Matching any other Louisiana lake against monster-sized Toledo Bend doesn’t seem fair. 2 – D’Arbonne’s slabs put it in championship finals If you want to line up a trip or get the latest Toledo Bend report, get in touch with Terry at or visit /gallery.asp The shad gather there and the crappie follow. When they hit those areas, there is nothing better to catch them with than Road Runner lures in white or chartreuse colors.Īs the year warms up, the fish head to tops, many of which are placed by anglers like Terry. Again, the best cover is grass beds with clear spots in them for the crappie to spawn. You can also catch them all the way up to 2 feet deep around the shorelines and cover there. (The Bend is the only lake in Louisiana where that depth of water would be considered shallow.) But the norm is for the fish to begin to move in to spawn when the water temperatures reach the 60s.Īt Toledo Bend, the best places to start looking are in water as deep as 10 to 12 feet if there’s good grass. Some fish apparently don’t ever move shallow, and are caught around the river channels all spring long. Terry also likes to fish Bobby Garland jigs in monkey milk, electric chicken and Cajun grasshopper.īecause of the sheer number of crappie on the lake, you can catch fish starting to head into shallower water at different times of the spring. There are lots of baits that work, but it’s hard to beat shiners. When those conditions line up, you’ve just got to locate the schools of crappie on your electronics and get the bait down to them. Two things Terry keys on are water surface temperatures around 55 degrees (which mean it’s much colder 20 feet down), and a stable water level around 186 to 187 feet. “Everybody knows about the Chicken Coop, and when the weather, the water level and the temperatures line up, you can walk from boat to boat in there for several weeks,” he said. Therefore, Terry says, the numbers of fish that gather in the channels is more concentrated than on the south end - where there is much more deeper water to choose from. There is not as much deep water on the north end of the reservoir as there is the south end. The coldest weather of the year drives fish to congregate over structure or schools of shad in the deeper waters of Toledo Bend, in areas like the Chicken Coop north of Pendleton Bridge. You certainly see that all over the lake in the spring during the spawn.” And when certain areas like the Chicken Coop line up, it’s just amazing how many fishermen are out there catching how many fish. “That’s why I can say unequivocally that Toledo Bend is the best crappie fishing lake in the state, maybe anywhere,” Terry says. They caught many, many more - so you do the math. In 2017, he made 230 guided trips - and he and his clients brought home an average of 40-plus fish each trip. While he’s only been a full-time guide on the big 190,000-acre reservoir on the Louisiana-Texas border for two years, he’s a veteran of crappie fishing the Bend for much of his life. Terry’s home is in New Orleans, but he “lives” on Toledo Bend pretty much from February through the end of October. Probably not too many - but Ed Terry could. How many anglers could look you in the eye and say, “I probably caught 10,000 crappie last year.” 1 – For sheer numbers, Toledo Bend takes the title So let the discussing (and cussing) and, of course, the fishing begin …. The results are in, and we picked the Top 5 Louisiana crappie lakes in the state. Our committee considered credentials, strength of creel, results in head-to-head competition and overall performance. Lifespan averages 9 years.But now it’s time to discuss another type of Bayou State CFP: The Crappie Fishing Playoffs. Young crappie feed on plankton juveniles and adults feed on small fishes and invertebrates including shad, minnows, aquatic insects, crawfish, and freshwater shrimp. After releasing eggs, females return to deeper waters and males guard the nests. Females may produce and deposit eggs several times during the spawning season and mate with several males. Their coloring becomes vivid to attract females to the nests for mating. Males seek out nesting sites with firm bottoms in shoreline areas with depths of 1 to 6 feet. Behaviorīegin to spawn in February in south Louisiana and in April in north Louisiana when water temperatures reach 60 to 65☏. Found near vegetation and woody debris in shallow water during spawning season. Prefer clearer, moving water than white crappie. Found in open freshwater with submerged timber or aquatic vegetation in standing waterbodies and slowly flowing backwaters of medium to large rivers. Native throughout the southeastern United States also stocked in the northeastern United States and Canada.
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