Keith Combs’ practice this week didn’t leave him with a solid game plan for Day 1 at Toledo Bend. “It’s definitely tough,” said Combs, who finished 4th here last year. “We’ve been here before around this time of year. There’s usually a group of post-spawn fish that are biting pretty good on jerkbaits, shallow-running crankbaits, things like that. I haven’t seen those. And there are lots of fish on beds, but I’m not excited about the size I’ve seen.”
Combs might be seeing some better fish now that the sun is high. He recently boated the 3-pounder in the accompanying photo, taken by marshal Kristen Mayo. He’s starting to cull up from the small 9-pound, 4-ounce limit he’s got in his livewell.
“If it hadn’t been for the wind and rain and storms recently, I think this would have been a full-blown sight-fishing deal,” Combs said Wednesday. “I’ve looked a lot, and I haven’t seen enough to weight 15 or 16 pounds on a given day. It will still be a big player, but I don’t know if it will be the winning pattern.”
Photo by Bassmaster Marshal Kristen Mayo