MANY, La. – With the distinction of being named the best black bass fishery in the country for two consecutive years, Toledo Bend has experienced an unprecedented amount of angling pressure. Truth be told, the pressure has started to have a detrimental effect on the fishing. To avoid the crowd, local sticks Philip Crelia and TJ Goodwyn backed away from the bank and targeted prespawn bass. Not only were there less boats to compete with, but the bass were fat, heathy and eager to cooperate.

For years, Crelia and Goodwyn were known as shallow-water sticks. More recently, they’ve become students of the offshore game.

“We’ve really worked and worked at getting better out deep,” said Crelia. “It’s hard to find them offshore, but when you do you have a chance at winning. When you fish shallow, you’re sort of rolling the dice on size. Offshore you can find the right size.”

Crelia and Goodwyn also believed most of the 312 teams competing in the Texas Team Trail event were rushing the spawn.

“I know there’s fish up there and there’s a bunch of females about to burst,” Crelia added. “But there’s also a bunch of staging spots that are loaded with fish. That’s what we did. We basically ran a milk run of staging spots; we were catching them in the mid-point.”

While Crelia and Goodwyn sampled 10 or 12 spots, they did most of their damage on three, all of which are located on the lake’s northern end.

“We live up on the north end of the lake so we went back to where we feel comfortable.”

While they had a limit early, it wasn’t until 11:45 a.m. that their day transformed from good to great. Visiting a hard-bottomed spot that’s always held potential, Crelia and Goodwyn caught giants on three consecutive casts.

“The first one was our big bass, a 7 3/4, then we caught a 7 1/2 and then we caught a 6 3/4. It completely turned our day around.”

Crelia described the area as bare, hard bottomed, and about the size of a boat.

“I’ve known about it for a couple years, but I’ve never really caught them that well there. We drove by it yesterday in practice, made one cast and caught an 8-pounder. But we thought that was more of a fluke than anything.”

Crelia and Goodwyn used Carolina-rigged Strike King lizards (green pumpkin, watermelon) and 5/8-ounce Strike King Structure jigs with Rage Craw trailers (watermelon red). While both produced fish, the lizards worked best – accounting for four of the five weigh fish. These baits were presented in anywhere from 8 out to 20 feet of water on the aforementioned hard bottoms, channel swings and secondary points.

“We were solely targeting prespawn fish,” reiterated Crelia.

Crelia and Goodwyn’s official weight was 30.09 pounds, which earned them a Triton 189TRX with a 225-horsepower Mercury outboard. Combined with $3,105 of Anglers Advantage cash, their total prize package was $38,600.

“Everything went right today. We didn’t lose but one fish. I’m a mechanic and I was worried we were having motor problems so after we caught the three big ones we took it easy and stayed close just in case. After weigh-in, our lower unit came off on the way to get the trailer. Talk about good timing.

“It’s good to be back winning. We’ve been so close lately; somebody catches one giant and beats us. Even today we felt we needed one more cull – one more 6- or 7-pounder. It feels great and it couldn’t come at a better time for us both. It gets our confidence back. The Texas Team Trail is just so hard to win because it’s such a stout field.”

Gibbs and Rutherford runners up

Mike Gibbs and Dennis Rutherford finished second with a five-bass limit weighing 27.97 pounds. The two started the day fishing shallow before making the adjustment to head deep and drag a football jig. Making a 5-mile run, the two focused their efforts on the mid-lake region.

“We went to the spots where they should have been,” said Gibbs. “We caught six fish shallow on a fluke with a split shot. But only one had any size. After about an hour and a half, we decided we had to make a move.”

Gibbs and Rutherford backed off and targeted main points on the edge of creeks in 16 to 18 feet.

“We hit seven different points – two were really key. One had a rocky, pebbly bottom and the other was sand and shells. They were stacked up in there, right on the drops.”

Gibbs employed a 5/8-ounce jig with a trimmed Pit Boss (green pumpkin) as a trailer. Even after taking second out deep, Gibbs was still surprised more fish weren’t caught shallow.

“Everyone was expecting them to be shallow, and they should be. The water is 64 degrees in some places.”

For second place, Gibbs and Rutherford earned a total paycheck of $10,327.

“I feel really good about second. I figured we’d be in the top 10, but I wouldn’t have guessed second.”

Fountain and Glende third

Clint Fountain and Robert Glende took third place with a 25.67-pound stringer, earning $6,750. Fountain and Glende also dialed into a productive prespawn pattern.

“We caught them all on drains in 12 to 18 foot of water,” said Fountain. “We had five or six different spots and we just moved around – back and forth.”

Fountain explained that these drains were littered with natural lay-downs and stumps. The prespawn bass were pulled up right beside the stumps and in between the lay-downs ambushing baitfish. The two exclusively used a 3/4-ounce football jig with a Yamamoto twin-tail grub (green pumpkin).

While they were happy with third, they believe they received the bites to win.

“We didn’t fish clean today. We had a couple 3-pounders in our bag that we easily could have culled with a 5-pounder and a 6-pounder that we lost at the boat. I believe if we’d have had those, we’d have won.”

Matsubu-Mire fourth, Mong-Mong fifth

In fourth place with 25.37 pounds was Sam Rayburn champions Ben Matsubu and Brannon Mire, who earned $5,440. Behind them was the father and son team of David Mong and Derek Mong, who earned $4,100, with 24.55 pounds. Both teams brought five-bass limits to the scale.

 

Big fish honors went to Nicholas Albus and Jim Guzman, who caught a 10.58-pound largemouth. That fish alone earned them $1,560.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 teams at the 2017 Texas Team Trail event on Toledo Bend:

6th: Myron Beachy and Joe Mann, 23.64

7th: Larry Fitts and James Dutton, 23.50

8th: Jason Conn and Robert Brock Jr., 23.03

9th: Cole Temple and Tyler Bradfield, 22.83

10th: Stephen Johnston and Dan Wilson, 21.93

Up next

The third qualifier of the 2017 Texas Team Trail season is slated for April 1 on Belton Lake.