Toledo Bend Reservoir Fishing Report
for
February 4, 2010
for
February 4, 2010
Hello, Anglers. January 2010 is history and will go down as one of the coldest in years making fishing pretty tough. Things are slowly improving and the long term weather predictions are normal for this time of the year and no severe cold weather is on the horizon with highs mostly in upper 40s and 50s. We'll take it!
I'm making plans to attend this year's Bass Master Classic at Lay Lake just out of Birmingham, Alabama. Often called the "grandaddy of all fishing tournaments", the Classic is no stranger to Louisiana having been here three times and was here last year (February 2009) in Shreveport on the Red River. Bass pro Skeet Reese was last year's winner. My assignment at The 2010 Classic is to be one of a five member National Demo Team of Skeeter/Yamaha to give demo rides to bass fishing fans in Skeeter's new FX series with the new 4-stroke SHO Yamaha outboard.
I am scheduled this week to drive to Kilgore, TX and pick up the FX that I will demo at the Classic and have been instructed to get some "seat time" between now and then. Dang, I feel like I'm 18 again but with a better/faster toy. While at the Classic I will also be sending updates back each day to the publications which carry our fishing columns. It will be a busy week but should be a blast as well as a learning experience. Hopefully, the weather will be good for both anglers and fans.
LAKE CONDITIONS:Current lake levels are 168.57 feet with both generators shut down until further notice. Water temperatures are running from 49 to 53 degrees with north Toledo stained, mid lake slightly stained and south Toledo clear on main lake with feeder creeks stained in the back portions but clearing since generators have been off. The falling lake levels and cold/sub-freezing temps in early January may....I said "may" have killed some of the giant salvinia. It was deposited on the bank and then the lake receded and then the hard freeze. Let's hope it put a hurting on it! I'm making plans to attend this year's Bass Master Classic at Lay Lake just out of Birmingham, Alabama. Often called the "grandaddy of all fishing tournaments", the Classic is no stranger to Louisiana having been here three times and was here last year (February 2009) in Shreveport on the Red River. Bass pro Skeet Reese was last year's winner. My assignment at The 2010 Classic is to be one of a five member National Demo Team of Skeeter/Yamaha to give demo rides to bass fishing fans in Skeeter's new FX series with the new 4-stroke SHO Yamaha outboard.
I am scheduled this week to drive to Kilgore, TX and pick up the FX that I will demo at the Classic and have been instructed to get some "seat time" between now and then. Dang, I feel like I'm 18 again but with a better/faster toy. While at the Classic I will also be sending updates back each day to the publications which carry our fishing columns. It will be a busy week but should be a blast as well as a learning experience. Hopefully, the weather will be good for both anglers and fans.
FISHING REPORTS/BASS:Like many Toledo regulars, we too are seeing lots of dying shad all over the lake and especially in the main feeder creeks. We mentioned it last week but it still is happening, maybe even to a greater extent. Will it be so severe as to impact the food supply for bass and other game fish? I don't think so because we have such a huge supply of bait fish (shad) in the fishery. There is always a shad die-off in the winter but nothing to this magnitude, as far as I can remember. Prolonged cold water temperatures, 6 to 10 degrees colder than normal, is the culprit. I still am getting readings in the upper 40 in the early hours of some days and it has been a long time since we have had mid-fifties.
Successful fishing patterns have been hard to come by but we did find a few things which worked. One was the late afternoon bite was the best as it allowed the water temperatures to warm ever so slightly. We have been able to catch fish pretty well late afternoon to almost dark by targeting major points off of feeder creeks which had both submerged grass as well as deep water nearby. Bass were coming out of the deep water just before dark to feed a little on baitfish holding on grassy points. They would bite but you had to pitch them something that moved slowly. We fished both TX rigged weightless worms, TX rigs with light weights (1/8 and 3/16) as well as wacky rigs. We used Gulp! Sinking Minnows, Senkos and Zoom Finesse Worms and worked them very slowly using 10 and 12 lb test 100% Berkley Fuorocarbon line on both baitcast and spinning tackle. We caught bass up to 5 pounds last week using this method from 8 to 18 feet. Other successful patterns have been crankbaits along the outside edge of the grass as well as suspending jerkbaits. My favorite jerkbait is a 5 inch pro model (big lip) Smithwick Rouge in gold/red belly or red belly, silver side and blue back. These dive to 3-5 feet depending on what line you use. I like 10 and 12 pound test Berkley or Stren 100% Fluorocarbon. The fluorocarbon line sinks and helps to keep the bait down and also assists in it suspending. We have been getting some bites on the jerkbait. Storm Lures also makes a great jerkbait. Drop shot patterns also continue to bail us out with patterns from 20 to 40 feet holding bass, We are rigging with a 1/4 oz drop shot sinker, #1 Daiichi Bleeding Bait Red Drop Shot'n hook and also a #1 XPoint Widegap and nose-hooking a 5 inch Berkley Wacky Crawler in watermelon candy. This is a thin, small profile worm and has Berkley's Power Bait scent which makes it a great choice in cold water.
Successful fishing patterns have been hard to come by but we did find a few things which worked. One was the late afternoon bite was the best as it allowed the water temperatures to warm ever so slightly. We have been able to catch fish pretty well late afternoon to almost dark by targeting major points off of feeder creeks which had both submerged grass as well as deep water nearby. Bass were coming out of the deep water just before dark to feed a little on baitfish holding on grassy points. They would bite but you had to pitch them something that moved slowly. We fished both TX rigged weightless worms, TX rigs with light weights (1/8 and 3/16) as well as wacky rigs. We used Gulp! Sinking Minnows, Senkos and Zoom Finesse Worms and worked them very slowly using 10 and 12 lb test 100% Berkley Fuorocarbon line on both baitcast and spinning tackle. We caught bass up to 5 pounds last week using this method from 8 to 18 feet. Other successful patterns have been crankbaits along the outside edge of the grass as well as suspending jerkbaits. My favorite jerkbait is a 5 inch pro model (big lip) Smithwick Rouge in gold/red belly or red belly, silver side and blue back. These dive to 3-5 feet depending on what line you use. I like 10 and 12 pound test Berkley or Stren 100% Fluorocarbon. The fluorocarbon line sinks and helps to keep the bait down and also assists in it suspending. We have been getting some bites on the jerkbait. Storm Lures also makes a great jerkbait. Drop shot patterns also continue to bail us out with patterns from 20 to 40 feet holding bass, We are rigging with a 1/4 oz drop shot sinker, #1 Daiichi Bleeding Bait Red Drop Shot'n hook and also a #1 XPoint Widegap and nose-hooking a 5 inch Berkley Wacky Crawler in watermelon candy. This is a thin, small profile worm and has Berkley's Power Bait scent which makes it a great choice in cold water.
CRAPPIE:South Toledo crappie guide, Butch Perrodin, has been having some decent trips catching 16 to 20 on a half day of fishing while using small crappie jigs fishing 15-20' over brush in 26-30' of water. "They would not hit the jig unless it was almost motionless" reported Perrodin and it had to be suspended over the brush. Johnny Huval from Florien, LA. reported catching crappie using similar patterns. Both were fishing in the Toro Bay area which is on the east side of Toledo and above the dam about 4-5 miles.
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.comand WEBSITE www.joejoslinoutdoors.com.
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.comand WEBSITE www.joejoslinoutdoors.com.
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