Alton Jones predicts this “will be a battle of two tournaments, between shallow and deep.” As has been noted, even the most experienced Toledo Bend anglers in this field have never seen the lake like this in May.
“The fish are wanting to be deep,” Jones said. “The warm winter and the early spawn we had makes them want to be deep. But the high water makes them want to be shallow. The conditions are in conflict with each other. The fish are kind of caught in between.
“I feel that there are more fish deep now than shallow. But there are some good ones shallow. It’s just going to be a matter of if (the shallow fish) hold up.”
Jacob Powroznik won here in 2014 by fishing deep the first two days, then moving shallow to catch bass on spawning beds. Powroznik thinks combining deep and shallow patterns might be a winning game plan again.
“I’m not going to be able to sight fish like I did, but I think a lot of fish are going to get caught shallow,” he said.
There’s only one problem with this situation: It can make an angler’s head start spinning, going back and forth between shallow and deep.
“A guy can get caught going in and out,” said Todd Faircloth. “You end up spreading yourself out.”