High Water Making Toledo Bend Less Familiar

By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Toledo Bend Reservoir is the largest manmade impoundment in the southern portion of the U.S. It's presently even bigger than usual due to heavy rains that pounded the Texas-Louisiana border region this spring.

Most of the 108 Bassmaster Elite Series anglers who'll compete their beginning Thursday have had previous encounters with the legendary 185,000-acre fishery, and many have visited on multiple occasions. It looks a bit different than normal, though, due to all of the extra water, and powerful winds that blew throughout practice prevented the majority of anglers from inspecting as many of its fish hangouts as they'd have liked to.

There might be a few fish still on the beds here and there, but this will nonetheless be a true post-spawn event – the circuit's first such scenario of the season. It'll more than likely be won offshore, but a great deal of vegetation is inundated with the high water, so somebody who plans to do nothing other than beat the banks still stands a fighting chance.

Before getting deeper into the bite, here's some of the lowdown on the fishery.

BassFan Lake Profile

> Lake Name: Toledo Bend
> Type of Water: Reservoir
> Surface Acres: 185,000 acres (the largest man-made impoundment in the South)
> Primary structure/cover: Flooded timber, ledges, brushpiles, grass
> Primary forage: Shad, crawfish
> Average depth: 15 feet
> Species: Largemouths and spotted bass
> Length limit: 14 inches (largemouth), 12 inches (spotted bass)
> Reputation: A legendary fishery that's developed more of a reputation as a big-fish factory in recent years.
> Weather: Warm and sunny without a lot of wind.
> Water temp: Low to mid 70s
> Water visibility/color: Stained just about everywhere, much more so in the northern portion
> Water level: Very high, but gradually falling
> Fish in: 0 to 30 feet
> Fish phase: Mostly post-spawn
> Primary patterns: Cranking, flipping and pitching, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, Texas- or Carolina-rigged plastics, topwaters, sight-fishing, jerkbaits
> Winning weight: 84 pounds (4 days)
> Cut weight (Top 12 after 3 days): 48 pounds
> Check weight (Top 50 after 2 days): 28 pounds
> Fishing quality (1=poor, 5=great): 3 for Toledo Bend
> Biggest factor: Big bites – a 7-pounder or better each day will be crucial to making a run at a win.
> Wildcard: Wind – if it blows harder than anticipated, it can mess things up badly.

Here's a closer look at Toledo Bend, thanks to Navionics:

Better Go Big

It might not take a 100-pound total to win this derby, but it'll almost certainly require an average of more than 20 pounds across 4 days. Giants live in Toledo Bend – nearly 140 fish in excess of 10 pounds have been registered in the lake's lunker program so far this year – and quite a few monsters will be caught this week. The type of fish that transforms a bag from solid to spectacular could bite on any cast.

The wind is not expected to be a big factor on the competition days, and that will certainly result in heavier stringers. Two teams weighed more than 30 pounds and nine more scaled at least 21 in a one-day Bass Champs event last Saturday under relatively calm conditions, but it took only 22 pounds to take top honors in another stacked-field tournament the following day after the winds had kicked up.

The middle and southern portions of the lake, along with their numerous huge tributaries, will probably host the majority of the field. The northern part still has a significant amount of muddy water rolling in, which always puts a damper on the bite.

Many Tactics Could Work

Greg Crafts, who operates a guide service at Toledo Bend, wouldn't venture to predict precisely how this event will be won.

"You may have a bunch of different things going on," he said. "Typically you'll see most guys fishing deep, but with the high water, guys will also be hitting the brush that's near the deep water.

"Early in the morning is when the shallow bite will be the best, and then you can drop off and fish the deep-water humps, ledges or points, or maybe find some grass in the very south end that's 12 to 15 feet deep."

Frogs or buzzbaits could produce a big bite or two in the early part of the day. Rigged plastics (Texas- or Carolina-style), jigs, dropshots, swimbaits and deep-diving crankbaits will be predominant during the high-sun portions of the day.

"This group is capable of pulling tricks out of the bag that people can't even imagine," he said in reference to the Elite field. "You're looking for five fish, not numbers, and my guess is the biggest fish are going to come out of deep water.

And there's plenty of water to go around – whether it be deep or shallow.

"You may have a few guys bunched up in certain places where the fish are really stacked, but there's enough areas for everybody to find something."

Notes from the Field

Following are practice notes (first 2 days) from some of the anglers who'll compete this week.

Randy Howell
"It certainly hasn't been as easy as I want it to be. I'm sure everybody's going to catch fish – this is Toledo Bend – but I haven't been able to just put the trolling motor down anywhere and start catching them. A lot of people haven't been able to probe a lot of the offshore stuff because of the wind the last 2 days, and that's keeping everybody nervous.

"There's water everywhere in the bushes and trees – it's a beautiful shoreline – but I haven't caught what I think I should there, which makes me thing they might've moved off that stuff. I haven't caught enough to where I'd feel comfortable just going down the bank.

