Toledo Bend Reservoir
TODAY www.tbrtoday.com FEBRUARY 2018
Complimentary Issue INSIDE
Texas Team Trail...................................................1, 6, 7 Tournament Schedule................................................2 TBLA................................................................................3 Country Roads & Fishing Holes.............................. 4 Texas Parks & Wildlife................................................5 TBLA Lunker Weigh Stations...................................5 Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries................................ 8 Bassin’ Facts & Trends................................................ 9 Fishing Report....................................................... 10, 15 Great Catches.........................................................11, 12 Lake Records...........................................................12, 13 Blooming on the Bend........................................ 14, 15 Toledo Bend Map................................................. 16, 17
Allen, Loetscher leverage winter conditions for Toledo Bend win in Texas Team Trail 2018 season opener By David A. Brown- Texas Team Trail
T
ournament victories require equal parts skill, execution and good fortune; other words, when things fall into place, you gotta know what to do with it all. That’s the fitting description for Harold Allen and Matthew Loetscher who won the season opener of the 2018 Texas Team Trail, presented by Cabela’s, at a Toledo Bend Reservoir. Sacking up a five-bass limit that weighed 28.74 pounds, the winning duo spent their day in the lake’s upper third and focused on sheer drops in the main lake. Plunging from 10 to 20 feet, these spots presented classic winter strongholds that provided fish positional options. “We fished spots that had some wood, not only on the bottom, but also hanging off the drop,” Allen said. “Right now, the fish are either going to be right on top of the drop, or where it eases off. If you can find some cover off the side of the ledge, that’s even better. Some of our fish were right on top of the ledge and some of them halfway down the sides of the drops.” Allen committed his day to a 3/4-ounce black/blue Santone jig with a Junebug craw trailer, while Loetscher used a 3/4-ounce brown Stanley jig with a green pumpkin Cajun Lures craw trailer. Their strategy involved feeling around for hard cover and then surgically picking it apart.
Photo courtesy of Texas Team Trail Harold Allen and Matthew Loetscher won first place in the season opener of the 2018 Texas Team Trail bringing in 28.74 lbs. “We would work our baits fairly fast until we hit some type of structure and then we tried to bump that structure several times,” Allen said. “When you bumped it or pulled your bait over, you’d kill the bait and let it go right down in there. That was the deal — working hard, slow and thor-
ough. “Color didn’t seem to matter; the main thing was size. The wind was so bad, we needed a pretty heavy jig to get into the cover and stay in it.” With the morning take-off bringing temperatures in the 20’s, Loetscher
said they were shaking and bumping their rods to clear their guides of ice accumulations. Frosty conditions lingered most of the day and with lake temperatures in the mid-40s winter’s grip remained apparent. See Texas Team Trail, page 6