Tater Reynolds pulled up on a deep flat on the lower end of Toledo Bend late in the afternoon on Jan. 7 and started roaming around, scoping for schools of shad, which have been the key to his fishing success for several days.
“That’s been the biggest deal for me lately, finding shad,” said Reynolds, an established bass-fishing expert from Florien. “They are starting to focus on shad. Wherever the shad are, the bass are, I’ve been looking for them feeding on shad.”
Thirty minutes after leaving the Texas side of the lake to pick up his father, George Jeane Jr., the pair was easing along a flat in 24 feet of water on the Louisiana side when he found what he was looking for: a couple of scattered schools of shad with two big bass watching them warily.
“They were around shad, but they weren’t actively pushing them,” Reynolds said. “One was about a 6- or 7-pounder, and the other one was the big one. I threw the bait in and watched it fall, and the smaller one came up and was fixing to eat it. Then, the big one swam up and kind of ran the other one out of the way; I bet she bolted 20 or 30 feet away.
“Then the big one came up under it and wound up eating it.”
A minute or two later, the big one was in Reynolds’ boat, all 11.06 pounds of her.
First cast in new spot
At 27 ½ inches long and 20 inches in girth, the monster bass became the first caught in 2026 to qualify for the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program, which rewards anglers who land double-digit bass with a replica mount after the fish is officially weighed, measured, tagged and released. It is the 18th caught since the 2025-26 season kicked off last June.
“She is really going to put on some weight in the next month,” said Reynolds, who was using a 6-foot-10, 6th Sense Response casting rod, a Lew’s Custom Light SS reel spooled with 8-pound Strike King Tour Grade braid with a 6-foot leader of 10-pound Strike King fluorocarbon tied to a 3/16-ounce tungsten jig head with a 6th Sense Shindo in ghost minnow.
“It was my first cast on that spot,” Reynolds said. “I got out about 3 o’clock and fished the Texas side. I caught six or eight fish around shad on flats, the biggest about 4 ½ pounds. My dad had been working with my grandfather, Doug Reynolds, at the sawmill, and when he finished I left the Texas side and picked him up. We went right to this spot on the Louisiana side and started fishing.
“She was about 30 feet in front of the boat when I set the hook,” he said. “She came up real slow, jumped, and went back down and fought and fought. She was digging. Then, she came up on the opposite side of the boat from where my dad and I were, and sloshed around a little. She went back down, back under the boat and made one good pass down the gunwale and my dad netted her.”
