I've come to believe that the Fish Reveal feature is little more than yesteryears Fish ID. I was told to dial back the sensitivity and try again - which I will do next month. But for now I have more faith in what I see without fish reveal than what I do with. I haven't had much luck at all.... Spots all ov'a the place good size large mouth are hard for me to come by. My last units were Gen 2T's. It took some doing to get where I am with image quality. Finally got Lowrance to replace the 3D module and transducer and in the process also completely re-wired my electronics set up to be isolated on a 6 slot Blue Sea fuse box. Did a lot of other stuff as well and in the end - you can see the results for yourself. I got soooooo pizzzzzed off at Lowrance was going to Garmin. Then researched Garmin offerings at the time and was a bit less than impressed so I stayed where I was. I would rather have my Carbon/3D setup than todays current Live offering.

HDS 9 Carbon w/3D module and transducer. At one point I belly hooked a 12" threadfin shad.... That might be them on the right in the following image. Those seem to be mighty big, can almost make out the body shape, some kinna bait fish. Screenshot_2019-11-14_10.34.57 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

Find the bait.... Find the fish.... well... not exactly.... Can anyone see any bait fish in these images???? Screenshot_2019-11-14_07.58.31 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2019-11-14_07.35.09 by Doug Wei, on Flickr And what does a roadbed look like on sidescan???? Screenshot_2019-11-13_09.54.53 by Doug Wei, on Flickr Screenshot_2019-11-13_09.41.07 by Doug Wei, on Flickr

Y'all must be corn'fuzed.... That 29#s was from the ABA outta the Army ramp! We added the top 3 sacks together!

Sunday was a better day. I caught 3 on a rat-l-trap. Lost one on the trap that would'a got me a check. Caught a few short fish on a C'rig. Big fish(for me) was 3.82. Weighed in 8-something on three fish. That would'a got me 3rd place on Saturday. Today it didn't even get honorable mention. I was getting ready to trailer back while the weigh-in was going on so don't have a lot of information there. I think I saw where 13-14#s won it. There were a couple of 11# sacks and a 12# sack and some 10# sacks but no one hit the mother load. It was still a tough day just better than Saturday. Probably won't fish the December 'T' as I'm fixing to pull injectors/rails of the ProXS and send'em to Florida for a clean/calibrate session. Still had what feels like a coil going in and out of service on Sunday so I gotta chase that down as well. Pretty sure the tracker valve is toast but the folks in Florida can figure that one out.

Yesterday.... got two bites. Thought I was having engine problems so didn’t leave Pirates Cove until around 10. We had 15 boats fishing yesterday. George Jean won, again, w/13+. Tater weighed in 2 fish Donnie B., angler of the year last year, weighed in 3 fish. Big fish was 5.81#. Next big fish was 4.25#. Maybe today will be a better day.....