I usually have my best luck going behind people beating the bank and fishing about where they are holding their boats.  

Late report. Fished Toledo this past thursday, fri and Saturday with some decent catches. Fished pirates cove Thursday with only a handful of small bass shallow, hit housen Friday and caught a nice 5lber on a rattle trap, ended that day with about 9 fish.

That same day my buddies bro-in-law was in pirates and was in the right spot at the right time catching 26 fish in a 2 hour window (3-5pm)  including a 4lber, 6lber & 8.75. That fish went past the end of the golden rule so he took it to army rec to weigh it since he had no scale. 8.75.

we decided to hit pirates on Saturday and was a tough bite for us. Only a few fish but my buddy managed to get a 6.4lber on a Texas rigged bottom hopper in 2ft if water. 

@Kidflex excellent! ?

I fished with Bassfanatic on Friday.  We started shallow and he boat flipped a 2.5 pounder before I could get my rod out of my locker.  That was the last shallow bite we got.  We moved out deeper (15-18 ft.) and started seeing and catching fish.  We caught a few good ones and some rats for a total of around 25 fish or so.  I will let Josh give more details if he would like.  We had a good time and as always shared a bunch of laughs.  Anyone looking to learn their electronics and learn the lake better should get in touch with Josh.  

 

On a different note we  saw one of the strangest things I have seen on the lake.  We are back in this pocket chunking and winding and we see this older gentleman wrestling a blue 55 gallon barrel out of the water.  He finally gets it up on the bank and it starts making a bunch of noise.  He is messing with it and I tell Josh he must have a mess of crappie in there.  Next thing we see is him emerging with this huge bass.  Josh and I look at each other in bewilderment.  Josh says, "that thing must be 7.5 lbs.".  The old guy looks at us and says it weighed 10.5 lbs.   

2 hours ago, Amateur Hour said:

I fished with Bassfanatic on Friday.  We started shallow and he boat flipped a 2.5 pounder before I could get my rod out of my locker.  That was the last shallow bite we got.  We moved out deeper (15-18 ft.) and started seeing and catching fish.  We caught a few good ones and some rats for a total of around 25 fish or so.  I will let Josh give more details if he would like.  We had a good time and as always shared a bunch of laughs.  Anyone looking to learn their electronics and learn the lake better should get in touch with Josh.  

 

On a different note we  saw one of the strangest things I have seen on the lake.  We are back in this pocket chunking and winding and we see this older gentleman wrestling a blue 55 gallon barrel out of the water.  He finally gets it up on the bank and it starts making a bunch of noise.  He is messing with it and I tell Josh he must have a mess of crappie in there.  Next thing we see is him emerging with this huge bass.  Josh and I look at each other in bewilderment.  Josh says, "that thing must be 7.5 lbs.".  The old guy looks at us and says it weighed 10.5 lbs.   

Would you like me too tell you what he was useing that drum for? Lmao

2 hours ago, Amateur Hour said:

I fished with Bassfanatic on Friday.  We started shallow and he boat flipped a 2.5 pounder before I could get my rod out of my locker.  That was the last shallow bite we got.  We moved out deeper (15-18 ft.) and started seeing and catching fish.  We caught a few good ones and some rats for a total of around 25 fish or so.  I will let Josh give more details if he would like.  We had a good time and as always shared a bunch of laughs.  Anyone looking to learn their electronics and learn the lake better should get in touch with Josh.  

 

On a different note we  saw one of the strangest things I have seen on the lake.  We are back in this pocket chunking and winding and we see this older gentleman wrestling a blue 55 gallon barrel out of the water.  He finally gets it up on the bank and it starts making a bunch of noise.  He is messing with it and I tell Josh he must have a mess of crappie in there.  Next thing we see is him emerging with this huge bass.  Josh and I look at each other in bewilderment.  Josh says, "that thing must be 7.5 lbs.".  The old guy looks at us and says it weighed 10.5 lbs.   

It was an interesting day for sure! I was convinced that we were going to catch a lot of shallow fish on a frog, but only had 1 blowup.  We threw chatterbaits, senkos, and frogs with only that one fish to show for it.  We did find quite a few offshore fish.  Caught most on a dropshot, but the biggest came off of a Carolina rig. 15-18’ seemed to be the key depth Friday.  I always enjoy sharing a boat with Chris. Stand up guy and a lot of fun! I’ve never seen anything like what we saw with the barrel. I’m still not sure if he was saving them for later (cheating) or if he just stored his fish in there while camping. Still really confused by what we saw. One thin is for sure though, it was a GIANT bass!

Pirates cove was on fire Saturday, my buddy got a nice one 8.2 on the scales. High numbers. All on the edge of grass. 

today was a different story. It was cold and windy. So I decided to go to 944 to get out of the wind. I launched and immediately started pitching a dbomb. 3rd pitch and I pull this nice one out. 

my buddy catches one right after me and we though the bass finally moved into the bushes but that would be the last bite in the buckbrush. Had to work hard for few bites. Still better than staying home.

 

@Kidflex There aint no fish in 944 ?

23 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Would you like me too tell you what he was useing that drum for? Lmao

I'll bite - what's your thoughts on that?  I guess either he's cheating or possibly just being dishonest?

35 minutes ago, ranger392xt said:

I'll bite - what's your thoughts on that?  I guess either he's cheating or possibly just being dishonest?

