Wonder when (or if) Toledo Bend will come back 2024
redboat reply :
Wife and I bought a house on Toledo Bend lake a few years back. Fishing was awesome in spring of 2013, but each year since it's gotten worse. Two years ago the SRA sprayed the lake to kill giant Salvinia which they mostly did but in the process they killed all the hydrilla, lilly pads, and every other kind of grass.
Then TB was anointed as "the number one bass fishing lake in the US" (it wasn't even close). That drew in about 10,000 boats every weekend. They cleaned out all the spawning beds and every remaining fish over a half pound.
Finally this year the lake was way down for months, then flooding rains brought it up about eight feet in two weeks. The generators are running and the gates are open but it still hasn't gone down much. As a result the top half of the lake looks like chocolate milk and water temp is about 62 degrees.
I talked with a guy who fished a tournament here last weekend. He told me that they had 43 boats; caught a total of 31 fish in two days. I didn't ask him what the total weight was: 31 pounds maybe...
Anyway I know this will probably draw a lot of posts from guys who will swear they're catching a boatload of five pounders every day but based on my experience and the folks I talk with nobody's catching much of anything. I go out two or three times a week - its a nice boat ride - but I doubt if I'll catch more than four or five keepers this year.
Maybe next year it'll come back. That's what my neighbors and I tell each other. Maybe next year.
OCdockskipper reply :
I checked the calendar and April 1st still isn't for a week or so...
I wonder if the best responses would be time stamped photos or published tournament reports?
Dirtyeggroll reply :
A lot of good fish caught during the Central Regional CentralRegional.pdf (https://www.bassmaster.com/news/bass-nation-central-regional-standings-0)
11-6 was big bass and 59 lbs took first place. Lots of 20+ lb bags over the 3 day tournament. Doesn't seem terrible.
J Francho reply :
Pretty much every thread you've started is about how terrible fishing is, or that something doesn't work. What's the deal? We're here to help you catch, but if you're just going to complain, that won't put fish in the boat. Give us a breakdown of what you're using, where, and how. What the cover is like, how deep, etc. There's a GIGANTIC thread on how to fish TB. Pages of info on it. Let us help you get better.
OCdockskipper reply :
Wait, I think I figured it out. The OP was writing about Toledo Bend lake, which we all misunderstood to mean Toledo Bend reservoir. I did a little research and found that there is indeed a Toledo Bend lake and it is not the famous body of water that we are all familiar with.
Toledo Bend Lake is located in Ohio, not Texas. It was named for its location, a curve in the road right next to the stadium where the Toledo Mudhens minor league baseball team plays. It is a smaller lake, only about 150 acres, so when the OP talks about 10,000 boats on it during the weekend, you can imagine how crowded it gets. It kind of looks like Lake Havasu during Spring Break, you can literally walk across the lake by going from boat to boat. Needless to say, vertical presentations are preferred - casting will usually end up in you snagging another fisherman.
When the OP says the lake was drawn down, he is actually being kind. In fact, the lake was drained and was completely dry during the winter. When it was refilled, signs were posted that there are no fish in the lake, but that didn't stop those Ohioan bassmasters from giving it a try. Later, out of pity, a nearby tech company designed, built and released about a dozen robotic "bass" that now inhabit these waters. They are willing to bite, but there are so few of them, only catching 4 or 5 a year is about normal.
Hez reply :
I am sure @Catt will have some input on how bad TB is
Dwight Hottle reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 2:10 AM, OCdockskipper said:Wait, I think I figured it out. The OP was writing about Toledo Bend lake, which we all misunderstood to mean Toledo Bend reservoir. I did a little research and found that there is indeed a Toledo Bend lake and it is not the famous body of water that we are all familiar with.
