Clinton john

Ba bam spawning fish on the frog in the rain, got to love the Bend. Found this in the stomach of one of the bass. Funny thing is I got broke off by a bass almost a week ago where I caught the one that had that in its stomach.

Getting there, don't do more then idle when outside the marked boat lanes and you shouldn't tear up anything.

If your catching them in mid day with soft plastics I say you have it figured out. When I'm fishing lets say a point and they just stop biting, I move on, I have sat and worked over bass that did that and have caught more but in the long run it was just better to move on and find fish that were doing a mid day feed. If I'm fishing cranks, swim baits, jigs and catching and they just stop I pick the frog rod back up and head for grass mats and buck brush in the 5 fow area or shallower, most of my biggest bass caught during mid day have been this way. I feel that some do move deeper but most just shut down and settle on the bottom where they were and chill out till later in the day. Hope you find some good info in what I wrote, good luck this month sir.

No the spawn is not done you will find bass trying to spawn until late April even into the first of May. Just have to remember they may be spawning deeper then normal and also the later in to the month and begging of May you have to move south more to stay in the spawning bass. The spawn starts in the north end of the lake and moves south from there. So the later in the spawn it is the more you will find bass in spawn in the south part of the lake then the north. If you fish the bank for a few hours and don't find them drop back to the 15 fow area and start over.

Holy hoppin Hippo's it's finally raining in Sabine parish.

Red and silver trim with talons that's Toledo Bend camo bro ain't nobody going to find you lol.

No I don't live out that way no more, I live on Toledo Bend now.

Lake Arthur born and raised.

Hahahaha y'all don't catch all the big girls out my old stomping grounds.

So John Murry won it. What was his total bag weight to win?

For me it would be a big NOOOO. This year it happened at the island's next to North Toledo Bend park in early January. Was fishing a hump with a Crig baited with a 8inch zoom lizard in watermelon red, felt the hit and it didn't feel like a big fish, reeled down and set the hook and the rod nearly came out my hands when she jerked back and took off running away from me. We did battle for a few, she made several good runs then I got her turned and coming up, she came up a few feet from the boat on her side and I could tell she would have been very much bigger then my PB of 9.14, went to get the net and she went to jumping and next thing I know my hook and wait hit me when she throw it. Backtrack to the previous year only this time closer to my house at 1:40 in the morning full moon fishing a grass flat with a ribbet frog, soon as the frog broke free from the grass I saw the biggest explosion on a frog I have ever seen, reeled down counted too two felt her and did everything I could to cross her eyes when I set the hook, it was the hardest pulling bass I have ever felt even till today, got her close to the boat she was jumping and splashing about my freind went to net her so I thought, he reaches down to lip her and miss's the fish she went down and ran my line against the prop of the motor and go away. Won't put a weight guess on either of those two bass but I'm confident enough to know they were well past the ten pound mark.

7' MH with fast tip loaded with Trilene xt 14# I don't use braid on any lure that has treble hooks. Any baitcaster with a 6.4:1 or higher gear ratio will get it done, I personally like 7.1:1 so I can burn it when I want to and still slow it down off need be.

Tie off rope and anchor, is the first tip I learned here for fishing the deeper water. You should see the looks on some of the guys faces when I tie off to a stump and drop anchor when I'm fishing deep water while the wind is blowing. In fact i have never seen anouther bass boat tie off or anchor off when fishing deep water when the wind is blowing. Thanks Catt, best tip I picked up so far.

Cool thanks for the head's up. I figured it would be more south then San Miguel that he was catching prespawner's in that water depth. Wish I could have gotton on the water today but work just had to get in the way and now the wind is blowing to hard for me to make my first night fishing trip of the year. But come first light my pro crappie will be running wide open headed for my secret spot.

What area of the lake was the leader fishing? I'm thinking main lake but more on the south end of the lake.

If I had seen shad jumping around I would changed out to a shallow running crank in a shad color or a caffine swim shad in ghost shad color with a under spinner hook.

This is how I would look at it if it was me buying the motor for my boat. 1. Is the company still in buisness, if the answer is no then pass on the motor. 2. Is the motor the max legel limit horsepower for my boat, always buy motors that are at the top of your boats motor rating. 3. Do I want to sup up the motor if so then it needs to be a two stroke and have three cylinders. 4. If the owner wont let you start and run the motor in both gears wide open and at idle and wont let you put it on a boat to run it under load to make sure the dogs arent slipping dont buy it. 5. Is resale value important to me if so then I would be looking in the mid to late 90's model's of merc's and yammy's. I have never owned a new motor and have only owned merc's and yammy's ranging from 25 to 60 horse motors and have put the cash into them to sup them up and have them turning the most power they can and when it came time to maintenance the motor's it was simple to do myself and if they broke there are lots of books and vid's to walk you throw a repair. I have always made my money or more back on my motor's when it came time to sale and increase the size of my motor or boat. It's a lot to take in but hope this info helps you sir.

Photoshoped. If you zoom in on the pic you can see that the boy does not have a left hand his hand is missing in the pic only the bottom part of his Palm is there.

I forgot mine once and only once and it cost me a 250 to pay the ticket. Here in Louisiana they can run your name and see if you have one or not but that don't matter our law states it most be on your person.

Fishnchip thanks for the link. I went throw it and I will be the first to say I'm not all that good with understanding government write up's and how they list data but if I'm understanding it correctly they show and trend of more non tournament anglers releasing bass back to the lake every year. Maybe this year I will finally land one over ten. Well to be honest my PB of 9.14 was over ten but she throw up a big bluegill while in the tank waiting to be weighted and that brought her down to 9.14, I was sick to say the least.

I have wondered this myself because I fished during and after that flood and we caught bigger bass in areas where we typically don't catch bass bigger then level keeper size for the Bend. I also remember the fish holding up in those new flooded area's longer then they typically do after spawn. I saw several first during and after the flood, during the flood I caught my biggest flat head cat ever and three days after the water settled I caught what is my personal best bass of 9.14. I think the reason was because the high water had a huge impact on the shad schools and where they were staying in the water level. I remember that all the flooded brush and grass that was close to shore seemed to be just covered in shad for about two weeks after the water leveled off, I think that's what caused it to happen so much more of the lake's shad population was up close to shore and that intern brought up more of the big girls then normal.

I would say the Powell. That's what I use is the Powell but not the one you have listed, mine is 7' 3" heavy with fast tip, have to double check but think it is the 734 cf. Use it for frogs and heavy jigs, Caroline rigs and punching, love this rod never lets me down. Hope you find the perfect rod for you sir.

Glad you had a great time sir. The Bend is a awesome place to fish and live, I wouldn't dream of being anywheres but here. And your correct those anglers badmouthing the lake and how it's fished and handled or doing just as you have stated, blaming someone or something for the fact that they couldn't put it together and catch some bass. But all this being said I for one would like to see this topic get back to its intended direction of helping others learn how to fish the Bend. And remember guys if you see a blue pro crappie with a fat guy in it, come on up and say hello.

Cranks will most likely work too, just remember just because the air temp is in the 70 degree range doesn't mean the water temp is. If y'all got a good amount of rain and snow fall that melted off and went in the lake the water temp will be down some. So that to me would mean to slow down my bait' s movement and possible go to a smaller bait. I would start with soft plastics and also would try cranks, spinnerbaits and jigs.

Yawn....