2016 Elite Series
Toledo Bend
Many, Louisiana
14th Place / 15 fish, 52-11
My past tournament history on Toledo Bend included two good finishes and one poor one, so I was looking forward to this event. It has always been a good lake, but it was recently ranked the best bass fishery in the country and I expected that some big weights would show up at the scales.
May is sort of an “in-between” time, and I wasn’t sure what percentage of the fish, if any, would still be spawning, and what percentage had moved out to their summertime areas. Fortunately, there are always enough fish shallow on Toledo Bend to do well, and it can be possible to fish a few different ways in the course of the day.
On the first day of practice I put in up the lake. I’ve always wanted to find some fish up there because more than likely I’d have them all to myself. It’s never worked out in the past, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying. I got bit pretty quickly, but they were all small, from non-keepers up to 2 ½ pounds. Historically it takes 14 pounds a day to get paid at Toledo Bend, so without some 3 pounders you’re in trouble. I caught plenty of fish up there flipping bushes and throwing a spinnerbait, but none were the right size, so once again I had to chalk it up to a water elimination day. At the same time, I noticed that there was a shad spawn going on up there, and that clued me into how they’d bite elsewhere on the lake, so all was not lost.
I went down the lake to start Day Two and launched in a creek that I’d never fished before. I started off deep and found a couple of places holding some bass. Then I moved up shallow and on the first dock I lost a good one, probably between 4 and 5 pounds. I bounced back and forth and with my Humminbird electronics and Lakemaster chip I found plenty of deep fish, but in half a day I never found the right quality.
I went down the lake to start Day Two and launched in a creek that I’d never fished before. I started off deep and found a couple of places holding some bass. Then I moved up shallow and on the first dock I lost a good one, probably between 4 and 5 pounds. I bounced back and forth and with my Humminbird electronics and Lakemaster chip I found plenty of deep fish, but in half a day I never found the right quality.
After a half day of unproductive searching I went shallow into the “hay grass” and managed a few bites. Then I moved to a point that had a number of cypress trees on it and hung a good fish on a wacky worm that broke my line. I was frustrated at the time, but that fish keyed me into that area, and it paid off big time during the tournament.
On the third day of practice I put in at the take-off point and fished some areas where I’d had success previously. I followed the shad spawn with a spinnerbait and managed a number of white bass plus a 3 pound largemouth, the best one I’d caught so far. I found another area that had good hydrilla in 8 to 10 feet of water, some but not all of it topped out. There was one hard point in the grass that I located with my Humminbird 360. On back to back casts I caught a 2 pounder and then had another bite. While my practice wasn’t very good overall, at least now I had a few spots where I’d had multiple bites. I’d start with those and then just go fishing after that if I had to.
Knowing that the shad spawn could produce some easy fish, on Wednesday night I tied on a new Terminator Popping Frog. There were some areas in the hay grass that were too thick for the spinnerbait, and I knew that could be a worthy substitute in the heavier cover. When I arrived at my first spot Thursday morning there were fish busting on shad just like I’d envisioned. I put my Talons down and quickly caught a 2 pounder and a 3 pounder on the frog, then missed a couple. I moved around to the other side of the dock and while a few fish rolled on the frog, I couldn’t manage many hookups. When the shad stopped flipping after 30 minutes, I’d had a chance for 15 pounds, but I only had three fish in the livewell instead.
Shortly thereafter I caught number four on a wacky worm, and then went over to my deeper hydrilla fish at 8:30. Pretty quickly I caught one over 3 pounds on a prototype Terminator jig. Then I caught one about 2 ¼ pounds on a 10-inch Power Worm. By 9:30, I had two in the livewell over 3 pounds, which was better than I did all of practice. I wasn’t in great shape, but it was better than I’d expected.
A little bit before 11 I ran to the cypress trees and quickly caught a few small ones that wouldn’t help. Then I moved to the grass on top of the point and while there were fish blowing up, I couldn’t get them to bite my bait. I eventually caught a 2 pounder on the next point, but I had enough fish miss that I knew something was wrong. I changed to a clear frog with white legs, but I missed five more in a row. They were just grabbing the legs and missing the body. When I trimmed the legs down to next to nothing, they stopped biting completely.
Eventually I switched to the Ghost Pearl Shad frog and that proved to be a huge difference maker. After that point I probably caught 70 percent of the bass that bit, which is about as good as you can ever expect. I never caught a 4 pounder that day, but I caught a bunch over 3 pounds alternating between the two points. Late in the day I let a 3 pounder go and then figured I’d probably caught as much as I could from that area. I ended up with a 17-10 limit, which is pretty good when you consider that my biggest fish weighed 3.70 pounds.
