Toledo Bend Reservoir, LA Fishing Report

Hello, Anglers. I'm looking forward to another great time at this weekend's annual Central Gulf Coast Boat, Sport and RV Show which is scheduled for this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Lake Charles Civic Center . If you love the outdoors you will certainly find multiple items of great interest at this year's show. There will be the latest bass boats, pontoons, bay boats, ski boats and duck boats plus check out the newest tackle innovations that will be shown at multiple tackle outlets. In addition, you will see booths of almost every description with a link to the outdoors. Check out the trout fishing pool for the kids plus a huge bass aquarium and a pro angler giving how-to on fishing lures and casting techniques. Friday hours are 1 to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. till 8 p.m. and Sunday hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. I will be in the Lake Charles Tackle booth located near the aquarium on Friday and Sunday afternoon. Stop by for a visit and we can swap some fishing stories.

LAKE CONDITIONS: The lake level early this week was 168.90 feet with both generators shut down as they have been for 2-3 weeks. However, that could change this week with recent rains and the level rising rapidly. Water temps last week climb were 54 to 58 with even water at 60 degrees in coves during the late afternoon but this minor cool front cooled things just a bit as low 50s will be common by the weekend. The lake is in great shape with north Toledo stained, mid lake is slightly stained while south Toledo is clear. As normal this time of the year, there are stained and even muddy conditions in the upper portions of all major feeder creeks especially since the rain over the weekend.

FISHING REPORTS/BASS: Early February is always a transitional month on Toledo and especially on south Toledo . Last week we caught a lot of bass shallow but this week could be different. Looking at weather patterns into the weekend the temperatures will be 10 or more degrees cooler than last week plus high barometric pressure will be another issue. Yes, I expect to catch a lot of bass this week but we may have to fish deeper and tweak our patterns from what we did last week. Also, throw in another factor that the lake is rising and may rise 6 to 9 inches by the end of the week. Sometimes, rising water can be a good thing in the spring so we’ll have to see what the fish think about it. It is gonna be a fun week!

Current successful patterns include both aggressive and finesse approaches with Bill Lewis’s Rat -L-Traps and Stanley Spinnerbaits getting more and more attention. It has depended on how the grass is growing in a particular area as to whether we throw a Trap or a spinnerbait. We are, for the most part, using double willows on our spinnerbaits with at least one of the blades gold/copper. Our Trap has been both a ½ as well as a ¾ oz version in the new “Red Hot” cherry bomb color. This color is almost impossible to find. Last week I had only one left and caught a 6 pounder on it and about three casts later had a hang-up and lost it. I considered going swimming for it but water temp was in 50s. We were able to come up with a source where we got our hands on 3 or 4 more of them. Don’t worry, I will re-tie often and will use a slightly heavier line. Wes Higgings, Bill Lewis Sales Manager, says they are shipping all they can make and have a back-log of orders for this color.

On the more subtle approach, weightless and light-weighted soft plastics will continue to play a huge part in how we catch fish for the next 3-4 months. On the south end of Toledo and Rayburn the water is clear, for the most part, which many times warrants a slower, more deliberate approach. Such lends itself well to weightless Texas rigs, very light-weighted Texas rigs and wacky rigs. Of course on the deeper patterns, we will rely on a drop shot, Stanley Bug Eye jig, Norman crankbaits and spoons.

CRAPPIE/YELLOW BASS: Some of the bigger female yellow bass are showing up on some of the humps and deep ridges near main creeks and the river. Jigging spoons and tailspinners (Knock-off by Norman and Little George by Mann) are great choices for yellows and white bass. The crappie bite this week will be determined by water quality and how the rains impacted the color of the water. Rising water levels is usually not a good thing for late winter crappie. Before the recent heavy rain, they were still catching a few nice crappie off deep structure.

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 e-mail at joejoslinoutdoors@yahoo.com or website www.joejoslinoutdoors.com.

Hey guys. This is Joe Landry here from the LSU Shreveport Bass Fishing team. We just got back from Toledo Bend for a FLW CollegeFishing Event. Toledo Bend is fishing pretty tough right now but fish can be caught many different ways. Fish are starting to school ALOT. Anywhere your fishing be looking around constantly looking for the schooling fish. Some fish can be caught in the grass but we caught our fish on secondary points near the drop offs on Damiki soft plastics. There is grass everywhere, but we focused on the grass edges and drops.  Throw a 1/2 oz weight and keep the bait on the bottom! Good luck and can't wait to get back!

