Montgomery Hoping To Stay In Classic Competition With Good Finish In Elite Series On Toledo Bend
Toledo Bend Reservoir has been good to Andy Montgomery in the two previous major tournaments he has fished there and he is hoping the pattern holds true for the fifth Bassmaster Elite Series tournament of the year next week.
A lot is at stake, more than just making a check in the 2012 Elite Series Toledo Bend Battle, the Blacksburg, S.C., angler said. He has a second straight Bassmaster Classic invite in sight and a good finish at Toledo Bend would go a long way to securing that spot in the BASS Championship.
Ironically, he finished 36th in the 2011 Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta this past February and he is ranked 36th in the Angler of the Year points at this stage of the season, having collected a check in all but one of the Elite tournaments so far.
“I am on the bubble right now since they probably will take 36, so I have to at least maintain at Toledo Bend,” he said. “I need a pretty good finish.”
So far he’s had two better than “pretty good” finishes on the giant reservoir on the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana. With 185,000 acres, Toledo Bend is the largest man-made body of water in or partially in Texas, the largest in the South, and the fifth largest in surface acreage in the United States.
“There are so many things you can do on that lake, so many different ways you can catch them, and it is so big is kind of spreads the field out a little bit. You can flip grass shallow, you can fish the deep grass, and you can fish the deep ledges. There are all kinds of things you can do,” Montgomery said. “It’s a good place to hold a tournament, but the only downfall is that it can get really rough. There is a lot of standing timber and that can be aggravating to be around if the wind gets up.”
In two previous trips to the lake, Montgomery finished second in a Professional Anglers Association tournament about three years ago and he notched a sixth place finish in the 2011 Elite Series Trokar Battle on the Bayou there in April 2011.
“Both times I could catch fish shallow and I guess that was the reason I did pretty well in those tournaments,” said Montgomery who leaves Saturday to practice on the lake before the tournament begins. “But, I don’t know about this time with us going in June. I expect it is going to be more of a deep water tournament.”
That said, Montgomery said there will still be some fish shallow and he hopes to capitalize on those fish before looking for more bass out deep.
“When I get there I’ll probably start out fishing shallow and hopefully put something together shallow so I will know I can catch some fish doing that. Then I will try to find some fish out deep, try to find a big school of fish where you can catch a lot in one place.”
Bassmaster Elite Series
Jun 7-10, 2012
Toledo Bend Reservoir
Cypress Bend Park