"The wind shuts the fish down a lot here, so if we get good weather for the tournament days, the fish should start biting better."

Ott DeFoe
"Wind on this place isn't any fun and it's keeping everything kind of stirred up. You try to idle around and you're bouncing in (2- to 3-foot waves) and you've got spray coming over the front and over the side.

"I got a fair number of bites, but a lot of small fish, and that doesn't seem to matter whether I'm on the bank or out deep. One day I didn't catch a limit and the next day I did, but I had two decent bites and I didn't get either of them in the boat, so I still wouldn't have had anything if it'd been a tournament day.

"I feel like I know what I should do, at least the general way I should fish, but it's hard to make myself do it. I keep going back and forth and I think one of the things I'm doing is a waste of time."

Justin Lucas
"After (the wind) we had the first 2 days, you might as well consider this place a Great Lake. It's been super-hard to move around and you beat yourself up and beat up your equipment. The rest of the week it's not supposed to blow and I really hope it doesn't.

"I can get a bite, but it's been the same for me as everybody else – a lot of pound-and-a-half to 2-pounders. I haven't seen one over 3 pounds yet.

"I'm still learning how to fish these Texas Lakes. I don't do that great on them and I feel like I don't understand them very well. I need to spend more time here."

Chris Lane
"I put in at four different ramps on the first day. You could get stuff done, but you have to work at it and you have to have your head right when you're doing it.

"It's going to be really funny how this deal goes down. With the water dropping, I'm going to have to use my Raymarine electronics to look at some of the deeper stuff. The shallow bite's there, but the water coming down will probably pull those fish out, especially at this time of year. Things are going to change a little every day.

"The water's got to be at least 6 feet higher than when we were here in 2012. I did pretty well throwing a jerkbait on the flats, and now there's eight feet of water where there was only a foot."

Top 10 to Watch

With the above in mind and more, here are BassFan's recommendations for the Top 10 to watch in this event.

1. Greg Hackney – The Louisiana resident carries a solid 26-point lead in the AOY race into this event and he stands a good chance of extending that margin this week. When he's on a roll like he is right now, he's a strong bet to make the final day on any venue.

2. Dean Rojas – He's won two tour-level events at Toledo Bend (2011 and 2001) and was 6th in the 2014 derby. His confidence level soars every time he visits and the high water level will certainly be no disadvantage for him.

3. Keith Combs – The Texan has performed better than anyone on Lone Star State waters in recent years, and this tournament should be no exception. He's always a threat in big-weight events.

4. Takahiro Omori – The winner of the previous event at Alabama's Wheeler Lake is off to his best start to a season in many years. He proved at Wheeler that he can find quality fish that elude others and that they don't have to be near the bank for him to catch them.

5. Chris Zaldain – He's compiled one of the best ledgers in the game over the past calendar year and he just seems to keep getting better all the time. He's always tough in this region and excels anywhere that harbors a strong population of big bass.

6. Kelly Jordon – He used to be a regular in this space, especially for events in his home region. At No. 11 in the points, he's making a strong bid to compete in his first Classic since 2011, and a high finish this week would be a big boost toward that goal.

7. Steve Kennedy – He's a guy who rides momentum real hard and he's got it going in his direction at the moment, coming off 4th- and 7th-place finishes at Wheeler and Norfork/Bull Shoals, respectively. The swimbait skills he's developed since 2010 should bode well for him here.

8. Todd Faircloth – He knows this body of water extremely well and he always fishes it superbly. An 89th at Wheeler has knocked him slightly lower in the points race than where the Classic cutoff will eventually fall, but look for him to be back inside the Top 40 come Sunday evening.

9. Randy Howell – Versatility has made the former Classic winner one of the most consistent finishers on the circuit and he seems to have little difficulty these days catching quality at whatever depth that it's holding. He should find some big ones somewhere.

10. Aaron Martens – You could've gotten some long odds on him not having a To-30 finish to his name through the season's first four events, but that's precisely the situation he's in. That's likely to change sooner rather than later.

Notable

> Brent Chapman, who won at Toledo Bend in 2012, hopes the one productive tactic he found over the past 3 days pans out on day 1 of competition. To see his practice recap, click here to visit Pro View Reports.

Launch/Weigh-In Info

Daily takeoffs will occur at 6:15 a.m. CT from Cypress Bend Park (3462 Cypress Bend Dr., Many, La.). Weigh-ins will get under way at 3:15 p.m. at the same location. The full field will fish the first 2 days, with the Top 50 advancing to Saturday's semifinal round and only the Top 12 competing on Sunday.

Weather Forecast

> Thurs., May 12 – A.M. Clouds, P.M. Sun - 85°/64°
- Wind: From the WSW at 4 mph

> Fri., May 13 – Partly Cloudy - 85°/64°
- Wind: From the NNE at 7 mph

> Sat., May 14 – Partly Cloudy - 90°/63°
- Wind: From the NNW at 3 mph

> Sun., May 15 – Partly Cloudy - 88°/69°
- Wind: From the SE at 7 mph