We caught a lot of bass over the last 2 days.  We used a variety of lures with our best catches coming on mid to deep diving crankbaits.  We are using shad and bream colored baits fishing them in 18 to 30 feet of water fishing them parallel to the grass (hydrilla and millfoil)  when in 18 to 23 feet of water, and in open water when we find schools of baitfish on our graphs. We have also caught on jigs punching through the grass in 18 to 23 foot of water and brush piles in 18 to 30 feet.  Carolina rigs have also been producing some quality bass in the8 to 12 feet early and  18 to 25 foot range when the sun gets up.  Frogs (Spro, ribbits, and rage tail) are working around the banks in the grass early in the morning.  Also have a fluke (smoking candy, smoking shad, glimmer blue, or rainbow shad) shad colored topwater or jerkbait  tied on for when the schooling bass come up.  There are some nice 3 to 4 pound bass coming up schooling now. The areas we fished for the last 2 days have been have been Indian Mounds, Housen, McGee flats, Mill Creek, Texas Island, and Buck Creek.  We have targeted long tapering points, and main lake points that drop into deep water or are close to deep water.  Hope this helps you out, today was the last day I will be able to fish until around the 11th of June. 

Note: on the fish caught there is a correction for 5/29/12 they were not shoal bass they were Largemouth bass

We caught over 60 bass on Tuesday morning.  It seemed like everything we used was catching fish.  We started with a watermelon red Rage Tail frog right at daylight throwing into the needle grass and reeling it back out getting hits in the grass as well as right after coming out of the grass.  At around 7  we used wacky worms and flukes in mardi gras and watermelon red magic to catch bass on scattered grass patches in about 4 to 5 foot of water.  About 9 we moved to 12 to 15 foot of water throwing Carolina rigs with watermelon red magic flukes paralleling the grass occasionally throwing a smoking candy fluke rigged weightless when bass would school up close to us.  By 11 we were throwing shad colored mid and deep diving crankbaits on the deep side of the grass (hydrilla and mill foil) in 18 to 23 foot of water along with the Brass-N-Brella rigged with 1/16th oz jig heads using smoking shad super fluke jr's letting it sink to the bottom and reeling very slowly back.  We caught several 2 to 3 pound bass using the last pattern. 

We continue to have great trips this week. Thursday we had an awesome day we caught all our fish on Mardi Gras superflukes on a 1/8 oz Carolina rig with a 15 inch Berkley 100% Flurocarbon leader.  We are using  Trokar 3/0 EWG and 4/0 flippin hooks.  18 keepers between 2 and 4 pounds all of which were returned to the lake alive and well.  The fish came in 1 to 3 feet of water around stumps and lay-down logs.  The water was stained to muddy with most fish coming from the stained water. 

Sorry I have tried twice this week to get a fishing report in but have been unable to get them to post.  We have been catching good numbers of quality bass over the last couple of weeks.  The water levels in Toledo keep coming up, today the lake level is 164.40  which is 7.6 feet below full pool of 172.  Due to recent rains we have muddy water in the backs of creeks, getting clearer as you head out to the main lake and stained to clear water on the main lake.  Water temps are running from 53 to 56 degrees.  Mardi Gras flukes are working well on Carolina rigs in 2 to 18 feet of water with the best range in 6 to 10 feet.  White and chartruse spinnerbaits along with Rat-L-Traps and one knockers in Rayburn Red and Toledo Gold are also catching good quality bass.  Thanks to Fishhound.com for all they have done for us, and thanks to our Military Personnel for keeping us free so that we can enjoy the great outdoors and all our freedoms.  We will be hanging around the Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport February 24th through 26th and hope to see you there.  Keep a tight line and take a kid fishing.  If your kids are on the lake with you then they are not in trouble.

It's been a couple of weeks again since I've been able to get on because crappie fishing has been awsome at the Chicken Coops on beautiful Toledo Bend. We are still catching crappie/white perch, yellow bass, and catfish in 25 to 45 foot of water on the old Sabine River channel. We are still using a drop shot method with a number 1 gold crappie hook approximately 14 to 16 inches above 3/8 to 1/2 oz. weight.  Good electronics are the key to finding the fish look for brush or tree tops laying on the river ledge then zoom in to check for baitfish (shad) when you find the baitfish the crappie will be on bottom just under it.  Drop marker bouy's around the spot then anchor up.  Please be courtious to other boaters when motoring through the area as the boat lane runs right through the middle of the river channel and there will be 40 to 200 boats fishing in the area.  Thanks for your support to fishound.com and remember to "TAKE A KID FISHING"  If they are on the lake with you they are not in trouble.  I also want to give a shout out to the Hooked On Fishing Not On Drugs program. HOFNOD is a wonderful organization that has changed many lives.  We are hoping to get it working in our school system soon.

