Toledo Bend, from Captain Scooby at Mudfish Adventures | Lifestyle

Toledo Bend, from Captain Scooby at Mudfish Adventures

FAIR. Water stained; 71-74 degrees; 4.59 feet low. The water level is 167.4 with no generators running. Water temperature at the dam is 71-74-degrees with surface temperature around 73-degrees. With some wind and rain this week the back feeder creeks are stained and muddy, and the main lake remains clear. 

There are two types of l schooling bass in the fall transition. One group will be shallow along the banks chasing and feeding on shad. Look for blue herons and white cranes feeding on baitfish and walking the bank, this will be nature’s visual key to the location of bass. 

The second group of bass will remain deep but will congregate into bigger schools. For the shallow bite use a topwater bait, such as spooks, buzz baits and pop-r’s, and 1/4 ounce or 3/8 ounce spinnerbaits in white, chartreuse, or black. To try something different, go back to the old single spin with a Colorado blade using silver for clear water and gold for muddy water. Squarebill crankbaits out to three feet in shad and perch imitation colors. 

For deeper bass, use a 1/2 to 3/4 ounce jigging spoon in silver with a white or yellow accent tail feather, or deep diving crankbaits in citrus shad and Tennessee shad colors. The jig bite will be coming on strong this week with the night temperatures dropping into the 40s, so the bass will start to put their feed bags on. Cast your jig to long tapering points that drop off into deep water. The best colors are black and blue, PB&J football jigs ⅜ – 3/4 ounce with a 3-inch matching color craw trailer, and a green pumpkin jig with the chunk style trailer dipped in chartreuse color. 

Crappie bite is picking up in 10-20 feet of water using small jigs and small minnows depending on the cloud cover. Bluegills are mixed in with the crappie in brush piles and some are now being caught under boathouses and docks. Catfish are holding in 10-20 feet of water, and migrating up into the feeder creeks. 

Another bass pattern, if you are using a 5-8 WT fly rod, use a topwater foam white or black wiggle fish and sometimes cast a Dahlberg Diver in yellow/black color with a floating line; strip slowly and stop, pause, strip again or you can cast a crease fly shad color imitation; strip, strip, pause. 

The cadence can change daily with the cooler temperatures. Some days fish want the fly fast across the surface like chasing down a shad and other days they want it dead, motionless on the surface. After the colder nights have passed, try a Clouser minnow and sub-surface streamer fly like a Black Wooly Booger.

 Now that the lake is at a winter drawdown, it is prime time to go scouting in feeder creeks, ditches, man-made structures, creek bends and undercuts for springtime fishing spots. Always leave the area better than you found it by picking up trash. Good luck and tight lines! Report from Master Captain Steve (Scooby) Stubbe, Mudfish Adventures LLC, Orvis Endorsed Fishing Guide, Mudfish Rod Shop, Kayak Sales, and Rod Repair