With the combination of bass being in all stages of the spawn and unstable weather, not many anglers have expressed confidence in their ability to catch fish from one day to the next. However, Casey Ashley was a confident man when he walked off the weigh-in stage after weighing 23-9, the big bag of Day 2, and jumping from 54th place on Day 1 to 5th place. Based on his Day 1 performance, it was new-found confidence.
“Really, the way this lake is right now, it works out best if you just keep searching,” Ashley said. “I stumbled on a little ol’ deal that I think is going to hold up. I think there’s bunch of fish there. It’s not like a one-cast deal. You have to mill around and fish. It’s probably my favorite creek on the lake. But I hadn’t been able to catch them there in practice.”
That last statement speaks to the rapidly evolving nature of Toledo Bend, where what’s worked one day, doesn’t work the next, and vice versa. It will be interesting to see if Ashley’s confidence is well-founded.
“I only had four fish at 12:30,” Ashley said yesterday. “Then I went back in that creek and kind of fished some off the wall stuff that I normally don’t do. I do feel like I’ve got an area that’s got a bunch of fish in it.”
Ashley said he filled his limit and culled three of the four bass he’d had in his livewell, then left ’em biting.
“I only caught eight, then the crowd (of local anglers) started filtering to me,” he said. “But they were still far enough away that they couldn’t see what I was doing. So I went ahead and got out of there.”
Ashley’s success, jumping 49 places in the standings, can be explained simply.
“I just kept plugging away, man, and I finally stumbled upon something,” Ashley said.