We were supposed to go to NM but illness in the family made us change plans. Wife and I had never been to Caddo and have wanted to go a long time. We figured it would be a great getaway. Got online and found cabins relatively cheap so we ended up getting basically a whole house right off the water. Total bill was cheaper than staying at a Best Western. Other than that I did zero research on the lake as I wanted to figure it out on my own terms. I knew it was a shallow lake with tons of wood and grass.
Had an easy drive to Uncertain from Fork that was less than 2hrs even though we took our time. Along the way we stopped at Riverport BBQ in Jefferson and let me tell it was damn good. Incredible brisket. So good we got some to go for the next day as well. Jefferson is gonna end up being a trip all its own soon. VERY cool place. Here is a report of sorts on the trip.

Day 1-
We got checked in and on the water late that afternoon. Pictures do not do this [place justice at all. Simple beautiful beyond words. We stayed at Moon Glow Lodge in the Mossy Brake area of the river and put in at Shady Glade Marina nearby. I knew going in I could not get side tracked by all the visible cover and needed to focus on high percentage areas like channel swings etc. I could not find a paper map on my way down so I just used what I had on my map chip. We stayed on the river and right away I started throwing a Spro Bronze Eye 65 in natural frog. Just a great all around color that works everywhere. I targeted some pads and matted grass with no luck. Decided to start throwing around the cypress trees that had vegetation around them in the same area. Channel swings etc basically. That was the ticket. Had 5 bites in the 1 1/2hrs I fished. I noticed that all bites also came near a clean edge of the vegetation. By that I mean it had to stop and not have any small clumps etc out off the edge. It was like they wanted a clean overhead type of cover they could get in and out of fast. I did notice though they were barely hooked so i knew if that was the case the next day I needed to change something up.

Day 2-
Got on the water around 8:30AM as the wife was coming down with a stomach bug and was not doing well. I knew I had fish up the river a bit along the trees from the evening before but had a gut instinct to start near the ramp and work my way up to the Big Cypress area. Grabbed the same frog again and took less than 10 casts before I had a solid fish in the boat. It was barely hooked though so I knew I had to start letting them have it a bit longer before I set the hook. I started getting bit regularly basically targeting channel swings and more of the vegetation with a clean edge. I was keeping the boat in 3-5' of water throwing up into 1-2'. Caught about 15 or so doing that until the action slowed just after lunch. By then the wife was feeling better so I met her at the dock of our cabin and she got in the boat. I experimented with different color and brands of frogs as well as a popping frog but no luck. Threw some weightless plastics as well as punched and flipped a bit. Only non frog bite I got came on a 4" Megabass Bottle Shrimp in black/blue. It came about midway through Government Ditch. I covered a ton of water including a run down into the big lake. I was not feeling it and besides I knew where I had some fish found so I ran back up to the Mossy area and finished the day with 10 or so more frog bites. I was just basically picking part the channel swings that had the edges they seemed to like. Had a few off the pads as well including one fish that blew up on the bottom of the pad and knocked the frog into the water. It was a sight to see. Finished with 25 or so fish. Nothing really big but some solid, chunky fish that fought like crazy. Best part was I missed maybe only 2 bites all day on the frog so I can't complain about those numbers. Only downside was the wife was getting sick again and she was not enjoying the trip like she wanted to.

Day 3-
Repeat of the morning before. Wife was sick as a dog this AM and got on water late to spend time making sure she was OK. Since I only had an hour or so to fish before we had to head home I started near the ramp again. Differences today was a couple of boats in the area and lack of any breeze at all. First 2 days we had a light breeze each trip out but it was glass calm today. Baitfish were not as active and the wildlife was not moving around like the 2 days before. Bite was slower but I scraped up 3 frog fish. Same deal. Had to wait to let them really take it but it was still fun. Had I had more time today I would have committed to fishing tighter to cover and really focused on punching and flipping. The lack of wind and bright skies had them tighter to cover and deeper in the grass I think. I would have slowed way down and tried to get some bites that way I think. Still had a hell of a good time though.

In closing I will add this lake will be one I start going to on a regular basis. I loved everything about it. The lake itself, the way it fishes and the people in the area are some of the nicest and friendliest you will find. I will be going back in a couple of weeks. i think as soon as we start getting some fronts it will push the fish into the pads better and the frog bite will be ff the hook. I felt like any cast was gonna get me a good one though and again it was an amazing place. If you ain't been I cannot reccomend it enough. For a hack like me to find fish there anyone can do it.

Nice, i have been once and only got to fish 1 day. I need to make a trip up there.

I love that lake. Its nice I am so close. Love fishing it.

Don't shame me for the pictures of the peanut fish.....I never really got a big bite.

Good pics

I haven't caught huge ones either but they are fat and fight like bigger fish.

they are a special kind of mean.


The weird thing is I saw no gators or snakes at all.

It's the greatest place on Earth.

Looks awesome Mark!

Can't wait for Toledo Bend on Friday though. Good times, good friends and good fishing.

You and I are hitting Caddo soon as well. Got Chris talked into it. We need a group to go down there and enjoy the bite before it gets cold.

I love Caddo.

Congratulations on your trip !!!
I used to fish Caddo every day... It's the prettiest lake I've ever been lucky enough to fish...
I was fishing it 1 time and getting very few bites on the trees in about 3 ft of water using a green pumpkin lizard texas rigged. Then for some reason I put on a texas rig sinker that screwed into the head of your bait, WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE !!! I was getting bit almost every cast after that. Never would have thought that little change would have made such a difference but it did!!!!
That's also where I learned to fish a jig and a fluke. Went out different days and 1 day took nothing but jigs and another day nothing but flukes.... learned alot those 2 days.

Mark, can I please live vicariously through you? Glad you had a great time, that looks awesome. Hope the Mrs. is felling better.

I still have an old paper map I bought at Johnsons Ranch 20 yrs ago. It's easy to see before modern gps units how easy it would be to get lost! Lake always had a few pike for a bonus!