JEANE WINS STREN SERIES ON TOLEDO
Hello, anglers. George Jeane, Jr of Evans (LA) won FLW's Stren Series on Toledo last weekend. Jeane is an outstanding angler, personal friend and is also well known to the competitive bass fishing anglers in the area. As most area tournament anglers reading this report will acknowledge, when fishing against Jeane you had better have your game hat on and bring your best stuff to the table. His Toledo Stren win this past weekend was his second major win on the national scene as he won a FLW Tour event on Pickwick Lake in Tennessee in 2007. In recent years, Jeane, as well as his father, George Jeane Sr, have won multiple area tournaments on both Toledo and Sam Rayburn.
Two of the three days of the tournament were compounded by the strongest cold front of the season with high winds reaching near 30 mph on Saturday. An FLW staff member quoted Jeane as saying "The wind had a lot to do with this win," who also reported catching 12 keepers (bass over 14 inches) on the final day of competition. Jeane said the fact he was "born and raised" on Toledo Bend had a large factor in the win. "When the wind blew I knew where to go to get out of the wind," he stated. Jeane was in 29th place the first day with five bass at 8-14 pounds. The second day (Friday) he caught five that weighed 17-1 and moved him into third and on the final day (Saturday) he answered with a limit weighing 15 pounds even for a total 3-day weight of 40 pounds 15 ounces. Rounding out the top five pros were runner-up Tim Reneau of Del Rio, Texas (15 bass, 37-6, $6,975); Jamie Fralick of Martin, S.D. (11 bass, 34-8, $5,580); Patrick Fuller of Tyler, Texas (13 bass, 31-12, $4,882); and Robert Collett of Zapata, Texas (13 bass, 31-11, $4,185).
While Jeane caught several bass on a crank bait, he would use Berkley's 10 inch Power Worm to cull most of the crankbait bass with bigger bass that the Berkley Worms were producing. In a phone conversation with the very excited angler, Jeane reported that he fished the big worms Texas rigged and targeted brush in 18 to 20 feet near creeks spending all three days on the southern part of The Bend. Great job George!
LAKE CONDITIONS: The lake level is at 169.59 ft. which is up slightly from last week with one generator running 24/7 with release at 6644 cfs (cubic ft per second). Water temps have plummeted to 69-72 degrees with the north end having stained-to-muddy conditions as there was so much rain in upper watershed. Mid lake is slightly stained and south Toledo clear on the main lake with some stained areas in the back end of feeder creeks.
Caution: With high winds and rising water levels, we are having a lot of movement of "floaters" (lose logs/stumps/debris) all over the lake.
FISHING REPORTS/BASS: Fishing season is changing. The thermocline is now history for this year meaning that oxygen levels are good at all depths instead of just above the thermocline like it has been all summer and early fall. Many times this change is referred to the "turn-over". That is both good news as well as not so good news. The good news is that there is adequate oxygen all the way to the bottom but the not so good news is that the fish population now has a larger volume of water to set up homestead.
In the summer months the warmer water is in the upper layers of water and the colder water, being heavier, sinks to the bottom.
The line of separation or line of demarcation is where the hot/cold water separates and is commonly called the thermocline. In the summer the oxygen levels are poor below it and better above it. Most of the fish in the summer months are located above the thermoncline which is usually from 24 to 28 feet. However, in the colder months we catch a lot of fish from 30 to 45 feet using drop shot and jigging spoons and these patterns are starting to improve each day. There are also a lot of bass moving to the back of major creeks and are holding close to creek beds.
Every major creek is also full of baitfish (shad) and most of the fish we have been catching recently are full of shad and usually spit some up when you bring them on board. Along the grass we have been using spinnerbaits (Stanley 3/8 ounce double willow), Bill Norman crankbaits (DLN and DD22) as well as Texas rigs and football jigs. We are fishing the TX rigs from 12 to 25 feet and the jigs from 15 to 30 feet. Drop shot and jigging spoons have been fished in 20 to 38 feet. Good areas this week has been 1215, Six Mile, Toro Bay, Housen and Mill Creek. Our biggest bass of the week, a 7.1, came from Mill Creek on a Carolina rig.
CRAPPIE AND YELLOW BASS: Both crappie guide that I talked to said the weather last weekend really slowed the crappie bite but it improved slightly mid week. The pattern is live shiners and 1/16th ounce jigs worked just above brush in 20 to 30 feet. The main river/Chicken Coop patterns are about a month away. Yellow bass are in good numbers along the back half of main creeks with clear water. Six Mile, Toro, Indian/Buck Creek and Mill Creek all have plenty of yellows which are hitting Knock Off (Bill Norman tailspinner) and jigging spoons from 3/8 to 3/4 ounce. Clear, deep water is a must for yellows. When fishing a jigging spoon vertically, you will also catch several other species of fish.
AUTHOR INFO: Joe Joslin is a syndicated columnist, tournament angler and pro guide on Toledo and Sam Rayburn. His sponsors include Skeeter Performance Boats, Yamaha Outboards, Lake Charles Toyota, Red River Marine/Alexandria, LA, Berkley, Fenwick, Abu Garcia, Bill Norman , Daiichi, Jay's Carpet One DeRidder, The Floor Trader Lake Charles and Stanley Jigs Inc. Contact him at 337-463-3848 or joejoslinoutdoors@yashoo.com. or www.joejoslinoutdoors.com.
