POTTSBORO, Texas – The Texas Team Trail continues its ascension north for the fourth and final qualifier of the 2017 season, presented by Cabela’s. The host fishery, Lake Texoma, is a 90,000-acre impoundment of the Red River that straddles the Texas-Oklahoma border. April is typically primetime on Texoma as there are bass in all three stages. However, changing water levels and deteriorating clarity have the potential to put the fish in a funk.

Presently, Texoma sits it 614.8 feet, which is more than 2 feet below full pool. Earlier in the week the lake was dropping, but recent storms have produced an influx of water that has the lake back on the rise. This yo-yoing has turned the bass skittish and may prevent the last wave from spawning. Even under ideal conditions, sight-fishing on Texoma can be difficult as the fish tend to build deeper nests.

“When they get on beds at Texoma, it’s staggered and they only bed in certain areas,” explained Cabela’s pro Jeff Reynolds. “They don’t all spawn all over the lake at the same time. It’s tough to win sight-fishing because there’s just too many people in one area and not enough fish to go around. Plus, with all the rain, it could be too dirty to sight-fish in some areas. Right now, the lake is coming up quite a bit, so it’s changing a lot.”

With bass in all three phases, Reynolds believes Texoma will fish wide open.

“The timing for the tournament is just about perfect. With so much going on, the lake will fish bigger than it normally does.”

Last year, winners Jeff Jerome and Darrell Copeland ignored the spawning bass and instead focused on spawning shad. With cloudy weather in their favor, Jerome and Copeland targeted ultra-shallow largemouths that were feeding at the all-you-can-eat shad buffet.

The only issue with the shad spawn is that it’s unpredictable. Texoma possesses a ton of shad, but the timing must be right. Typically, most of the activity takes place at first light after a warm, late-spring evening. To illustrate the fragile nature of the bite, a subtle change in wind can be enough to shut it down completely.

Other popular patterns will include targeting isolated cover, such as lay-downs, and rocky points.

“The lake is not going to be high enough to be in the willows or anything like that,” added Reynolds. “Besides that, it could be won just about any way you can fish.”

Reynolds, who sits second in the Lucas Oil Team of the Year race with partner Johnny Thompson, believes Carolina rigs, spinnerbaits, jigs, squarebills, umbrella rigs and possibly even topwaters will prove effective.

“Every one of them will come into play, but especially Carolina rigs, jigs and squarebills,” he said. “To win, it’s probably going to take 21 or 22 pounds. To get in the money, you’ll need around 13 or 14 pounds. The wind is the big factor. It can get really rough on Texoma and when that happens, it can really bunch the field up.”

Leading the Team of the Year race with 851 points is the team of Kyle Rowe and Ted Pate. Rowe and Pate were contending for TOY last year as well, until a stumble at Texoma took them out of the running.

“Last year we practiced the week before the tournament and it was unreal,” recalled Pate. “We had like 26 pounds the first day and 21 pounds the next. On the day of the tournament it was so windy we couldn’t fish the one place we wanted to fish. We had a pattern we thought we could duplicate at other places and we were wrong.”

Rowe and Pate both have significant experience on Texoma, having fished it for roughly 20 years.

“At first, it took some time to get used to it, but now we kind of like it,” added Rowe. “We’re definitely comfortable with Texoma. It’s kind of like Belton; it’s something different.”

While Texoma possesses a healthy population of smallmouths, Rowe and Pate plan to target largemouths, with no plans of fishing conservatively.

“Largemouths are how you win on that lake,” Pate said. “We’re going to fish to win, just like we always do.”

“Our mentality is never to just try and catch five fish,” said Rowe. “We’re shooting to win Team of the Year, but we won’t change the way we fish because of it. We’re always trying to win the tournament. That’s not easy, but that’s always what we’re trying to do.

“This isn’t about redemption for not winning Team of the Year last year. But it is about redemption on Texoma. We just did so badly last year and this is not normally a lake we do bad on. It can be a tricky lake when it gets windy. It’s a lake you need to run and gun on to hit several spots. It’s not uncommon to run to entirely different creek arms just to fish a couple isolated spots.”

“It’s good to be leading,” concluded Pate. “But there’s a lot fishing left to be done. We’ll be a lot happier if our names are on top after Palestine.”

Teams will take off at safe light from Highpoint Marina, located at 120 Texoma Harbor Dr. in Pottsboro. The weigh-in will also take place at the marina, beginning at 3 p.m.

The Texas Team Trail consists of four regular-season events and a year-end championship. Each regular season event is a one-day team tournament and delivers 100 percent payback, including a fully-rigged 18-foot, 150-horsepower bass boat guaranteed as the first-place prize.

Registration is ongoing for the Lake Texoma event and can be taken over the phone at 210-788-4143 or online by visiting www.texasteamtrail.com/tournaments/register/. For more information on rules and tournament payouts, visit www.texasteamtrail.com.