After a tough practice, I’d felt like I’d adjusted on the fly pretty well on Day One. That left me with a huge feeling of accomplishment, but there were still two more days to fish.
On Day Two I started off on my shad spawn area where there’d been hundreds of fish in a 50 yard stretch the day before. This time, nothing. I had one little one roll before I left for the two little grass points around the mouth of a creek. I quickly caught one there that probably weighed a little bit less than 2 pounds. Gradually I started to build a limit and then a little later in the morning I caught one that weighed about 4 ¼ pounds. On the next point I had another decent bite but I missed it.
At one point the fish came up schooling and I caught a 2 pounder and a 3 pounder, which brought me up into the low teens. I waited until 1pm to go to my grass flipping area and that didn’t pay off, because I only got one bite and I missed it. Apparently my timing was off on that spot, but on the way out I stopped on one of those grassy points and caught a 4 ½ pound bass, my biggest of the week so far. That freed me up to run new stuff, but I only managed to cull up one more time.
When I got back to weigh-in, the first 4 pounder from the morning had died. I’m still not sure why that happened. It knocked me down 4 ounces to 16-15. That was still a decent bag and it moved me up four spots to 22nd. Once again, after my main places hadn’t paid off and I messed up the timing on the flipping bite, I managed to adjust and turn it into a positive result.
On Day Three I resolved to go to my hydrilla spot earlier because I felt that it was my best bet to catch some quick flipping fish. I started at my hay grass point and soon hooked a 10 incher and as it came to the boat with my topwater hanging out of its mouth a 5 pounder tried to eat the smaller fish. Unfortunately, that was all of the excitement I got to experience. On a Saturday on the best lake in the country there’s going to be pressure, and pretty quickly there were a number of local boats in the area. That wouldn’t have been a problem except getting the fish to bite seemingly depended on allowing the smaller areas to rest, and that wasn’t going to happen.
With that area out of play I went to my hydrilla flipping area and within 15 minutes I had my big bite on that prototype Terminator jig. This one was almost 6 pounds, the biggest fish I’d caught by far in six days of fishing. A few minutes later I caught a 4 pounder and shortly after that I added one to the livewell that weighed about 2 ½ pounds. Those fish all bit solidly and had the bait firmly in their mouths, but after that I couldn’t buy a good hookup. The fish would strike and I’d bring back a bait with teeth marks. I missed the next five, and on all but one of them they were complete swings and whiffs. It was all that much more frustrating because I knew that there were quality fish in the area.
I left that area at 10:30 with three fish in the livewell, two of them good ones, and headed to my previously productive points, which were nearby. I caught a few on a frog, mostly in the 2 ½ to 2 ¾ pound range, but couldn’t add another fish over 3 pounds. I’d figured out the key frog areas – flatter points with a specific mix of hay grass close to the main lake or main creek – but I couldn’t upgrade my weight meaningfully. Those two big bites propelled me up to 18-02 for the day, and I moved to 14th place overall.
It was especially fun to do well on a frog, which is a technique that I don’t get to fish a lot at home. They were pure reaction bites that required me to work the frog extremely quickly. Half of the fish would come completely out of the water and miss it, but once I dialed it in I could get those same fish to go back under and attack the frog again.
After practice if you’d told me that I was going to catch 52-11 and finish 14th I would’ve told you that you were crazy. I had the chances to make the 12 cut, but overall I’m very satisfied.
My main bait was a new Terminator popping frog that’ll be released at this year’s ICAST show, and the best color was clearly Ghost Pearl Shad. I fished in on a Fenwick World Class 7’1” medium heavy rod paired with a 7.9:1 Pflueger Patriarch spooled up with 30 pound test Trilene Braid.
I could not have had this success without my Humminbird 360. It’s useful for a ton of different circumstances, but it especially shines in submerged grass. When you can’t see the grass line or the clumps with your eyes, this takes out all of the guesswork. It’s absolutely unbelievable.
Next up on the Elite Series is Texoma, a lake I’ve never been to and that’s fine with me. If all goes well, there are five more points events left. With this good finish I moved inside the Classic bubble, but we’re only halfway done with the season, so there’s no cushion at all. There’s a lot of fishing left to go on a number of very good fisheries.