So Yall Want To Learn Toledo Bend?

[LovestoFish]

Thanks for the explanation A5

[Catt]

@A5BLASTERYa can't stop now!

 

Y'all getting any rain!

 

Swimbait: rigged how?

 

[A5BLASTER]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

@A5BLASTERYa can't stop now!

 

Y'all getting any rain!

 

Swimbait: rigged how?

 

No rain yet today.

 

Bite turned off today. Did manage to find some on a hump in bout 3 foot of water on a square bill pearl and black back crank. Only one of them was a legal keeper.

 

Yesterday after I meet up with ronny from this thread in a cove behind my house, I was able to out together a good lil pattern but everything was short. They wanted a baby bass colored 4 inch kvd swimming shad on a owner flasher spinner hook.

 

Pulled the boat for now, may drop it back in tomorrow. Fighting a inboard battery charger that's not charging.

 

Edit to add.

 

With the strong southern winds, lots of shad have been pushed up shallow, if the water temp wasn't going to drop with this rain, the next few days would be on fire.

[A5BLASTER]

So lil up date.

 

Dropped the boat back in yesterday around 10am, lines in around 11am, 8 keeper bass between 14.5 to 16 inches in the box by 11:30am.

 

Ghost shad colored swimbait on a owner flasher swimmer hook.

 

Anywhere from 6 inches of water to 2 foot, tucked in tight to any wood.

 

Had my keepers quick, so spent the rest of the day giving them sore lips. Found some on a shallow hump with a pearl and black back crank and a junebug red brush hog trigged.

 

Hit two other coves and the swimbait pattern held, all in total I hooked and landed 44 bass yesterday, had around 15 jump off the hook. 

 

Sadest part of the day was I hooked up with a bass well over 6lbs but it was so far back in the brush I was instantly hung up and couldn't get to the fish in any way possible. So had no choice but to break it off so it wouldn't die. Thankful a few seconds after I broke it, I seen the fish break free from the hook as well. She will be sore mouth for a bit but atleast she will live.

 

Boats on the trailer and I'm in the house, rain is coming down, wish I was fishing lol.

[Catt]

@A5BLASTER Ya ain't throwing that Ribbit yet?

[A5BLASTER]

I have a lil bit but they aren't really ready for it yet.

[LovestoFish]

Thanks for the report A5! Good trip!

 

Any idea how rain yall get yesterday?

[A5BLASTER]

7 hours ago, LovestoFish said:

Thanks for the report A5! Good trip!

 

Any idea how rain yall get yesterday?

Not sure if the amount of rain fall we got but the lake came up 6+ inches since yesterday afternoon on San Miguel and its still coming up.

 

I would say we will stabilize tomorrow evening around 171.25 to 171.50 feet.

 

If the weather forecast I looked at around 7pm is correct, come Tuesday or wensday mid day the big pond will be on fire.

[Catt]

Heading to San Miguel State Park!

[A5BLASTER]

I just dropped the boat back in off of 191 at the closed down gas station ramp.

 

Water temps in 3 to 7 foot areas are 60 to 62.4 degrees. Back end of San Miguel.

[Catt]

Second trip in a row with post frontal conditions.

 

Arrived at San Miguel State Park only to find out it was closed. Went & found a near by lanch. It was extremely foggy, we couldn't see 1/2 way across San Miguel. 

 

Water conditions midway of San Miguel. Temperatures low to mid 50s, clarity 1 1/2 to 2 ft visibly.

 

Lures = bass

Ol' Monster Plum = 1

Baby Brush Hog Plum = 1

Unknown Chatterbait White = 1

Humdinger Colorado Silver, Willowleaf Gold, Blue, Chartreuse & White 1/4 oz = 3

 

All were keepers but released, kicker 3#.

[A5BLASTER]

4 hours ago, Catt said:

Second trip in a row with post frontal conditions.

 

Arrived at San Miguel State Park only to find out it was closed. Went & found a near by lanch. It was extremely foggy, we couldn't see 1/2 way across San Miguel. 

 

Water conditions midway of San Miguel. Temperatures low to mid 50s, clarity 1 1/2 to 2 ft visibly.

 

Lures = bass

Ol' Monster Plum = 1

Baby Brush Hog Plum = 1

Unknown Chatterbait White = 1

Humdinger Colorado Silver, Willowleaf Gold, Blue, Chartreuse & White 1/4 oz = 3

 

All were keepers but released, kicker 3#.

Not bad.

 

I didn't leave the house till around noon.

 

But me and my neighbor boated 12 keepers from noon to about 3:30.

 

Not many small fish today all good fish.

 

Baby bass colored swimbait on a owner flashy simmer hook, gold Colorado blade.

[Catt]

@A5BLASTER My plan before I left was to launch at San Miguel State Park & run to the back but those plans were killed by the fog. San Miguel boat lane are anything but straight. 

[A5BLASTER]

45 minutes ago, Catt said:

@A5BLASTER My plan before I left was to launch at San Miguel State Park & run to the back but those plans were killed by the fog. San Miguel boat lane are anything but straight. 

You right about that.

 

They ain't straight and the markers are missing in some spots. 

[Catt]

I went with my friend Calvin who is a boat captain for a local high school fishing team. The goal was to refresh his memory of San Miguel boat lanes, the fog greatly reduced that time. 

