DavidB

Ulrich helped me with a trolling motor issue a couple of years ago. Got on it and had us back on the water that same afternoon. Nice people, good service!

Bill, Our group from Toledo Bend has enjoyed an April week on Table Rock since 1982. We have followed your posts and those of others religiously prior to our trips. I still have a fond memory of some of our group delivering a Cajun basket of goodies to your front door, unannounced, where we were met by your beautiful wife, and invited in for an hour or more of talk about fishing the Rock. You and your wife were so gracious. I have always looked forward to your posts, and hope you will reconsider your decision to stop. Your posts about deep water fishing, with screenshots, have been helpful to me and to others in our group, both on Table Rock and at home on Toledo Bend. I suppose there will always be others who delight in being critics, but that need not deter you. Your recent trip to Sturgeon Bay brings back very fond memories of my two trips there. We were told that June is the best month to be there, but both of our trips were in early September, and they were outstanding. Those smallmouth have shoulders! Like you, we caught numerous 3-5 lb fish, and on our last trip I caught a 6.3 in 25 ft. of water, on the Ned, and it sure gave us a start when cleared the water. Got our guide's attention in a hurry! Best wishes there at Shell Knob! We still find ourselves at Happy Hollow, our home away from home, every April.

Many years ago a friend and I were fishing the Negreet Creek area of Toledo Bend, and a really nice fish broke me off and swam away with my red Rebel Super R. A week later the same friend and I started in that same spot and I hooked a fish on another Super R. We didn't have a net, and when I got it to the boat it had two Super R's in its mouth, including the one from the week before. I asked my buddy to grab the fish, and he said "I'm not putting my hand in that thing's mouth," whereupon the fish shook off and swam away with the red Super R again.

We're coming up on Sunday for our annual (since '82) week on the lake. Can y'all give some lowlanders advice on the methods you use with the Keitech 2.8? Thanks in advance. This site has been helpful to us, every year.

Bill, I haven't made the jump to FFS, although many here on Toledo Bend have, and I know it would be helpful on our upcoming 42nd annual trip to The Rock. Can you talk a bit about the learning curve for a FFS sonar newbie? DavidB

You might try Happy Hollow, on Long Creek across from Big Cedar. Nice, clean cabins with their own launch. I'm sure there's no problem with leaving your boat on your trailer, although we prefer to leave ours in a boat slip at their marina. Very convenient.

I assume that my experience with the Ghost's spotlock is similar to that with Garmin or MinnKota. If I hit spotlock while moving, it will immediately return to where I engaged it. The faster I'm going when I engage spotlock, the more likely I am to be thrown off balance. Advancing age might have something to do with that😎.

If you have Lowrance electronics, the Ghost is a great motor. It will operate on 24v or 36v, is easy on the batteries, and is very quiet. Mine is mounted on a 19 1/2 ft. Skeeter, and offers far more power than I use on 24v. My primary reason for replacing my Motorguide was the Ghost's spotlock feature. I've been very impressed with how quietly, and how well it works when on spotlock. Used the feature a lot during our week on Table Rock, last month.

Thanks for the suggestion, Bill. We're on our 4th resort since 1982. The others were bulldozed or bought out by BPS. We've been staying at Happy Hollow now for several years, and it's a very nice place to stay--our home away from home. We finally learned how to target smallmouth after several years of Toledo Bend power fishing. We don't catch the size we did then, but chasing smallmouth has been a blast! I would hate to leave the dam area if it meant fewer smallmouth. Catching them makes our trip from Louisiana special.

Thanks as always, Bill. That's a regular tutorial. I'd bring you another Cajun basket if you hadn't run off to Shell Knob😊

This forum is such a great resource. Can you talk a bit about the versatility of the Keitech? Size of jig head? Hugging bottom or steady retrieve for suspended fish? It's not a method that we use very much on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn, but I would like to give it a try if it's likely to be productive the last week of April.

There are very few wake boats on Toledo Bend, thank goodness! There are a lot of pontoon boats that are used, primarily, for crappie (sac-a-lait) fishing. If any of you come to Toledo, you might want to book a crappie guide for a day. The lake is loaded with them, and there are numerous guides available. Having said that about Toledo Bend, our group from Louisiana began spending a week on Table Rock in 1982. We love the beauty of the lake, and always catch a lot of fish. The smallmouth and "football" spots are special. See you in April!

You could come to Toledo Bend instead. Over 30 fish over 10 lbs. weighed at certified scales since January 1st, including one over 15 lbs. and another over 14 lbs. We're in the middle of the spawning cycle. Grass has returned to large parts of the lake, and the fishing is the best in several years.

At the risk of exhausting a topic, allow me to add that many of the guides on Toledo Bend have shifted from bass fishing to crappie. There are numerous guides on the lake with pontoon boats, who have scattered hundreds of brush piles around Toledo's 186,000 acres. Locating and catching crappie from the brush piles, using GPS and FFS, is far easier for them than chasing largemouth and spots, and makes for a more reliable payday. This scenario has played out for several years now, and the crappie population seems to be holding up well. They're extremely prolific. We do have an issue with far too many bass fishermen keeping their catch, with too many keeping undersized (14" limit) fish. We have very little on the water enforcement, unfortunately. Toledo can be tough, but the 10 pounders show up in numbers every year, if you care to come and try your luck! See you on the water again this April. Can't wait!