March has definitely come in like a lion for bass fishermen who call Toledo Bend Reservoir home.
The huge reservoir on the Louisiana-Texas border gave up six double-digit bass this past Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Jordan Cox of Hemphill, Texas, boated a 12.07-pound bass on March 5, the same day that Brandon Murrell of Rayne landed a 10.91-pounder and Brad Andes of Many boated a 10.97-pound fish. The next day, March 6, Chucky Son of Prairieville put an 11.59-pound bass in his boat. On Friday, March 7, Chase Taylor of Anacoco caught a 10.42-pounder and Gary Fontenot of Many hooked a 10.86 lunker.
Boat check
Jordan Cox’s big bass was caught right at dark, after he had gotten his boat out of the shop that afternoon and was making sure the repairs had fixed his problem.
“I found a group of fish for a tournament, then I left to go home, but I decided to check another spot, and on the first cast, I caught the 12,” said Cox, who used a Cast-A-Way rod and Lew’s baitcasting reel spooled with 17-pound K-9 fluorocarbon. The fish hit a Rat-L-Trap.
“I was fishing a grassy, secondary point, and she hit it before I really did anything,” he said. “I had been burning the Trap across the top of the grass. This time, when I cast, as soon as I started to reel, she was on it.”
Cox said he didn’t know what his Trap had fooled for a while.’
“I didn’t know what she was, because she was coming at me,” he said. “I felt a couple of head shakes, but I didn’t know. She ran straight at the boat and she pulled a lot. I’ve caught two over 10 (pounds), and I knew neither of them pulled this hard. I was wondering if I had a catfish.
“I didn’t see her for about 45 seconds, and I was thinking it was a catfish. She never jumped – just pulled. She was in front of the boat when I finally saw that white belly and green back.”
Cox got his net out and dragged the big fish – which later measured 27 ½ inches long and 20 ¾ inches in girth when weighed at Buckeye Landing – into it. The fish easily earned entry into the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program, with Cox getting a free replica mount.
Son gets bona fide lunker
The next day, Chucky Son and his brother, Josh, were out scouting for an upcoming tournament when they stumbled on his big bass around mid-lake at close to 10 a.m. They had caught fish all morning, but this one was special.
Son was using a Daiwa Tatula rod and Tatula reel spooled with 17-pound Sufix fluorocarbon when he pitched a black/blue swim jig with a blue sapphire Zoom Z-Craw trailer into some small lily pads often called “dollar pads.”
“She was in a patch of those little pads, in about a foot of water,” he said. “She must have hit it on the fall, because it felt mushy when I picked it up. I thought I might be hung up in the pads, but then it started moving. I set the hook, and I immediately knew it was a big fish. She tried to jump, but she was so big she couldn’t.
“I knew it was a double-digit fish, so I told Josh to get the net, and he got ready. I didn’t play her all that long. She came out into open water immediately. She came up by the boat, and I basically dragged her into the net.”
A spawning bass
When he and his brother got a good look at the fish, they realized its tail was dripping blood, an obvious sign that the fish had been shallow for a while, fanning out its bed.
“I didn’t see this fish,” Son said. “Most of the lake has been kind of murky; if it had been clear, I would have probably seen it, but I was just casting blind to the pads.”
Son said that he had an “Oh, my gosh” moment when he laid the fish – still in the net – on the casting deck of his boat and realized exactly how big it was.
“When you get a fish that size in the net, and it takes up the whole net,” said Son, who put the fish on a set of Rapala digital scales and came up with 11.22 pounds. But, he said, he felt like he was rushed to get the fish in the livewell and didn’t wait as long as he could have to let the scales balance. At Keith’s Toledo Bend Tackle, the fish officially weighed 11.59 pounds, measured 25 inches long and had 19.5 inches in girth – the biggest of his life.
