Toledo Bend March 4-9

Toledo Bend March 4-9

Not sure I want to write this one up. We were delayed starting for a couple of days. Instead of leaving for Memphis on Saturday, I left on Monday. And yes there was snow and ice on Monday. I waited until about 11:00 am to leave. Dodged a few icy spots but made it to Memphis OK and spent the night at my partner's home, Doyal Brown. As we prepared to leave Tuesday morning, there were reports of cars and trucks being stranded for 12 hours on I40 between West Memphis and Forest City, Arkansas. Since that was our route we had to change plans and go South down I55 to Jackson, MS the turn West. That worked great until a few miles East of Monroe, LA when we hit a two hour delay. Never knew why. Finally made it to Bridge Bay Cabins on Toledo Bend lake just in time for another cold front to arrive.

Phil and Maurice

Our cabin mates, Phil Robinson and Maurice Ladd, had arrived 2 days earlier. On Sunday afternoon they caught 9 bass in only 2 1/2 hours. Monday they caught 6 in about 2 hours when the cold drove them in. Doyal and and I laid on many layers of clothing on Wednesday and fished hard and caught 1 bass. Thursday more of the same, cold but at least the wind was not too bad. Doubled our catch, 2 bass. Friday's weather was a little bit better with some sunshine warming the water. We caught 7 and lost a few more. All were in the 2 1/2 - 3 lb range. Saturday's weather reverted back to heavy cloud cover and dozens of boats fishing in our area. We caught 4 bass today. Phil and Maurice had similar results to us if not worse, one day getting skunked. This was our worst week of fishing in years on this trip. We marked lots of fish but suspended and mostly unwilling to bite.

Doyal with a funky spinnerbait

But the disappointment was not over. One of the highlights of this trip is having boiled crawfish one night but the cold has limited supply so we missed. It will take Doyal weeks to recover. But we thought at least we could get some great Texas brisket at a BBQ joint that we like. Yep, it was temporarily closed for repairs. 

Headed back home on Saturday but at least no drama other than riding nearly 700 miles.

Me with one of the few