Hello, Anglers. My fishing hole is just about full of water with 4-6 additional inches of rain falling last week followed by a strong cold front which produced 25-35 mph winds on Saturday and Sunday. Mother Nature has to have a sense of humor when she gets to blow week-end anglers off the lake on a frequent basis. In the middle of the week we had some beautiful conditions for fishing and we caught lots of bass. Crappie anglers also caught lots of crappie the early part of last week. However, those anglers who worked all week while anxiously looking forward to the week-end had to be severely disappointed as they saw fishing conditions Friday go from less than ideal to downright dangerous by the weekend.
LAKE CONDITIONS: At mid-week the lake level was at 171.18 feet with both generators running 24/7 until further notice. Water temperatures are running from 58 to 64 degrees with north Toledo stained-to-muddy while mid-lake is slightly stained to stained and south Toledo is clear with some stained conditions due to run-off and winds. Boaters are reminded to be very cautious with rising water levels and strong winds as there is much floating debris all over the lake. Some buoys have also been blown out of place.
FISHING REPORTS/BASS: Many patterns are catching bass right now but it depends on what the wind levels are doing in order to fish some of them. Larry Peacher of Bentley, LA stated he used a Chatterbait on windy points to win the Walmart Bass Fishing LeagueŽ Louisiana/Texas Division tournament on Toledo Saturday with 5-bass 21 pounds, 13 ounces. His first plase earned him a check of $4,127. Winds gusting to over 30 mph made fishing very difficult on all area lakes Saturday.
Other bass-catching patterns last week included Stanley Icon spinnerbaits. We caught several Toledo bass last week using the Icon spinner in white/chartruse skirt with double willowleaf blades and working them in shallow grass with windy points. Also catching a lot of bass for us was a Berkley Power Wacky Crawler worm in both 5 and 7 inch versions with watermelon and green pumpkin good colors. I always high-lite the tip of the worm tails with a chartruse tip worm dye pen made by either Spike It or Zoom. We fished the Power Wacky Crawlers both wacky as well as Texas rigs.
We also caught good bass with a 5 inch Senko rigged both wacky as well as Texas/weightless. Floating worms worked very slowly over shallow grass are also catching bass as we reported last week on the bold colored worms. Shallow crankbaits such as Norman's Baby Ns and Bandit 200 Series are also working well on shallow points. As far as tackle, I am using a 7' Fenwick rod/medium action, Abu Garcia Cardinal 700 series reel and 10 pound test Berkley Big Game ot 100% Flourocarbon. If I have a new hint this week it would be to slow down and fish areas completely....especially points with submerged grass with a decent drop off say from 6-8 feet into 12-18 feet or deeper. We had several of these last week which gave up 5 pound bass as well as good numbers of bass.
CRAPPIE: White perch have moved into the shallow coves and ditches and can be caught on light tackle/6-8 lb line with small crappie jigs, small Beetle Spins and Blakemore Road Runners. Most crappie anglers I saw catching them were fishing points with grass in 8 to 14 feet as well in large coves about half way to the back of the coves and staying in those same depths (8 - 14 feet). They were slowly retrieving or strolling a jig using trolling motor to ease them around draggin their jig. Don't forget your Berkley Crappie Nibbles.
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, The Floor Trader Alexandria and Lake Charles, Extermatrim Exterminating, Inc. and Stanley Jigs Inc. Contact him at 337-463-3848 or joejoslinoutdoors@yahoo.com. and WEBSITE www.joejoslinoutdoors.com