Toledo Bend Lake is located in Ohio, not Texas. It was named for its location, a curve in the road right next to the stadium where the Toledo Mudhens minor league baseball team plays. It is a smaller lake, only about 150 acres, so when the OP talks about 10,000 boats on it during the weekend, you can imagine how crowded it gets. It kind of looks like Lake Havasu during Spring Break, you can literally walk across the lake by going from boat to boat. Needless to say, vertical presentations are preferred - casting will usually end up in you snagging another fisherman.
When the OP says the lake was drawn down, he is actually being kind. In fact, the lake was drained and was completely dry during the winter. When it was refilled, signs were posted that there are no fish in the lake, but that didn't stop those Ohioan bassmasters from giving it a try. Later, out of pity, a nearby tech company designed, built and released about a dozen robotic "bass" that now inhabit these waters. They are willing to bite, but there are so few of them, only catching 4 or 5 a year is about normal.
The OP's location is Many, Louisiana not Ohio. OK tongue in cheek sarcasm.
WRB reply :
"The report of my death was a exaggeration", Mark Twain.
Drag a dead animal across the trail to devert the hounds could also apply.
Having lived through extremely high fishing pressure created by national attention I can see how local anglers trying to fish there home lake get frustrated.
Toledo Bend is a big lake over 70 miles long and nearly impossible for the entire lake to have it's big bass population crash from over harvesting. With that said every lake has it's peake periods and down periods regarding big bass populations. Texas has the premier bass management program in the country, Toledo Bend is in good hands.
Tom
J Francho reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 2:31 AM, Dwight Hottle said:The OP's location is Many, Louisiana not Ohio. OK tongue in cheek sarcasm.
I did the same thing, and then got it. I even googled the lake. 
Dwight Hottle reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 2:37 AM, J Francho said:I did the same thing, and then got it. I even googled the lake.
Us old guys are a little slow.
J Francho reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 2:39 AM, Dwight Hottle said:
Us old guys are a little slow.
I'm only 46, Dwight. 
Oh wait, maybe early onslaught...
Dwight Hottle reply :
J i was talking about me. 70 next week.
J Francho reply :
Who are you again?
What's my name?
It's been a long, cold winter.
senile1 reply :
Like John and Dwight, I was falling for @OCdockskipper's post until about halfway through the second paragraph. The humor started to exude from his words at that point.
Sorry to hear the OP, @redboat, is struggling on TB. I don't live nearby so I can't dispute his report directly, but it would take some kind of major event to take TB from the top bass lake in the nation to an also-ran in just one year. You can bet the bass are there though it may require a different strategy to find them, or get them to bite.
Gundog reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 2:43 AM, Dwight Hottle said:J i was talking about me. 70 next week.
You don't look a day over 69 and 3/4. Happy early birthday big guy. 
Catt reply :
Don't know what Toledo Bend ya fishing but the one I fish is still pumping out double digits & 25-30# 5 bass tournament stringers!
Yes there's a lot of hydrilla & milfoil gone but so is the Salvinia!
The grass is coming back on the south end & moving north!
Everyone tries comparing the lake to a couple years ago when it pumped record double digits; reservoirs catch rates raise, peak out, fall, & repeat.
@Bass_Fanatic myself, & others on this site are still catching 30-50 bass day.
OCdockskipper reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 2:31 AM, Dwight Hottle said:
The OP's location is Many, Louisiana not Ohio...
There is an explanation for that as well.
When the tech company released the robotic "bass" into Toledo Bend Lake, the main programmer goofed up and calibrated the "fish" as being in Toledo Bend Reservoir. When the OP caught one of these digital wonders last week, the auto-report mechanism built into each one hacked into the OP's Bassresource account and changed his location from Ohio to Louisiana. It also shorted out his depthfinder and fried his phone, but that is another story & will be corrected in the next firmware update the "bass" receive.
Gundog reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 4:42 AM, OCdockskipper said:There is an explanation for that as well.
