Hello, Anglers.
It doesn’t get any better than this with morning temps in the upper 50s and low 60s.
Dove, teal, bow seasons are already open with squirrel season getting underway this weekend and area fishing holes showing signs of lots of hungry fish.
Sportsman’s Paradise no doubt!
On the fishing scene, not just reds, specks and bass either as I saw one of the most impressive bunch of crappie I have seen in a long time. Check out the photo.
Water temperatures are cooling to 76 to 81 degrees with the lake level
jumping a foot or more to 169.40.
Some parts of the lake received up to 6 inches of rain with the
last weather system over the weekend which has stained the
back portions of all major creeks. In addition, there have been
reports of large mats of salvinia in the northern part of
the lake and attempts are being made to spray. At times heavy
rains can cause a rapid rise in the lake thus “floating” the
mats of salvinia out where they can be reached to spray/treat.
According to a report from Holly Park Marina, this is happening in Patroon Bayou which is a major feeder creek on the Texas
side and about 4 miles north of Pendleton Bridge.
I recall when Toledo had its worst
infestations of salvinia several years ago as we had similar conditions
with a huge amount
of rain in a short period of time. There were some salvinia mats
an acre or more in size that floated out of the creeks to
the main lake which made them accessible for manual spraying.
Hopefully, this will occur again to help control this invasive
tropical plant. It is unlikely we will ever completely rid this
plant from Toledo but we are learning to control it.
BASS:
are bringing water temps down
basically eliminating the thermocline. The thermocline forms in
June on most of the areas deep reservoirs and is a line of
demarcation where the oxygen-rich warmer water is on top and the
colder, low-oxygenated water is on the bottom. During the
summer it is difficult for fish to survive below the thermocline
which on Toledo and Rayburn is normally around 25 ft. On
my Hummingbird unit in Switchfire mode/max” you can see evidence
of the thermocline as a horizontal thin field of debris around
25’.
In the fall with the arrival of several
cold fronts, the surface water is cooled and becomes heavier and sinks
to the bottom
pushing the bottom layer of water off the bottom where it mixes
with the rest of the water volume thus eliminating the thermocline.
This process is commonly called “turn-over”. I saw the beginning
of this phenomenon last week and it is accelerating currently
as brownish foam is on the surface in some areas. In certain
conditions there can even a distinct odor which I would describe
as a musty smell. With the thermocline gone, there will be decent
oxygen all the way to the bottom of the lake allowing bait
and fish to again relate to the bottom no matter how deep. There
are times when we often fish those deep areas (30-50 ft)
from October through early February with water temps determining
when we move shallow in the early spring.
Fall patterns are in place with bait
and bass moving up drains and ditches all over the lake. Top water
patterns include
working Pro Pops(Bill Norman), Chug Bugs and Yellow Magic on
grassy points during low-light conditions. The full moon this
week has slowed the morning bite but the afternoon bite has been
strong. Spinnerbaits continue to hook up on bass with a
3/8 oz double willow Stanley Vibra Wedge my top choice as we are
targeting windy points and the back 1/3 of major creeks.
We also like Norman’s Triple Wing buzzbait.
Shallow and mid-diving crankbaits are
catching bass as are Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps in red craw and shad
patterns. On our crankbaits
we are using Deep Little Ns and Baby Ns in chartreuse/black and
also shad patterns in depths of 6 to 15 ft. We are also working
DD22s on deeper points, ridges and humps from 15 to 30 feet with
shad patterns working well.
On soft plastics we are spending a lot
of time on Texas rigs in 8 to 20 ft. with Havoc Bottom Hoppers, Rocket
Craws and Trick
Worms with watermelon colors our top choices. On deeper
structure (15 to 30 ft) we are slow-dragging Carolina rigs and Stanley
Bug Eye football jigs in ½ and ¾ oz. We are also fishing jigging
spoons and drop shot rigs with Havoc’s Bottom Hopper Jr
(4.75 inches) my drop shot choice.
CRAPPIE/YELLOW BASS: Keithon and
Sherry Perkins of DeQuincy caught over 75 crappie last weekend with some
of them truly
‘slabs’. They were fishing brush piles with live shiners in 15 ft
depths and the crappie were suspended over the brush.
They also caught several catfish up to 9 pounds. There have been
other reports of anglers catching crappie and yellow bass
on Road Runners and Beetle Spins using light line (6-8 lb test)
and targeting points with grass.
•••
Joe Joslin
is a syndicated outdoor columnist, tournament angler and pro guide on
Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn. His column appears Thursdays.
Contact him at 463-3848 or joejoslinoutdoors@yahoo.com or visit www.joejoslinoutdoors.com