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Sam Rayburn nor Toledo Bend needs any
introduction, as the legendary bass potential of both is
undiminished, despite their having been impounded many years
ago. Lake Livingston, however, doesn't get much press for
its bass fishing.
Lakes all around East Texas are harboring big bass these
days, but some have developed distinctive reputations for
producing the big bite more often than have others.
SAM RAYBURN
The best thing going for Rayburn bass fishing this month is
targeting big schools of shad that gang up on the main lake
and in the mouths of deep creeks.
Oftentimes the bass will lurk around logjams and structure
that is located just under the shad, and so they can be hard
to locate on electronics. My best advice is to locate the
shad and the bass will usually follow." Sam Rayburn has
got all the assets of a model bass fishery: great habitat,
Florida bass, erratic contours, restrictive regulations.
Lump all those together in a 114,000-acre expanse of water
that's fed by two major rivers and countless creek channels
and phenomenal bass fishing can't help but follow.
A Carolina-rigged watermelon or pumpkin/chartreuse lizard
also would be a good choice. Svebek suggests dragging it
alongside grass lines and on brushy points.
It's best to locate the shad and put out a
marker buoy. You may put out as many as half a dozen buoys
before fishing, so you have plenty of spots to hit. For best
results, use a 1/3- to 1/2-ounce spoon on a 2-foot leader
attached to 15-pound-test Stren Sensor.
Simply lower the bait into the bass' zone, work the bait up
and down, and hold on and wait for a hit. If you're not bit
within a few minutes, move. It usually doesn't take long to
find them when they're actively feeding.
"The key is that bass are concentrated during winter," he
said. "If an angler were to wander aimlessly on a big
reservoir like Rayburn, Toledo Bend or Choke Canyon, he
would likely come home empty-handed, or close to it. But by
looking for large concentrations of fish in a small area,
the opposite can be true. You can have the trip of a
lifetime."
TOLEDO BEND
Toledo Bend is an interesting body of water. The largest
reservoir wholly within the state
Look for shad bunched up around the secondary points and
start fishing a crank bait like a Bomber 9A with a slow
retrieve. If you find fish and they're active, switch to
something like a Rat-L-Trap and boost the retrieve. I took
my wife Lisa there last year, and while she is no fan of
bass fishing, we had quite the time catching bass on
Rat-L-Traps on a point just north of the Indian Mounds.
On Toledo Bend, the shad are sometimes spread along the
shorelines, stacked horizontally instead of vertically. If
that's the situation, the bass can be scattered as well, so
try trolling. Use the Bomber 9A or a 1-ounce Rat-L-Trap
trolled at a slow pace. If you catch a fish, throw over a
marker buoy and hit that spot again.
LAKE LIVINGSTON
I'm convinced that Livingston is the most overlooked body of
water in East Texas when it comes to bass fishing.
fishing a jig, or jig-and-pork combo like the new Scorpion
jig, at an absolute snail's pace, anglers can increase their
odds of catching a nice bass. We have already mentioned that
the metabolism of a bass is very slow in winter, but so are
the metabolisms of their prey. A jig imitates a crawfish,
but don't think for a second that a crawfish is any livelier
than its predators.
Some guys would take a top water and pop it all over the
place and catch nothing," Holder confided. "But those who
popped a bait once, let it sit there for awhile and then
popped it again did well."
Another technique that can aid anglers on Livingston is
called "dead-worming." Years ago, that was a popular method,
but its popularity seems to have faded.
Dead worming consists of fishing a Texas-rigged worm by
throwing it out, letting it sit in one spot for maybe 10
seconds and then moving it a few feet and repeating the
process. Anglers developed the technique for scoring on
finicky bedding bass, but it can produce lazy winter bass as
well, and has been especially productive on the lake the
past few years. |
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