Hello, Anglers. Mega rains, full rivers and rising reservoirs are the norm for the area. No drought happening here! Increased releases of water at the Toledo Bend Dam makes it necessary for property owners below the dam and along the Sabine River to keep an eye on the weather. Also, stay in contact with local law enforcement and SRA officials concerning flood possibilities. Minor flooding is already occurring/predicted even before heavy rains that fell earlier this week.
LAKE CONDITIONS: The lake level at midweek stood at 172.51 feet with both generators running 24/7 and the lake still rising slowly. At present, none of the emergency spillway gates are open but that situation will change if rains continue. Water temperatures range from 82 to 86 degrees. As expected, north Toledo has stained conditions, especially near the river. Also, all major feeder creeks have stained/muddy water conditions in the back 1/3 of the creeks. For the most part, the main lake is clear.
FISHING REPORTS/BASS: There are still bass on multiple patterns as rising water conditions have pushed a lot of bait fish (bream and shad) in close to the grassy shoreline and bass have followed. Most of these fish are small but an occasional quality bass will show up. The action is fun. For shallow water patterns, the early bite is the best, and sometimes the only one.
Floating, weightless soft plastics are working on shoreline bass with Berkley Sinking Minnows, Senkos and Flukes all getting action when fished slowly over grass in 2-8 feet depths. Spinnerbaits and topwater baits are also good choices over the shallow grass. Other patterns that caught the most fish in recent tournaments included working main lake humps in 15 -18 feet depths. Some anglers were fishing these with big crankbaits and large Texas rigged red bug worms.
Other anglers with good catches were using similar baits but fishing ridges and outside grass lines in 12-16 feet. A few big bass are falling for jig and pigs worked in 18-22 feet. One change which is occurring is that the thermocline is forming on Toledo and fish are not moving much below it.
I can see it very plainly on my Lowrance LMS 332. It is around 24 feet which is where it normally is. The difference this year is that it is late forming because of cooler than normal water temperatures.
I have been catching fish as deep as 30 feet the past few weeks but I have not caught a bass deeper than 24 feet in several days. Also, a lot of bass and stripers are suspending above the thermocline as the oxygen content is very low below it. The thermocline is a phenomenon which occurs in the summer on many large southern lakes/impoundments as a layer develops which separates colder water from warmer.
The dividing layer of water is what shows up on good, high quality electronics. The colder water, with very little oxygen is below the thermocline and the warmer water with good oxygen levels is above it. Sometimes the difference in water temperature is as much as 20-25 degrees. The thermoncline info is good to know because when it develops, there is not much need to fish below it as it lacks sufficient life-sustaining oxygen.
STRIPER: The striper (stripe bass) action has picked up the past week as heavy generating at the dam has greatly increased current near the dam and stripers have started to concentrate there. Early morning action has been the best with even a few schools being reported. I was largemouth bass fishing south of LA Islands the past week and had several surfacing stripers come up near us.
A GOOD LAUGH! As an outdoor writer, sometimes actual experiences are just too good not to pass along to other readers. Several days ago my alarm clock went off and I crawled out of bed, poured a cup of coffee and stumbled to my computer to check e-mails before heading to the lake. My first e-mail was a fisherman wanting to get a report on the 'stripper' activity at the dam. Now how do you answer that? I laughed so hard I woke up my wife. Can't you see the headlines.....Strippers are in large numbers at Toledo's Dam area. Some can be found in schools. That's enough...time to go fishing.
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, Red River Marine, Alexandria, LA, Berkley, Fenwick, Abu Garcia, Daiichi, Stone Mountain Flooring, Jay's Carpet One and Stanley Jigs Inc. Contact him at 337-463-3848 or joejoslinoutdoors@yahoo.com.