Clinton john

Nope not a waist of time. If it was me I would start with soft plastics Texas rigged.

Hahahahahahahah lololololololol My dad bought me some of them things years ago when I was young.

I have the zman chatterbaits, and only use one color white and chartreuse and use two diffrent trailer's both made by Mr.Crappie one has two long slinder legs and the other has two short fat paddle type feet both or chartreuse with flake. I fish my chatterbaits anywhere I would fish a spinner bait or a normal jig. Near grass, over grass, brush, logs, sand flats, points, open channels between two points of land that has some current where bass would run back and forth throw chaseing bait fish. Hope this info helps sir.

I tryed FC once and didn't care for it due to knots not holding and or breaking, this was last summer. I use mono, Trilene xl and xt and can't find any diffrence between the two. Smallest I use is 12# but like the 14# the best. I use it on all baits except my frogs, frogs get PP braid. Bottom line if it work for you (ohh and nice catch sir) and you feel confident with it don't change it. Hope this helps you sir.

Marshfly, I'm still finding spawning bass in pockets here and there. You should be able to find some still in spawn come next thursday, but for the most part the bass or coming off spawn and into feed mood for post spawn around my house on SAN Miguel. The more south you go in the lake the more spawning bass you should find the spawn starts in the north part of the lake and works its way to the south part of the lake. Hope this helps sir.

I don't see a reason to think it a bad move for bass fishing, we use to troll for white perch when I was a kid on Toledo Bend in front Red's point but that was years ago. For me I don't think it would be worth while money wise to try and troll for bass on the Bend to many stumps and would lose too many baits, but I'm sure there are guys that have figured out how to do it and catch some nice bass doing it.

Long as the water ain't to cold I'm in for any bass no matter what size it would be.

We have enough problems with gator gar down here don't need any more toothy fish down here then what we got now lol. For us down here we throw SB cranks at reeds all the time and your right they do hold some good bass, not much reeds in Toledo Bend, but down south Louisiana where I was born and raised got plenty of reeds in the marsh.

For me it would have to be that no matter what kind of bait I'm running I set the hook like I'm trying to rip the fish's face off and reel it to the boat like a mad man and don't give the fish time to fight out its strength. I know it drives my dad and some older family freinds crazy lol.

Lots of good info here. I use both but tend to use the CB more around thick grass and wood or when the fish are telling me to slow it down are want a certain movement. I use the trap more around open flats and points or channel drop off's and change the size to match the size of bait fish the bass or eating their. My favorite time and place for a trap is on Sandy flats when the schools show up to slam shad in the early morning and late evening, match the size and color of the trap to the shad, burn it throw and hold on for deer life.

I use both. 1/4 for water 6 foot or shallower and 1/2 for anything deeper. I use the 1/4 on shallow sand flats when the school's are up chasing shad. Always match the size to the baitfish they are eating.

I'm going to say go with the Lews, but you should know up front Lews reels is all I use, out of all the reels I have used since I started bass fishing the Lews reels have held up the longest and have been the best preformers. You should also know I do not in any way maintain my reels, when I'm not fishing they or in the boat in whatever weather happens to come along. I have the Laser MG you listed as well as two lower priced Lews reels and also their super duty reel. Good luck finding the right reel for your needs sir.

For my Top water lures aka other then frogs I use 15# mono, those types of lures don't see thick grass or brush. For frogs I used PP 30# for several years but two days ago I respooled to the PP 40#because I needed more line and the tackle shop was out of 30, don't really see a diffrence in the two and I fish this in heavy slop,grass,brush.

Hello and welcome from Zwollle, on the Bend.

Here are my thoughts, I know guns and I know the value of a ar better then most because I build them and sell them myself. That boat no matter how good of a shape it is, is not worth the trade here or the reasons. It's a really old boat and if you ever decide to upgrade it to a newer boat you will never get the cash that you have tied up in it. It's fiberglass it may look good on the outside but it's the inside under the floors that will be the problem, it can look good on the outside but more then likely there is some root going on under the floors. The features of the boat are out dated bad, you might not think that is a bad thing now but it won't take long before you will want to upgrade and it might not be possible with that boat. The motor rating for that boat is a old rating system that is no longer used and the stern was made for the weight and power of the motors being made at that time, it may or may not work well with today's new four stroke motors or newer model two strokes that have been suped up. Now as far as the ar you will be better off listing it for sale on a gun fourm and selling it that way, if you take it to a gun shop or pawn shop you will never get close to what it is worth. If it were me I would sell the rifle the way I suggested and save up some cash and find myself a used aluminum that is alot newer and has a good trolling motor and outboard. Aluminum is easyer to maintain and maintenance and will hold its value better then that old boat in the pic you posted. These or just my thoughts I hope they help you in your decision sir.

