Basschamps headed to the RED RIVER

2017 Championship on the Red River! Looking forward to it!

Just saw it on their site. Love it. Can't wait.

Can't wait to see how that place has rebounded. Going to get over there at least a couple of weekends prior to the cutoff.

Red River South - Booked with 15 people on waiting list

Lake Bistineau State Park - All cabins booked

Any other way to avoid the casinos?

Glad to see Red River South back in business as they were recently up for auction.

I used VRBO and found a house 15 minutes from the ramp (Haughton) in a gated community on a golf course. I can tell you that in the past we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bossier City and they were awesome. I called ahead and told them we had boat and they hooked us up with places to park and charge each night we were there. The rooms are nice and not expensive. We got one of the suites so we had somewhere our traveling group could hang out together each night to watch some football.

anyone want to sell their RV spot let me know.

Matt

Bass Champs and the Red River is an awesome combination...

My favorite

Is this The same stretch of river that the fished before?

The river is nothing like it use to be. I would definitely try to plan a trip to look around at the sandbars that are now formed from the flood. As far as hotels the casinos are probably your best bet.

I'm interested to hear why people like this fishery?

Im so sick of this location... change it up some.

Back before the flood, the variety and sheer amount of different stuff to fish was awesome. It's very visually stimulating. I have no idea what it looks like now but would imagine some vegetation has come back in some areas. We will find out because we plan to scout at least 2-3 weekends before the cut off.

I think we had 1 major tournament on the river in the past 2 years and the grass just doesn't grow anymore. I personally don't mess with it anymore but I guess for someone out of town it may be cool. Most oxbows are extremely shallow making it a main river fishery now.

I thought it sucked before. Sounds terrible now.

SMH bass champs flushed this championship down the toilet. Idk why they can't stick to regular lakes..... instead they have picked rivers 4 years or somthing. Maybe I'm in the minority here but the red river stinks after fishing the Great Lakes we have here in Texas.

To be honest the way the River fishes now. It's not a cake walk to weigh sacks multiple days! Pretty smart honestly

Red River is a lot of fun when you figure it out for that day or time frame. Pay close attention to the lock times and water releases. We found the influx of moving water turned on the fish

IT SUCKS! I loved the river before it flooded, spent a lot of time on it before and could catch 10lbs t least every time on it, since flood I am lucky to catch 5 lbs a dy, the fish are just not there, there is fish still there but few and far between! Y'all will see!

So is the hydrilla and the hyacinth gone?

You just thought Sabine was tough.... at least you could go 4 different directions over 50 miles. I have a feeling the red will fish small

There is basically no vegetation on the river. Maybe one day it will come back but for now it is pretty pitiful.

It doesn't matter were any tournament trail goes people will always complain! If you don't want to fish it don't go but most people that complain don't even fish! I like it it's a challenge and a even playing field!

I do fish Champs and totally disagree with it being a level playing field. I'm 10 hours away from there. Many Toledo Bend guys are from the area of the tourney. They have a much greater chance of finding out about some little backwater that's holding fish. Now make it off limits and no info from now until official practice days and that will level playing field.

They could pick Falcon, Fork, Toledo Bend or Rayburn during their peaks and it still wouldn't make everyone happy.

You have to remember they stated all along they won't pick any body of water that any region has fished during that season so it pretty much takes 90% of the top lakes in Texas off the list. Then you have to have a lake large enough to host 300 boats where a chamber, city, etc are willing to pay to have Bass Champs come to town. Yes their goal is to make money.

So for lakes it really only leaves

Conroe (probably spent their budget on the Classic)
Lewisville (would have loved this pick but lots of guys from the South and East wouldn't show up)
Texoma (Again, hardly anyone outside of the North region would show)
Richland Chambers (this lake sucks in my opinion)
Ivie (no water)

So you only have 5 lakes all with big reasons to not have the championship there.

The Red River has always been a blast despite the fact that we've never done very well there from a fishing stand point. There's so much to do. We have a group of 3 teams that travel to the tourneys together and we love going to the Red because it's a blast. We thought the Sabine was the opposite because of the lack of cool places to stay and things to do around that area. Plus in my opinion I hated having to run 50 miles to find decent fish.

Anyways, really looking forward to the challenge on the Red. And I know we are going to have a great time as well. If it's not your cup of tea then stay home and make some videos.

It will be a challenge for sure and the team who wins will deserve it, and new guys might find something different that works, I just need to adapt too the changes, good luck guys and Thanks for choosing Shreveport

Don't you guys thru this every year?

Use that search button and save us all time.

I'm not fishing it but ivie would be a cool place to have it.