When the tech company released the robotic "bass" into Toledo Bend Lake, the main programmer goofed up and calibrated the "fish" as being in Toledo Bend Reservoir. When the OP caught one of these digital wonders last week, the auto-report mechanism built into each one hacked into the OP's Bassresource account and changed his location from Ohio to Louisiana. It also shorted out his depthfinder and fried his phone, but that is another story & will be corrected in the next firmware update the "bass" receive.
Its the meta-phasic shielding that is causing the problem. If the harmonizer is quadradic then you need to overpeak the pasmat.
Catt reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 5:40 AM, Gundog said:Its the meta-phasic shielding that is causing the problem. If the harmonizer is quadradic then you need to overpeak the pasmat.
We were hacked by the Russians ????
Bass_Fanatic reply :
Here’s a few from my past 4 trips
gimruis reply :
Although I'm not familiar personally with this body of water, I'm sure there's plenty of quality fish still present. Unfortunately, the #1 ranking by B.A.S.S. sometimes is a double edged sword. Its nice to get that sort of prestige and it brings in a lot of business, but sometimes the pressure is just too much. Mille Lacs had this ranking last year and it has gotten significantly harder too because of the pressure.
Catt reply :
FYI: since 2006 Texas Parks and Wildlife stocked over 26,000,000 Pure Strain Florida Largemouth fingerlings, plus a few hundred thousand ShareLunker fingerlings.
Add to that the number of fingerlings naturally spawned by the millions of female bass in a 190,000 acre lake.
Ya think ya can fish it out or even scratch the population?
What happened is the spraying of the giant salvinia killed the Hydrilla, Milfoil, & Coontail forcing the bass to change from being related to grass to being wood/brush related.
The bass successful made the change... sadly many anglers did not!
redboat reply :
Yeah, that's about the response I expected.
No its not a joke; fishing on TB is terrible and has been for a couple of years. It was chosen #1 two years running but that was probably about two years behind - in 2013 TB probably WAS the number one bass lake in the country.
Anyway, you guys have fun with your fifty bass a day. I'll wait for - and hope for - Toledo Bend to one day again become a premier fishing lake. Maybe next year.
Oh yeah - no the Salvinia isn't totally gone; its still in the mid and north parts of the lake. So it'll be back all over the lake again in another year or two.
riverbasser reply :
I have nothing to offer here but I would love to catch 50 bass a day. Yep that'd suit me just fine
Catt reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 11:04 AM, redboat said:Yeah, that's about the response I expected.
No its not a joke; fishing on TB is terrible and has been for a couple of years. It was chosen #1 two years running but that was probably about two years behind - in 2013 TB probably WAS the number one bass lake in the country.
Anyway, you guys have fun with your fifty bass a day. I'll wait for - and hope for - Toledo Bend to one day again become a premier fishing lake. Maybe next year.
Oh yeah - no the Salvinia isn't totally gone; its still in the mid and north parts of the lake. So it'll be back all over the lake again in another year or two.
How sad that you through life with such a negative attitude!
OCdockskipper reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 11:04 AM, redboat said:Yeah, that's about the response I expected...
...Anyway, you guys have fun with your fifty bass a day. I'll wait for - and hope for - Toledo Bend to one day again become a premier fishing lake. Maybe next year.
Do you think the tournament results, the pictures folks posted and the info Catt reported is not true? That would be odd for a lot of different people to get together and lie in order to make you feel like you are the only one struggling on this lake. That is the stuff of conspiracies.
Lets go this route, I have a story for you. A Grandpa was taking a nap on the couch when his mischievous grandson snuck in and put a piece of limburger cheese under his bushy mustache. A bit later, Grandpa woke up, stretched and then immediately began sniffing. "This room stinks" he said and he went into the kitchen. He sniffed a few more times and said "Heck, this entire house stinks, I'm getting out of here and getting some fresh air". He stepped outside, took a deep breath and nearly choked. He quickly walked down the street, trying to get away from the rancid smell until he bellowed "This entire neighborhood stinks". He came back home, jumped in his truck & tried to drive away from the smell, but to no avail. He finally declared "For heavens sake, this entire town stinks!!".