Getting facts off Facebook is like trying to catch a fart and paint it green. Bottom line is strike king came fish for a few hours in either the worked over popular spots or was way off in his approach and pattern. And the things he stated bout the boat lanes, hundreds of cleaned fish in the water is just hogwash point blank. The fishing in the Bend is just as good as it has been for the last two season's. True the grass is down several factors have to due with that not just the Sylvania being sprayed. True the water level is down, that's life. The fish adapted they didn't go where they normally do, they went other places and or stayed deeper and spawned, that is the reason the amount of 10 pound plus bass being caught is down this year. And let's face the facts gents most and I mean many, let's say 85% of anglers( i grabed that number out the air)don't know how to find and catch bass when they are deeper. I count myself in that number as well, I do catch bass when they are deep but I could always be better at it. My feelings on the subject gents, they might not sit well with others but then again I'm still catching fish so I can't be that wrong.

True you will see more on the weekends that's the nature of the beast no matter where you go. As far as the lack of grass true there isn't as much shallow grass as their use to be but it will grow back. Unlike what some people think and say, the bass just didn't up and walk out the lake because the amount of grass in the shallow water is down this year, they just adapted and when to diffrent spots most staying deeper to spawn. I will go ahead and throw something out here that i been holding close this year. Don't look for grass along the bank look for grass in the 10 to 15 foot depth on flats. I can sit on my porch like I'm doing right now and can see where there is five diffrent grass lines in that water depth and I see boats pass over it all day and nobody fishes it. Matter of fact there are three boats banging the bank right now in my cove and not one of them even acted like they knew the grass was there and I can guarantee you there are bass on it right now, because right before dark they will come off it to feed on the sand bar that's twenty yards from it and the bar is only 3 foot deep.

Agreed have'nt noticed a that much of a increase due to the lake being made number 1. Like Catt said during certian times the weekend warrior's or thick but after that nice peaceful fishing.

Joshybadnames,Why wait for the water to be up there are bass on them right now. RICE72, I'm sorry y'all didn't do so good this weekend, I was fishing the same areas you were at the same time and I caught a lot more bites. How was y'all fishing, I caught mine on caffine shad and ribbet frogs and one or two on a square bill. Yes the water is low yes the amount of grass is down and despite everthing people are saying and posting about the Bend being destroyed and the fishing being bad, there are lots of folks catching bass, so I wouldn't put much faith in what some people say about the fishing being bad.

They are called scrubber holes, not real sure what they are used for. My brother in law fish's from a yak often and he use's his to put down a stake pool so the fish can't pull him around when he sets the hook and fighting a fish. But if I had to guess they are there to drain water from the inside so it doesn't build up and make the yak unstable.

I agree completely to many cry baby's now days. Had a conversation with a freind of mine last night we were talking about all that's been said lately about this subject. He told me about a guy who posted he was a the bend Friday and said the guy posted he saw someone cleaning a 8 pound bass and that there was hundreds of dead bass in the water next to the fish cleaning station at the campsite they were useing. I asked my freind if the guy posted what campsite they were at and the guy wouldn't admit to where he was at, funny how that works huh. Like I told my friend I can see someone keeping and cleaning a 8 pounder it happens, but hundreds of dead fish in the water I said there is no way I'm believing that. I told him if that was true every game warden on the Bend would have been parked in the parking lot writing tickets like there was no tommorw. I just feel its a crying shame that so many so called anglers come to my home lake and can't put it together and find some fish so they have to turn around and bad mouth the ones in charge or the average Joe who keeps a few fish to eat because they don't have the skill set to back up their big talk of how good they are at bass fishing. Heck I don't have the most are the best gear for bass fishing but I was out in that nasty weather yesterday and I had no problems finding and catching fish. Sorry for going on a rant, it just burns my butt to no end to have people bad mouth the Bend.

Try adding a spinner bait trailer, something with two tails, it will help to get them to hit the body and not the blades.

Yep. I just came off the water, wind got to be just to bad to be out. I had 17 bites landed 14 most bass came in at 14 1/2 to 16 inches. Got bite on caffine shad and ribbet frog in 6 inches to 3 foot of water. Y'all be safe out there today I'm done for the day.

It's possible, did you go under the bridge to get there?

You are correct on all counts Catt. I do keep me some bass for eating but I control how many and what size I keep, so me personally I don't think I'm doing any damage to the population. I think it's more of them not haveing the skill to catch the bass and they have to blame someone or something for their lack of skill.