Higher Water Changing The Bite

Not that it is something new for the teams that show up every Tuesday afternoon to compete in the Sabine River Shootouts, but it looks as though they will have to add even more rain to the already challenging conditions this afternoon. The river is high and off-colored, Toledo Bend

is running both generators 24/7 with five gates open and additional rain won’t make it any easier.

High water was apparently no problem last week as it took almost twelve pounds to cash the first place check and the big bass just missed the six pound mark. The second place catch tipped the scales at more than ten pounds as well. Half of the thirty team field limited and seven bass

over the three pound mark were weighed in. I talked with one team that ran straight to the marsh with no game plan and caught their limit in their first five casts. They were just not able

to find a kicker bass. I feel reasonably sure that most of the winners

were fishing flooded marsh ponds. That program was not an unknown for the Bassmaster Elite visitors, but all Louisiana water was declared off-limits. Rain or shine, I look for

the marsh program to prevail again Tuesday evening. A Sunday evening text read, “Look in your old stuff and see if you still have any pink-blue flake six inch worms. ”On a panicky follow-up call, Marshall Lane announced that he had recently discovered the magic color

and technique for fooling quality bass on Toledo Bend. “I finally found

the fish in all of this high water, but it has been as much about lure color as technique,” he added.

Marshall said that he has been Carolina rigging or drifting a drop shot

on a lighter sinker. “The wind can mess me up as I am only using a 3/16ths ounce weight. With no grass there is no need for more weight, but it’s hard to keep it on the bottom in a stiff wind.”

“The bass haven’t moved, but they are a couple of feet deeper due to the high water. Most of my bass are coming out of 16 to 18 feet of water and they are good fish. ”That text was accompanied by a picture of two fish over eight pounds caught last Thursday! Only a couple of weeks ago, Gary Stelly and I were talking about an Indian Creek angler that had also just caught a double digit bass on a pink Crème Scoundrel worm. Both anglers were fishing totally different

depths, but both rigged their worm Whacky Worm style.“I am nose hooking it when fishing it on a drop shot, but fishing it like a Whacky work on the Carolina rig,” said Marshall.I thanked him for the report and sent a 100 pack up with his son-in-law. I am expecting an

invite in return very shortly! So what’s new? It has been a remarkable two week run for the LCM bass club. I believe everyone in the club, with the exception of Nellie Stephens Miller, has qualified for a shot at a National Championship later this year. Two weeks ago, LCM earned Team of the Year honors with six of their teams finishing in the top 100.Braxton Rambo and Cameron Dougharty won the event. Last weekend, their teams finished second, third and fourth in the Texas Elite Student Championship hosted on Sam Rayburn. Dakota Posey and

Brendon Brones finished second with 30.81-pounds followed by Jacob Longlois and Tanner Stewart with 27.68-pounds. Logan Freeman and Layne Pevey nailed down the fourth spot as well as big bass honors with 26.06 pounds and Freeman’s 8.03-pound lunker.

The Top Five teams earned $9500 in scholarship money. The Livingston team

of Kayden Meuck and Breckett Long won the two day tournament with 32.47 pounds.

For the first time in the last several weeks, the crappie guides on Toledo Bend struggled a bit. They still caught solid fish on their brush piles, but numbers were harder to come by.

That, however, has not been a problem for the bream enthusiasts. That bite is generally short-lived, but it is enjoyable when they are on their beds and competing for every cricket dropped in their domain. Not only are they fun to catch, but there is no better eating fish in the lake!