If he had it out in the deeper water where they were catching at (15 to 18) foot.

 

My belive is he was useing it like a good few of use do. As a catfish box, for flatheads.

 

There are several of use up here who have figured out if you drill holes in a 55 gallon plastic drum and let it settle on its side on the bottom big flathead will use it as a house.

 

If you can stand it up slowly enough the flathead won't swim out and once you start pulling it up the flathead natural response is to swim downwards, keeping it in the barrel.

 

I have found a few bass in my catfish barrel before but never nothing big.

 

But it's very possible he had it setup to hold a big bass so he could cheat.

 

But my first quests is catfish trap.

'Cept for one thing.... He already knew how much it weighed! Orrrr... maybe he didn't and was just guessing.

5 hours ago, Dougw said:

'Cept for one thing.... He already knew how much it weighed! Orrrr... maybe he didn't and was just guessing.

He knew the weight. I asked if it was 7 or 8lbs and he was quick to tell me 10.5. He even told me where he caught it, so it didn’t get caught in a trap. I’m not saying he was cheating, he may have been using it as a livewell for the weekend. But it was strange to say the least

Back in the 70s we would build at "pen" out of wire mesh, it was 3' tall, 4' wide & 4' long. We would keep all the Bass, Crappie, & Bream in it until we were ready clean them.

 

I highly doubt he had intentions of cleaning a 10.5!

It was in a pretty high traffic area in front of a camper.  The only camper around.  I would think if he was trying to cheat he would be a bit more subtle.  I mean it was a bright blue barrel that made a ton of racket while he was wrestling it.

we use the wire mesh box for a holding pen as well for crappie and cats, first I heard of the barrel trick for catching cats, may give that a try.  Lord knows I need to try for something other than bass!

14 minutes ago, ranger392xt said:

we use the wire mesh box for a holding pen as well for crappie and cats, first I heard of the barrel trick for catching cats, may give that a try.  Lord knows I need to try for something other than bass!

After today I'm just going to put the boat on the trailer and put my gear away for the rest of the year and consintrate on night hog hunting.

 

Sra has lost their minds and I'm more convinced now more then ever they are doing what they are doing so they can have the excuse too use as much water year round as they can.

 

Anybody noticed how far they dropped the water since daylight today?

 

I wouldn't belive it till I seen it with my own eye's today, if yall see a airboat or a smaller semi v aluminum with a spray tank and a mud motor on it just follow it around and you will see what I seen today.

 

 

12 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

 

I wouldn't belive it till I seen it with my own eye's today, if yall see a airboat or a smaller semi v aluminum with a spray tank and a mud motor on it just follow it around and you will see what I seen today.

 

I saw the air boat when I was up there but they were way in the back of Bull Creek where I couldn't go in my Alweld.

1 hour ago, Catt said:

 

I saw the air boat when I was up there but the were way in the back of Bull Creek where I couldn't go in my Alweld.

I didn't see the airboat in the water but I seen the smaller boat with the surface drive, go in a small cove I fished today.

 

They went in after I fished throw and was working my way back to try anouther round out more from the bank trying to find the fish.

 

I can tell you this there was not one piece of salvana in that cove not one single peice.

 

I had to see it with my own eye's but now I finally belive what others have been saying. 

I saw Salvinia in several areas but it was in patches of maybe 4 sq ft or less. I aint trying to defend what TP&W is doing but I've read a lot of research about Giant Salvinia & it shows if a single cell remains it will reproduce quickly & spread.

 

What I saw was in the extreme back end of Bull Creek & the grass in the front end is coming back.

 

I don't know what chemicals TP&W is spraying but in one of our local marshes (Lacassine) LDWF sprayed Giant Salvinia & it didn't effect any other vegetation.

3 hours ago, Catt said:

I saw Salvinia in several areas but it was in patches of maybe 4 sq ft or less. I aint trying to defend what TP&W is doing but I've read a lot of research about Giant Salvinia & it shows if a single cell remains it will reproduce quickly & spread.

 

What I saw was in the extreme back end of Bull Creek & the grass in the front end is coming back.

 

I don't know what chemicals TP&W is spraying but in one of our local marshes (Lacassine) LDWF sprayed Giant Salvinia & it didn't effect any other vegetation.

My understanding is the chemical they use won't harm other vegetation. That's what I was told.

 

What does happen is the salvinia dies and sinks and it chokes out the grass it sinks down on to, killing it.

1 hour ago, A5BLASTER said:

What does happen is the salvinia dies and sinks and it chokes out the grass it sinks down on to, killing it

 

I don't know about that because I've seen it dead & it floated up against the bank.

2 hours ago, Catt said:

 

I don't know about that because I've seen it dead & it floated up against the bank.

That's how they explained it to me. That it wouldn't hurt other grass directly but after it killed the target. It would sink and choke the other grass to death.

 

I have seen it on the bottom after it died but it was close to the bank as well. Like it had been blown up there and finally died and sank.

 

Very shallow water maybe 6 inch's deep.

IKD! @A5BLASTER ?

I would rather them keep spraying and stay ahead of it than have whole arms choked off and not navigable.

58 minutes ago, Wesley said:

I would rather them keep spraying and stay ahead of it than have whole arms choked off and not navigable.

Not sure how salvinia keeps someone from driving a boat throw it. I been doing it for years.