Toledo Bend is a good as it ever was. People who say it isn't are not looking at other factors. One the spawn was very early this year. People who are looking for bedding fish in March will find a few, but most are gone. I caught fish off of the beds the first week in Feb. Second the wind has played havoc with the lake this year. I retired this year was on the lake for most of Feb. and 2 wks. in march. In one 10 day period I was able to get out and run the lake 3 times. The rest of those days I had to trailer to where I wanted to fish. I own a 21 ft. bass boat. Second the lake came up 2 ft. in one week during the early spawn. This put the beds in about 5 ft. of water. Deeper than most people look or can see.

Also the rapid early rise put the grass bed growth a little behind; but I can still find grass in many areas of the lake.

Bass Champs had a great tournament as noted above and this was on a day with 20+ mph winds. Toledo Bend is fine. Just need to have the wind settle so you can fish it.

Except Lake Livingston

Very good and informative post and probably spot on.

Politically correct or not, this is simply the truth. It's a cultural thing. My mom wasn't from Louisiana, but she was part of the same culture, older people in her case. It made her furious that I threw back all the bass I caught. "It's a **** shame for a man to catch as many fish as you do and throw them back. We always ate everything we caught!"

...Wait a Minute ......
??? Killed Toledo Bend ???
you are talking about a lake where in a recent Bass Champs event it took:
*** 18 pounds plus to get the 41st check
*** 20+ pound bags counted 23
*** 30+ pound bags = 2
& you are discussing "pressure" killing the lake.

Just go fish in the right places & use the right baits.......you will catch fish

I started crappie fishing with my grandparents when I was 5 years old. If it was legal, it was going in the ice chest. We did not practice catch and release.

Funny story:

When I was younger, I remember seeing an older lady fishing from the bank sitting on a 5 gallon bucket. She was using a cane pole with worms for bait. She was catching very small bream and would throw each one in the 5 gallon bucket. I walked over to her and asked her if she was planning to eat those small fish and she said, "son, peas is little and you eat peas don't cha".

I do agree it's somewhat of a culture thing and an age thing. My grandparents suffered through the depression and told me they were so poor they didn't even know there was a depression. :-) They didn't waste anything.

When one of the top money winners on Toledo Bend that also live on Toledo Bend tells you to go to Rayburn there's something to it. Then when you have three not so good days on the bend they get to laugh and say I told you so, should've gone to Rayburn. This coming from someone who does not have a business on the lake that depends on fisherman continuing to come to the lake. Is it dead? not hardly but it has started a downward turn. There will still be good tournament bags caught, someone always finds them, it's just not as enjoyable to fun fish right now IMHO. The lake fished better for us last year when it was completely flooded and all the gates were open releasing record amounts of water. This makes two times a ignored my friend that lives on Toledo Bend who told me to go to Rayburn instead of the bend, both times when it was all said and done I wish I had listened. Just to clarify, I'm not talking about site fishing, I'm talking about overall catching

All game was much more plentiful years ago. Bird hunters that still shoot at a covey of quail running on the ground cause there grandfather did it in the 40s when there were 500 bird coveys are ding dongs

I have a buddy that was there three or four weeks ago.
He told me that he's never going back.

So, there's one less.

Here is how folks from Louisiana take pictures of their fish.




J/K---kinda

....by all accounts..... one day there will be no more Natural resources at all.
just ask Al Gore !!!

Torpedo Bend dead? (Insert laugh here.) You would need a perspective to use in comparison to judge if TB is dead. One is close at hand. You wanna see what fishing pressure does to kill a lake? Go fish Rayburn. After fishing it since 1969 I quit bass fishing it a few years ago, preferring its crappie now. It survives only on its reputation it gained in the late 60s-70s. Starting in the late 80's the local Chamber of Commerce recognized the merchantability this public resource. They assisted businesses to market its attraction, they increasingly whored-out it out for the sake of commerce, the over-commercialization of the sport of fishing for the sake of maximizing profits for the few. That is just what local businesses do, and I understand that.

And tournament fishing bears some blame too. (Let my lynching begin.) If you disagree you are delusional, you weren't there to know it in its better days, and you are letting your pride and knee-jerk defense of our favorite sport override your common sense...and the truth. Witness: the construction of Umphrey Pavilion and Cassell-Boykin Pavilion, built only for the purpose of attracting tournaments. I don't know of any other function that regularly uses them, do you? You don't have to admit it here in public forum, but when you lay your head on your pillow at night you know this is true. Sorry to offend you tournament anglers, but I was there all these years, I fished these tournaments, and I witnessed the fishing drop proportionally to the increase in fishing pressure, pressure brought on in no small part by the multiple weekend tournaments, week in and week out. To be fair, yes, all fishing pressure has increased. Incessant pressure of all types. An inconvenient and unpopular truth, but the truth never the less. I am there regularly, on the boat ramps, sharing, when asked, my knowledge of the lake with out of town anglers, most of whom having been attracted there for a tournament. Camping beside them I see many come back disappointed because the lake did not live up to its vacated reputation. Best thing that has happened to Rayburn was the economic downturn of 2006-2012. The lower pressure of that period helped it bounce back, but only a little.

In contrast, Torpedo Bend on its way out? Never. Vast water, fully 71,000 more acres, almost 40% bigger than Rayburn, 500 miles more shoreline than Rayburn. A lake that you cannot see most of because of the curvature of the earth! Ride out to the main lake, cut your motor and survey the horizon: From the mouth of Six Mile you can see at least four bays over there on the LA horizon, each of which big enough that a man could fish but one of them for the rest of his life and never unlock all of its secrets, never fully figure one out. TBend is a fishery that could be devastated by a natural tragedy in the future, but probably not by fishing pressure, and that includes tournaments. It too may not be the lake it was back in the 70s, but it is much more fishing pressure-proof. It still has fish in it that have never seen a lure, and never will.

This is correct! I can't tell you how many times I laugh at boats on lakes that are up against the bank all the time. Granted, you will get lucky and find fish from time to time, but typically not of any size, unless it is during spawn. But it is comical to see boats sitting in about 3-4' of water, and casting, flipping, pitching, into water that is 18" or even less....many times when they can see the bottom, and thinking they are going to catch something. Then when they don't, oh this lake sucks.

Hey, stay on the bank, there are plenty of fish behind you in the deep water and bigger fish. Toledo is just like any other lake, some days are better than others, and most fish live in deeper water than just staying on the bank.

Simple harvest surveys show 70% retain on keepers from Toledo and 25% on Rayburn. I never see anyone release fish on Toledo, I never see anyone keep bass on Rayburn. It's literally 2 different worlds right now and the tell tell signs of a decline are clear there. If anyone doesn't see that they are living under one helluva rock...