Hello, Anglers. No doubt, the drought is history with area lakes and rivers filled to the brim, and in some cases, over the brim. We had a fun week last week on Toledo, even with the wind. Check out the fishing reports to see our patterns and baits. Skeeter Performance Boat's Bass Champ team tournament returns to The Bend on Saturday. I will have to sit this one out due to the new, no guide/30 day rule that was implemented for this season. My tournament partner, Tom Barrett of Sulphur, will represent us in the event. Good luck to Tom and all other area anglers who will fish the tournament.
Tournament anglers, and anglers in general, will have plenty of options as the fish are on several patterns with plenty of water to move into. Bass Champs is one of the most successful team circuits on Rayburn and Toledo for the past 8-10 years averaging close to 250 teams per event. Chad Potts, tournament director, and crew run a super event with Saturday's headquarters at Toledo's Cypress Bend Resort.
LAKE CONDITIONS: At mid-week the lake level was just over 172 feet and could go higher with 5 inches of rain having fell over most of the watershed. 172' msl is considered full pool on Toledo. Water temperatures are in the lower 70s with stained/muddy conditions on the northern part off the lake. Mid lake is slightly stained-to-stained and south Toledo is mostly clear. All major feeder creeks are stained-to-muddy in the back portions with clearer conditions as you get closer to main lake.
FISHING REPORTS/BASS: We had some more great trips this week with lots of action on multiple patterns with others showing promise. On windy days, and we had several, our go-to pattern was to go back to basics with a Texas rig. The Texas rig accounted for over half of our bass this week. Our successful soft plastics included Berkley's 5 and 7 inch Wacky Crawlers as well inch Power Shaky Worms and 7 inch Trick Worms. On cloudy days we had success on watermelon red, green pumpkin and w.m.candy. W.m. candy worked also on bright days as did watermelon and w.m. seed. We also used these mentioned as well as Berkley Jerk Shad, Flukes and Baby Brush Hogs on Carolina rigs.
We targeted points with Texas and Carolina rigs from 8 to 25 feet as well as humps and ridges. Some of the deeper ridges on the south end have a little hydrilla on them and many of the shallow ridges do. We have had good luck catching a few quality bass on this structure 'rigging' as well as throwing a DD22 crankbait. Another quality bass pattern is the new water on top of grass has improved top water and plastic frog (Stanley Ribbit and Berkley Batwing) patterns. "Walking the Dog" topwater baits are also starting to draw a few bug bass.
Also, deeper points are holding some bass, both largemouth and spotted bass (Kentucky) and we have been catching these on both TX as well as drop shot. 22-28 feet have been the most consistent depths.
CRAPPIE: Charles (Butch) Perrodin, the new crappie guide I listed last week, is still on the fish. He reports "The fishing has been pretty good when the wind will cooperate with trips from 54 to 70 fish". Perrodin is fishing from 12-18 feet over branches and made-made brush piles with live shiners. A few still have roe (eggs) but most now do not and they seem to be moving slightly to more shallow water. He also says that the time of day does not seem to matter but wind conditions can make it real difficult to see/feel the bite as some are light strikes. Other crappie anglers are starting to catch them with jigs on the outside grass lines from 10-15 feet.
AUTHOR INFO: Joe Joslin is a syndicated outdoor columnist, tournament angler and pro guide on Toledo and Sam Rayburn. Contact him at 337-463-3848 or joejoslinoutdoors@yahoo.com. and WEBSITE www.joejoslinoutdoors.com.
