There’s a reason families take extended holidays in December and January to catch crappie on Toledo Bend with Living the Dream Guide Service.
We catch a lot of big ones this time of year, oversized, you might even say. As one of LTD’s veteran guides, that’s been my experience every winter when conditions are right.
A lot of families come in for the holidays. Fishing-wise, January is a pretty good month here, as long as we don’t get a lot of rain. Cold, dirty water from excessive rainfall is the least desirable scenario for this lake shared by Louisiana and Texas. If the water level stays down and clear, fishing can be extremely good for both crappie and bass. Otherwise, you sometimes have to bump the fish on the nose to get ’em to bite.
Crappie usually are pretty deep, 25- to 50-feet, mostly on the main lake and typically around creek channels and river channels this month. They suspend more than the bass do now around timber or closer to the bottom. The colder it is the deeper they go around timber.
Yes, forward facing sonar is a very helpful tool. If your boat doesn’t have it, some type of sonar is valuable, as it lets you know how deep the fish are that day. Sans marine electronics, and if the lake remains low, some crappie fishermen locate them by looking at the trees showing, especially along channels.
Primarily, most crappie going into my boat this month are hooked on medium-sized minnows under a heavy split shot. I use 8-pound monofilament line on an LTD Signature Series 6 ½-foot-long spinning rod made by Outlaw Crappie Poles. There are times a Bass Assassin Tiny Shad is hard to beat. My go-to color is monkey milk.
Top baits for bass
I rely on three baits to put bass in the boat in January — a Texas-rigged creature bait, a Caroina-rigged 5-inch Bass Assassin Shad and a Berkley Jig, either a casting jig or a football jig. The colder it is this month, the deeper I’ll fish them. That’s when they’re typically deepest, at least 10 feet in early January. I would say 10- to 30-feet deep would be the range. If the water temp gets below 50 degrees, you’ll see the shallower side of that become less of a player and the deeper side more of a player.
Bass tend to be staying from midway into a creek to the main lake. You don’t typically find that many fish in the back of creeks this time of year. Larger schools of bass typically hang out in 20- to 30-foot depths, while smaller groups are in 10- to 20-foot depths.
I’ll fish that Texas-rigged creature bait in black/blue most of the time and mix in some green pumpkin, either under a ¼- to ½-ounce worm weight. As for the C-rig, I like the watermelon/red or green pumpkin Bass Assassin Shad under a ¾-ounce weight at the end of a 3-foot-long (at least) 15-pound test monofilament leader tied to 20-pound test flourocarbon. The mono line helps float the soft plastic.
As for the Berkley Jigs, my replacement after Stanley Jigs went off the market, I prefer a ½- to ¾-ounce black/blue or PBJ color with a 4-inch long black/blue or green pumpkin Bass Assassin Woopaw Craw.
There’s one other proven artificial lure that’ll put bass in the boat this time of year, a Diamond Umbrella Rig. I’ll put a 4-inch long shad-colored Bass Assassin Elite Shiner on each hook. Those shad imitation soft plastics are really good.
Good luck in January. Take care. Stay safe.
Call Living the Dream Guide Service at (318) 256-8991 to make a dream fishing trip come true on Toledo Bend.
