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Toledo Bend Elite Series

Competition Recap
Saturday, May 3, 2014

Brent Chapman
I feel like I survived it. Obviously, from a points standpoint, we're halfway through the year now and I need to get into a decent position for the Classic and I did that. I would've loved a better finish but this is a marathon and this was just one of the hurdles.

Considering how my practice went, I think I spread myself too thin. I had one spot down on the south end by the dam and I saw (Dean) Rojas and Skeet (Reese) in there and I felt like that area was done so I went to my second spot by the bridge and caught two 5s off a point so had I spent more time there who knows what would've happened. My plan had been to start on that point and move back into the pocket to fish for spawners, but yesterday I was there and here comes Jared Lintner and later on (Jacob) Powroznik went in. Had I went there the first day, who knows what would've happened.

The thing was I had three different areas all about 15 miles apart and it was one of those things where I spread myself too thin. This is a place you can't do that. You're better off picking a creek and learning it to the best of your ability. I tried to do way too much on day 1. After the shad spawn bite died, I tried to figure out how to make them bite, but couldn't figure it out.

I caught a few fish on topwaters first thing in the morning when the shad were spawning, but the majority of my fish came on a floating worm and I also caught a few on beds. A lot of us were surprised and if you didn't capitalize on it on Monday you didn't realize how many fish were up there. The lake is as healthy as I've ever seen it. We were here at that toughest time of the post spawn and the fish are so scattered. Talking to some of the locals, I can't imagine what it would've been like if we were here a month ago. It's probably my favorite lake in the country the more I fish it.


Practice Recap
Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Brent Chapman
I have four places I feel decent about , but there's like 10 miles in between all of them. If they were all in one creek, I'd be pretty pumped up about it. I'm just going to pick one and go fishing tomorrow.

The wind's been brutal. It was nice Monday, but Tuesday a little front came through mid morning and it's been windy ever since. The Weather Channel's been saying 10 to 15 miles an hour and it's been every bit of that and it might've gotten up to 25. It stains it up enough that if guys are looking at beds, it'll make it hard to see. It was so windy today it made it hard to fish in certain areas.

At this point, I'm going to be doing a lot of fishing and practicing still once it gets started, which isn't always a bad thing. I may have found something where I'm going to tomorrow and there could more there than I realize. I didn't spend a lot of time there because I thought I'd find something better, but I didn’t. The grass is just amazing right now and traditionally the big fish tend to come on the south end, but someone could get on something good up the river and do well. The fish are definitely in a funk right now. Randy Howell put it best when he said he thinks the fish are in a post-partum depression.


Practice – Day 1 Recap
Tuesday, April 29, 2014

B.A.S.S.
Photo: B.A.S.S.

Brent Chapman
The weather was a little hairy this morning. We all got off to a late start. I mainly focused from the mid lake to the southern end and did a lot of eliminating water. It's definitely a lot different than when I won here. I think you've got a lot of fish in a lot of different stages. It's one of the healthiest-looking lakes I've seen in a long time. From the reports I've heard, the fishing is incredible and I think we'll have a great tournament, but I'm still not sure we'll be able to show off what Toledo Bend is truly capable of. I'd love to see us come back here to start the season next year because I guess before the cut-off period there were big ones everywhere on beds.

There's so much vegetation here … you go into some of these pockets and there are tons of little bass probably left over from last year. It just shows that this lake is going be in great shape for a long time. On a scale of 1 to 10, the grass is a 10. There's so much of it, but the frustrating thing for me was trying to fish it. I need to rethink how to approach it because with all of the grass means there are a lot of fish there, but all of that grass gives them a lot of places to hide. The year Dean (Rojas) won here, there wasn't near this much grass.

I didn't get a lot of bites and I'm rather disappointed by that. One thing's for sure – I won't be winning on a flutter spoon this week. I'll have to win it another way this time. The last time we fished here, the fish were deep and I don't see that being the case now. There are some fish spawning, some coming up to spawn and some that seem to be in that funk coming off the spawn. I think it'll fish really well. I have no doubt some guys will be looking at them.

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