Crappie Fishing at the Chicken Coop has been exceptional.  This has been the first day I could get to a computer for the last 2 weeks.  We have been fishing in 24 to 33 foot of water just off of the old river channel.  We have been putting in at Newells Landing which is less that a mile on the water from the Coop.  We have limited almost every time that we have been, using shiners on a drop shot rig.  We are using 3/8 to 1/2 oz of weight with a #2 Eagle Claw crappie hook about 14 to 16 inches above the weight, fishing it on green 6 pound test Berkley Trilene XL and using light action rods. 

We have news today that we are no longer able to operate on Toledo Bend due to extremely dangerous low water levels.  We will be unable to send reports on this body of water until the lake level rises enough to safely navigate the boat lanes.  The current lake level for Toledo Bend is 160.80 which is 11.20 feet below full pool of 172.  There is 1 gate open 6 inches to maintain minimum downstream flow requirements.  We will be trying to fish the Red River in the near future to try to get some fishing reports in.  Thanks for your patience in this trying time.  God bless you and have a good day. 

Michael and Stacy Lee

Dreamcatchers Guide Service

Lake level today is 160.89 which is 11.11 feet below full pool.  Use EXTREME CAUTION navigating boat lanes.  We did good today caught a lot of fish from 1 to 3 pounds.  Most fish came off of watermelon candy red superflukes fishing in 12 to 18 feet of water on Carolina Rig.  We were using an 18 inch Berkley Flourocarbon leader in 17 pound test with a 1/2 oz weight.  Water is clear and we fished the back of Mill Creek.

Last night the East Leesville Baptist Church Bass Club held their last Thursday evening shootout tournament of the year.  It is a great group of people to fish with as I have fished with them before.  The tournaments proceeds fund their youth programs for the church.  For the tournament you can bring 3 bass to the scales, Largemouth must be at least 14 inches and Spotted bass must be at least 12 inches.  They have a boater and co-angler division.  The winner of the boater division with 8.86 pounds was Ervin Gatson, who also took big bass honors with a 5.08 pound largemouth.  First place for the co-angler division was Dakota Moore.  Ervin caught his big bass on a V&M Black Neon 11" worm and his other fish came on a yellow magic popper.  Dakota's catch came slow rolling spinnerbaits, and on Texas Rigged worms, watermelon while it was still light out and dark colors after nightfall.  Congratulations to Ervin, and Dakota. 

9-12-11

We had a great trip today.  My client and I caught over 30 bass 14 of which were keeper size.  We fished the back of Mill Creek, fishing bends in the creek channel coming off of grass flats.  We caught fish on wacky worms, weightless superflukes, and Carolina rigged superflukes.  The colors used were watermelon candy red, watermenlon red magic, watermelon magic, and mardi gras.  Most of the bass were between 1 and 2.5 pounds. We fished from 11:00 A.M. until 6:00 P.M.  Water temps were from 80 to 82 degrees.  Water was slightly stained to clear.

We had an awesome morning, my client had to work last night so we weren't able to get to the lake until 9:00 AM this morning.  We were able to fish until 11:30 AM.  We caught 15 bass with 8 being keeper size of 14 inches or longer.  I did manage to get a couple on video for him.  All bass were released back alive and well.  The largest bass weighed in at 3 pounds.  We caught our bass in the Indian Creek area on watermelon red magic Super Flukes on 12 pound test Berkly Big Game line,  working them quickly when the fish were schooling, and letting them sink when the bass went down.  After the schooling fish quit surfacing we went to Carolina rigged lizards in watermelon candy red, fishing 12 to 18 foot of water sitting in 12 and dragging the lizards back up from 18.  We were using 1/2 oz. weight to keep in contact with the bottom, putting a red glass bead, brass clacker then clear glass bead above the swivel.  Our leader was approximately 18 inches long 17 pound test Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon line with Lazer Trokar 4/0 Flippin hooks.  The water was slightly stained and we recorded surface temp of 80F.  The lake level this morning was 161.18 which is 10.82 feet below full pool with 1 floodgate open at 6 inches to maintain minimum downstream flow requirements.  Use extreme caution while on the water as there are many stumps showing up in the boat lanes just above and below the surface. 

Michael Lee

Dreamcatchers Guide Service

drmcatchers71403@aol.com