 

Actually Calvin & my grandson Aiden caught all the fish. I was busy practicing casting. 

 

Yes I got skunked but in my defense Aiden took my spinnerbait!

[A5BLASTER]

29 minutes ago, Catt said:

I went with my friend Calvin who is a boat captain for a local high school fishing team. The goal was to refresh his memory of San Miguel boat lanes, the fog greatly reduced that time. 

 

Actually Calvin & my grandson Aiden caught all the fish. I was busy practicing casting. 

 

Yes I got skunked but in my defense Aiden took my spinnerbait!

Lol. Should have called me lol I got a big box full of them spinnerbugs I don't ever use lol.

 

They were up tight to wood today, we had to basicly beat the brush/wood with the swimbait to get them to strike, but boy would they bite when we found one.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

[casts_by_fly]

23 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

that has to be 26” long. Imagine if that fish carried its girth through its length. 

[Catt]

2 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

They were up tight to wood today

 

All 6 were in brush or on cypress trees, all were little females. 

 

Saw lots of shad balls everywhere in deeper water, some had bass below but none would bite.  

 

Calvin throw a 8" Megabass Magdraft Swimbait, nothing not even follower.

[A5BLASTER]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

 

All 6 were in brush or on cypress trees, all were little females. 

 

Saw lots of shad balls everywhere in deeper water, some had bass below but none would bite.  

 

Calvin throw a 8" Megabass Magdraft Swimbait, nothing not even follower.

Oddly enough they weren't on the trees for us today, just on laydowns, branch piles and brush tops that were barely sticking out the waters surface.

 

Neighbor asked. Why you waited so long to go fish today?

 

Me- waited on the water to warm up and the south winds to blow shad up into the backs of the coves.

 

Timed it perfectly, each back that was wind swept and had a water temp on my graph of 60 degrees are more,that's where they were at.

 

Ribbet frog 🐸 is coming back into the line up tomorrow. I'm thinking tomorrow and Friday is going to be perrty awesome.

[Catt]

3 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Oddly enough they weren't on the trees for us today, just on laydowns

 

Oddly enough nothing was remotely near laydowns. 

 

Just a wild guess but afternoon seam better but I can't say for sure since we're leaving before 4°clock. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

11 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

that has to be 26” long. Imagine if that fish carried its girth through its length. 

Yeah I was going to say that's one of the longest fish I've seen in a minute.   Has the frame of a significantly larger fish.   

[btoups]

Got back home yesterday from our 2nd annual Mardi Gras Toledo Bend trip.  Wasn't able to post daily reports since the cell service at the cabin we stayed in was weak and no wifi either.  Arrived Friday evening and launched the boat Saturday morning at Holly Park Marine in Patroon Creek.  Pretty much rained all day Saturday so we had to stay close to the cabin.  We fished a couple of the creeks in Patroon and ended up with one keeper sized bass caught on a chatterbait under a dock and a few small bass.

 

Forecast for Sunday was worse with thunderstorms in the area most of the day.  We got out for an hour or so in the morning and another couple hours late afternoon.  Stayed in Patroon in the morning and caught nothing.  Water was chocolate milk.  Ran to Lowe's Creek in the afternoon and the water was better and we found some bait schools, but only got a couple small bites.

 

Plan for Monday was to run south from Patroon to Housen.  I knew this was questionable with the strong NW winds forecasted.  We started to make the run, but turned around pretty quick with the large waves in the main lake.  Trailered the boat and launched at Jack's 944 launch mid morning.  Water was much cleaner in this area and we caught over 20 bass with most being undersized.  I think we had 3 keeper sized bass.  Most caught on a small jerkbait and shad colored swim bait on an underspin hook.  

 

Tuesday we launched again at Holly Park and ran to the Blue Lake area.  It was in the 30's in the morning with a blue bird sky.  There were several boats fishing the area, but did not see much fish catching.  We caught one decent sized bass in some buckbrush on a texas rigged speed craw.  We had a couple more bites, but no catches.  Ran south to Housen again and the water was super clear.  With little wind and a blue bird sky, the only thing we could get them to bite on were wacky rigged senkos fished in the shady areas.  We caught 3 or 4 keeper sized bass and 5 or 6 undersized bass.  We saw boats running in every direction today, which usually means to me that no one is catching much and everyone is looking for fish.

 

With the varying weather patterns we faced, I was glad that we were able to catch a few fish.  No big fish success yet, but there's always next year.  Thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum as it has been very helpful to me.  It at least gives me an idea of where to start and what to look for since this is only the 3rd time I've been on the lake.

[Catt]

@btoups 👍

[RonnieF]

It was nice meeting and talking with you Blaster. I caught 2 keepers after I talked to you that day. Both on the flashy head swimmer with a 3.5" keitek swimbait. 

The next day, I fished what i call 5 fingers, the cove just south of Cozy Point. Caught 1 keeper in there and missed another. Fished near Rocky Branch and caught another keeper, both on the owner flashy swimmer. 

I fished after the hard rain, I think was last Saturday. It was still drizzling off and on. Caught 4 keepers, and missed another 3. A couple were on white chatterbait and the rest were on the owner flashy swimmer. 

I mainly concentrated on shallow water. 

The bouy situation sucks not only in San Miguel, but also the single buoy lane just out of San Miguel headed north. Can't wait to get back up to try them again.