MANY, La. — Dennis Tietje is one of several Bassmaster Elite Series anglers who has a couple of decades of fishing experience on Toledo Bend Reservoir. But he’s never seen it like this in May – not this high and with this lack of water clarity.
“It’s like coming to a new lake,” Tietje said. “There’s no one that has a lot of experience with the lake like this in May.”
That thought was echoed again and again and again as the 108 anglers gathered for their tournament meeting on the evening before the four-day Bassmaster Elite at Toledo Bend Reservoir.
“This is just different, and it’s going to fish different,” said Kelly Jordon, another one of those Toledo Bend veterans. “For a bass tournament, that’s great. It’s going to be wide open. It’s such a big lake, and it’s fishing so different from any other time I’ve ever been here.”
There’s another aspect to this idea of Toledo Bend being a “new lake”: The anglers didn’t get to see a whole lot of it during the three days of practice. The wind was blowing the entire time. Toledo Bend with its defined boat trails through flooded timber isn’t a lake that’s easy to survey when the wind blows.
“We haven’t really had the type of weather in practice where you could get out and explore,” said Alton Jones. “You could have somebody win this tournament who figures it out on the fly and do something different than what they were able to do in practice.”
Normally, bass would be schooled up off-shore this long after the spawn. But whether it’s due to the high water or the lack of clarity, there are lots of big fish shallow.
“A lot of the big ones have left from being out deep,” said Jacob Powroznik, who won here in May 2014, the last time an Elite Series event was held on Toledo Bend. “I think a lot of fish are going to be caught shallow. I have no clue why they come back shallow like that, but they do that on a lot of other lakes.
“There’s so much flooded vegetation and bait on that bank, I think they’re just following the shad around.”
Powroznik’s winning weight total was 79 pounds, 12 ounces in 2014. Brent Chapman won the previous Elite Series event at Toledo Bend with 83-9 in June 2012. Most of the anglers polled predicted a winning weight of 80-plus pounds this week. Jones thinks it will be 90 pounds, or better.
There’s no doubt the bass are in this lake to accumulate a total weight approaching 100 pounds. Boyd Duckett caught a 13-pounder in practice. Powroznik caught a 9-pounder and Jones stuck one “that was over 8 (pounds).” Often in practice, these guys won’t set the hook on anything, but this big lake under these conditions required more detailed gathering of information.
“I set the hook on one I wish I hadn’t set the hook on,” Jones said. “But I was in an area where I was catching a lot of small ones. I don’t really have a way to go fish for a big one. I’m just going to have to go fishing.”
Jones said he would be shocked if there’s not a 30-pound bag weighed at least once this week. It’s consistent big bags that no one seems confident in catching.
Todd Faircloth probably has more experience fishing Toledo Bend than anyone else in this field. But it’s a new lake to him too.
“You’ve got deep fish, you’ve got fish in-between, and you’ve got shallow fish,” Faircloth said. “You’ve got fish on wood, fish on grass and fish on shell beds. There’s just a lot going on out there.”
To repeat the words of Kelly Jordon, “For a bass tournament, that’s great. It’s going to be wide open.”
Daily takeoffs begin at 6:15 a.m. and weigh-ins start at 3:15 p.m. at Cypress Bend Park.