Take advantage of schooling bass activity
There’s nothing like schooling bass action to spice up a summer day on the water at Toledo Bend. That feeding frenzy on the surface never fails to get the adrenaline pumping.
Schooling bass fishing has changed over the years though. I grew up fishing this great fishery, starting when I was 6. I began guiding full time 11 years ago with Living the Dream Guide Service and, at age 34, still absolutely love it when schools of bass come up chasing large concentrations of shad.
The thing is, schooling bass action seems to be less frequent than it once was as more and more Florida bass integrate into our system. Florida bass are more nomadic than native largemouth bass. They are also bigger and less aggressive than the base population that has lived here since the lake’s inception.
Also, Florida bass just don’t stay at the surface busting shad as long as the native population once did, so it’s important to have a fishing rod handy and rigged with a topwater lure. I prefer to walk-the-dog with a chrome or white Berkley J-Walker if it’s a bright day or a black model if it’s a heavily overcast day.
If the school goes down, my best advice is to refrain from casting until the bass come back up. Wait for them and it’ll be worth your time. As so often happens, a bass angler doesn’t have to work very hard to trigger a bite once they come back up.
The bass usually return to the hump or deep point, generally in 10- to 20-foot depths. Those Florida bass wait down there to ambush shad pushing past them. Those bass know it’s meal time and push the baitfish to the top. When bass go back to the bottom, many successful anglers work the humps and points with Texas-rigged, weightless watermelon or green pumpkin Bass Assassin Shads.
Things to remember
With the dog days of summer at hand, one of the most consistent ways to put bass in the boat when they aren’t schooling is to target 10- to 20-foot depths around ridges, dropoffs, or the mouth of a drain, preferably with stumps or grass. “Offshore” fish set up once the sun gets higher in the sky and the bite usually gets going around 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning.
My favorites to fish with then are bottom baits such as watermelon, red bug or June bug Carolina-rigged soft plastics under a ¾-ounce weight and Texas-rigged soft plastics under 3/16- or 3/8-ounce worm weights. If the fish aren’t cooperating, I’ll try shad-colored Berkley Dredger crankbaits that cover various depths I want to target.
Something to remember about midsummer and deep water: Be aware of the thermocline, also called stratification, which varies across the lake. That determines how deep bass will go. When water’s at its hottest, the upper layer is more conducive to life oxygen-wise. Anglers can use sonar or downscan screens to see where the water columns are separated by a thin layer of water.
To escape the heat of the day, many bass anglers get out after dark, fish the same depths and catch most of their bass on 10- to 12-inch plastic worms. My favorite color is black/blue.
The hunt for crappie
If anglers want crappie in the ice chest this month, they should probe natural timbers and bridge pilings anywhere from 15-feet deep to the 30-foot depth level. The Pendleton Bridge pilings give up their share of crappie this time of year. I know from experience.
Wherever I try, I fish with mostly Panfish Assassin Lures’ minnow-style soft plastics in the color monkey milk on 1/32-ounce leadheads tied to 6- to 8-pound test line. Minnows also produce slabs — small- or medium-sized minnows are usually better because the fish aren’t interested in large minnows this time of year. Oh, and once you drop the minnow, keep it still, don’t jig it up and down.
Call Living the Dream Guide Service at (318) 256-8991 to make a dream fishing trip come true on Toledo Bend.