The moral of the story is before you claim that everything around you stinks, you may just want to check your mustache for limburger cheese... 
Catt reply :
@redboat
Click on the link to 279 pgs, 6,953 replies, & 1,036,137 veiws
We would gladly teach you how to fish Toledo Bend productivity!
N Florida Mike reply :
You have to learn to adapt to the new conditions. Its like that anywhere . Even on my small lake. I am not catching the numbers I did last year because the lake's weeds are now under control and the fish that used to relate to weed edges are not there because the weeds arent. But the fish are still in the lake, you just have to find them using different pattern/ methods.
12poundbass reply :
What I'm seeing here is @Catt and @Bass_Fanatic you guys are both wrong because your results aren't the same as the OP.The tournament results aren't inline with him either. I think you could try and help him until the cows come home with TB but the results aren't inline with him and his neighbors so not much can be done. Sad
Russ E reply :
I just assumed this post started from a local that was trying to deter others from visiting Toledo Bend.
the reports here and all other literature of that lake, tells a different story.
It is still on my must visit list for Bass fishing destinations.
Catt reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 11:59 PM, Weedwhacker said:I just assumed this post started from a local that was trying to deter others from visiting Toledo Bend.
the reports here and all other literature of that lake, tells a different story.
It is still on my must visit list for Bass fishing destinations.
Toledo Bend Lunker Program registered 139 double digit bass in 2015 – 2016.
Some angles don't understand that number was the peak, the numbers were less prior to that date & less after that date.
These same anglers believe since those numbers are down since that year plus the fact Toledo Bend was voted #1 two years in a row bringing a huge influx of anglers has destroyed the lake's population of bass.
These anglers believe every single bass of 8 lbs plus has been caught & removed from the lake!
Like myself & @WRB mentioned lakes especially reservoirs experience peaks & valleys.
Prior to 2015-2016 the big bass were there & they are still there now we just aint catching them!
Russ E reply :
On 3/25/2018 at 1:07 AM, Catt said:
Toledo Bend Lunker Program registered 139 double digit bass in 2015 – 2016.
Some angles don't understand that number was the peak, the numbers were less prior to that date & less after that date.
These same anglers believe since those numbers are down since that year plus the fact Toledo Bend was voted #1 two years in a row bringing a huge influx of anglers has destroyed the lake's population of bass.
These anglers believe every single bass of 8 lbs plus has been caught & removed from the lake!
Like myself & @WRB mentioned lakes especially reservoirs experience peaks & valleys.
Prior to 2015-2016 the big bass were there & they are still there now we just aint catching them!
I totally agree with the lake peaks and valleys.
our local claim to bass fishing fame was Perry reservoir here in northeastern Kansas. a few years back it was mentioned in Bassmaster as a destination for bass. it was hit hard for a few years. then unfortunately a bass virus decimated the lake. It is now on the rebound.
while it is no longer at its peak, several tournaments there in the last 2 year took a 5 fish limit of 25-30 lbs to win.
that is a big bag of fish in Kansas.
Many locals will still will not fish it, they say there are no bass there.
hawgenvy reply :
On 3/24/2018 at 5:40 AM, Gundog said:Its the meta-phasic shielding that is causing the problem. If the harmonizer is quadradic then you need to overpeak the pasmat.
They're working on it:
Gundog reply :
On 3/25/2018 at 12:11 PM, hawgenvy said:They're working on it:
Where do they put the hooks on that thing? Looks like MegaBass has some competition.
Stropp reply :
Old topic... of my 35 years on Toledo Bend Reservoir... the fishing is at its absolute worst. Talked a biologist and he said the number one reason it is down is harvesting. 70% of all bass caught are harvested. Louisiana side has low numbers because they seem to keep everything they catch. Lot of pressure! Lots of tournaments, lots of pulling bass off beds during the spawn.
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