When we look at where an Bassmaster Elite Series event will take place, it’s not hard to pinpoint the headline. On Toledo Bend, we’re all trying to figure out how this extreme high water will affect the fishing. From my experience, I think it will bring a mix of challenges and opportunities, and the guys who figure out how to make these conditions work in their favor will be the guys that do really well at this event.
This spring has seen excessive rain in many parts of the country, and Toledo Bend has been no exception. It’s worth pointing out that high water on Toledo Bend is different than high water on some of the other lakes that go up 10-, 20-, 30-feet high. High water on Toledo Bend is a couple of feet above normal. In fact, normal pool is considered high on this lake.
During this week’s tournament, the lake will be right at 172, which is considered normal pool. To frame this, I haven’t fished Toledo Bend at this level since the early 90’s. The lake managers don’t let Toledo Bend reach 172 very often, and if it does, they don’t keep it there very long.
The difference this year is that there’s been so much rain downstream that they’ve had to limit the amount that they can release. Meanwhile, the volume of upstream rain has forced them to keep the lake abnormally high.
What we have to consider is that dropping a foot of water out of a lake the size of Toledo Bend can cause severe downstream flooding. That explains why we’ll see such extreme conditions this week.
The Elite Series has been here quite a few times, but what I like about this scenario is that it’s going to give us a fresh look at this lake.
In normal conditions, I’d expect the fish to be heading into their normal deep water, summertime patterns. You’d expect to see a lot of deep cranking, Carolina rigging and things like that.
I think we will still see some of those tactics, but this rising water will create opportunities for shallow water fishermen to succeed. Actually, I think we’re going to see a battle played out between the shallow and deep-water anglers.
It will be interesting to see which side which of those patterns prevails.
As far as the shallow water fishing goes, anytime you have high water that typically means dirtier water. This limits light penetration and tends to keep fish shallower than normal.
You know, if a bass had his choice, he’d rather be shallow. In low water conditions, there’s not much cover shallow, the bait’s not shallow and if the bass want to eat, they have to follow that bait.
But with the amount of rain we’ve had this year, I think that’s really going to open up the opportunities and allow guys to fish their strengths — whatever those strengths may be.
Of course, the risk of fishing shallow this time of year is that you might get beat by someone on a deep school of fish. My strategy in practice will be to spend about half of my time shallow and about half of my time deep.
I’ll try to determine where I want to spend the bulk of my time, and it may turn out that I divide my tournament time between the shallow and deep water. I can very easily see a scenario where I spend the first few hours shallow and then begin to move out deeper as the day progresses.
I think one of the patterns that will work well in the shallow water will be the shad spawn. So much of a fish’s behavior is based on an internal calendar. Even though it’s been warmer than normal and wetter than normal, a lot of shad will still be spawning and a lot of the bass will be taking advantage of the easy feeding opportunities.
This will make squarebill crankbaits, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, bladed jigs and topwaters some of the more productive baits.
The other pattern that will probably come into play will be flooded buck brush. With the lake at full pool, there’s going to be 2-3 feet of water in the buck brush and the willows, so that means a flipping bite.
A 3/4-ounce Booyah jig can be absolutely killer. This is also another scenario where spinnerbaits can play well, while topwater frogs like the Booyah Pad Crasher could be a big player.
I really think that a guy can pick up his favorite lure at Toledo Bend and catch a limit on it. It’s just going to be a matter of figuring out which bait is triggering those bigger fish.
The deeper water patterns are more complicated because you’re going to have some fish that are just beginning their migration to deep water, so they’ll be somewhere in that 8- to 12-foot range. There will be a lot of fish holding in that mid-depth, so we’ll just have to see if any have made it out to that 12- to 20-foot range.
Normally, I’d say the second week of May would be too early for bass in Texas to be out in that deep water. But this year has been so warm and mild that bass started spawning several weeks before they normally do. This means some of them will have finished before they normally do.
Starting into practice, this is all a big mystery, but the story will gradually start to take shape and come together. Hopefully I’ll be the guy who puts all the pieces of the puzzle the best.
It’s going to be fun to watch how this plays out.