Toledo Bend 3-22 Thru 3-26

[Ham]

Cajun Angler and I choose Toledo Bend for our annual Spring fling. We'd both had our fill of this winter and hoped going south would bring warmer weather and lots of active fish. We both have history and experience at Toledo Bend. I love to fish there, but it can be as fickle as table Rock. Massive lake and each creek arm seems to be a whole different world.

We took my boat and his truck for this trip. We decided to share time on the front of the boat in 3 hour shifts. We fished daylight until dark all four days. Got to bed around 11 pm each night and up at 0515 each morning.

We prepared ALL of our meals at Toledo Bend. This saves time and money, but requires effort and planning. We ate very well. Kudos to Johnny on planning the meals. I ran the grill. We had pork chops one night, chicken breasts one night, and Rib eyes one night. He had frozen some soup which we reheated the first night, and we finished the trip with pasta and a meat sauce,

We headed out early Saturday and made it down in time to actually get a little fishing in before dark. We launched at Pirates Cove and it was an unmitigated ZOO. We started off fishing 2 casts off shore from a point that we have wrecked them on in the past. while we were there five (5) boats ran between us and the bank we were actively casting towards. One point actually stopped and started fishing with their boat very close to where our baits were landing. Ahhh southern hospitality.

I got the first fist of the trip on a Megabass 110. That was my one and only jerkbait fish. We finally headed towards a random section of bank that had not been pounded. I got a couple of Ned rig fish and CA got a TR lizard fish and a Squarebill fish. His last squarebill fish of the trip.

We had hopes Sunday would be less busy. Not so much. Tons of boats. Tons of pressure on the shallow fish. We fished Indian Creek. The water is very clear for Toledo Bend. We really tried to find them off the bank, but mostly caught our fish junk fishing shallow. We caught Sluggo fish, Senko fish, Chatterbait fish, texas rigged lizard fish, and Ned rig fish. I broke a fairly new spinning rod I really liked lifting a 13 inch bass in the boat. Sucks.

Monday we went to 6 Mile Creek on the Texas side. We trailered to save boat gas and to avoid crossing the lake in high winds. I caught a rattle trap fish off a secondary point on the first cast of the day. That was my last rattletrap fish of the trip.

More junk fishing Sluggos, senkos, and lizards. Highlight of the day was my best fish of the trip. She weighed 6lb 4 oz on his Rapala Boga style scale. She looked bigger than that, but I don't catch many bass that size so. She ate a topwater a mile from the boat and jumped clear of the water twice. Awesome.

Tuesday blue birded off on us. Toledo Bend when it turns blue bird in the spring is a very tough lake. We struggled. I got super finessy. I caught my first four Spybait fish. One small bass, two nice crappie, and a tiny bluegill. I also missed another 6 of 7 bites that I assume were crappie. More Ned rig fish. A swimbait fish. We caught some fish on a wacky w orm in a small section of well defined creek channel that I think fish pulled back to when the water temp dropped and skies cleared.

Wednesday we headed back to 6 Mile. I had the front of the boat and really struggled. CA had his best day of the trip. He was able to get some active bites. Jerkbait, lizard, sluggo. I was not. He got me on numbers and especially quality. I Ned rigged a lot of get some bites.

I had a little trouble with breakoffs. I broke off five fish. One wrapped me on a stump, I broke two off on the hookset, but two broke me off just powering away. All my breakoffs were on spinning which isn't shocking, but no less annoying. I don't breakoff a lot of fish usually. Maybe not 5 a year normally.

A difficult trip as far as catching fish goes and four days of hard fishing on my aging body takes its toll. All in all a great trip with a great friend.

[Quillback]

Thanks for the report, it's always interesting to hear how folks do on other lakes. I have an uncle that used to live in Little Rock (he's now outside of Memphis), he and several of his friends used to make an annual trip down to Toledo Bend not long after it was dammed. He said they used to just whack them on spinner baits in the spring. Of course it's gotten tougher since those days, sure would be nice to have a time machine!

[Jerry Rapp]

thanks Ham. Brought back some good memories for me. Dad and I used to make an annual spring trip down there. We would stay on Yokum Bay, which is just up the lake from Pirates Cove.

[Ham]

We stayed at SRA's Pleasure Point Park. Secure. Inexpensive. Nice shower and bathroom facilities.

Good location for southern third of the lake.

We like getting the shelter. Only one remains. Most ppl have RV's there.

[Ham]

[Ham]

. Here's my top water fish. Made me smile.

[Quillback]

Nice one!

[Ham]

I failed to measure her, but I can measure her by other stuff in photo.

She was of course released no worse for wear.

[Quillback]

Looks every bit of 6 lbs. to me.

[Ham]

Like I said before, I don't catch many her size, but I honestly thought she was going to be heavier than 7 lb. Great fish for me none the less.