MANY, La– At one point in his life, Darold Gleason was spending 200 or more days on his home lake of Toledo Bend. The Many, La native built a successful guide business on the famed fishery, helping many anglers achieve their best days on the water and catch their personal best largemouth.
But since qualifying for the Bassmaster Elite Series, an achievement that wouldn’t have been possible without winning the 2019 Bassmaster Open in his hometown, Gleason has spent very little time on the lake that shaped his career.
“Since I won the Open in 2019, I have fished one tournament here in 2020 and that was a Toyota Series,” he explained. “Life has us on the road so much, I have had to cut back on my guide trips. I have only guided 10 to 20 days a year since then.”
The St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Toledo Bend is the first tournament Gleason will fish in his backyard since that 2020 event. He knows the lake like the back of his hand and he has practiced some of the areas he has had much of his success.
But this week, Gleason said there have been emotions running through his head he hasn’t experienced yet on the tournament trail.
“I have never felt this way. My wife and I have talked about this a lot and she is trying to pray me through it. This is the first time I have let my (high) expectations get to me,” he explained. “It is my home lake, how do you not have those expectations? I have practiced hero-style. I am already on the Elites, I’m not fishing for points. I want to win and make the Classic. I pushed that too hard and as anglers that is something you fight. A lot of times you have your best tournaments when you are just fishing the conditions, figuring out how to get bites and putting the pieces together. Every day this week I have fought it.”
In that 2019 Open, Gleason dominated the weather shortened event, catching 40-2 over two-days to beat Takumi Ito by almost 10 pounds. That win, he said, was dedicated to the whole Toledo Bend community and the legends of the lake that came before him like Tommy Martin, Larry Nixon and Rick Clunn.
He wants to honor his home area the same way this time around too, but it has also weighed on him more this week in practice than it has at any other point in his career.
“It is all about expectations. I want to do well for myself and all the people who have followed me. When I won this in 2019, it was for everyone here,” Gleason said. “It has been a while since we had a pro angler from Toledo Bend. We have some of the greats. Through the years there have been others, but it has been a little while. It clouded my mind a little this week. But I wouldn’t change anything. I have a chance tomorrow to fish on my home lake and I know I am one stop away here from doing something special.”
Not only are his personal expectations adding pressure to the mental side, Toledo Bend is not setting up exactly how he hoped it would in his return. Heavy rains the previous week have brought the water levels up over a foot from where they were at the start of official practice on Saturday and the water is predicted to keep rising slowly the rest of the week. Along with those rains, Toledo Bend also experienced a brief cold snap.
In a normal year, Gleason said the lake is usually much more stable than it is currently. He usually goes all in on either bed fish or the offshore bite. This week it has been a little more complicated than that.
“This week, not only did we get a lot of rain, we got a little cold front,” he said. “It has the bass in a little different mode. It is hard to see them to sight fish and they aren’t everywhere. They aren’t everywhere deep all day either. There are opportunities to do both, you just have to run around. I think you’ve got all three phases right now.
“A lot of our wood cover that is normally not in the water is in the water and there’s a lot of good shallow spawning cover. But if I have a big bag, I will do a little shallow and a little deep. But someone can find one school and spank us all.”
It’s not like Gleason hasn’t seen the types of bass he is looking for. On Monday, he saw a couple big bedders in the same area. The final day of practice he went back to check on them and they were both gone.
With that said, he still feels there is a wave of bass that has yet to spawn. He added that the bass that are currently spawning are probably the most stable right now because the water has risen and given them a little more protection.
The prespawn bass are more of a timing deal and the postspawners aren’t far enough along to be eating in his mind. They are in more of a recovery mode.
“There is a lot of movement,” he said. “That is the tough part about this time of year. Everyday is a transition. You have to figure out where they are on that day and catch them up. The weights will be really good.”
Even with atypical conditions, Gleason knows there will be plenty of opportunities to catch giant bass. The hydrilla is back in the lake and the big ones are responding accordingly. A bass over 13 pounds was entered into the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program during the official practice and one over 15 pounds was recorded in February.
One stop could calm Gleason down in a hurry and get him in position to claim another Opens title.
“With all my history here, I am paying for it,” he said. “I have been fishing history a little too much and with these conditions, they aren’t typical for April. But, it is Toledo Bend. It is the place I have built my whole career. There are a lot of good vibes here and we are going to try and put those to work.”
As of 11:30 a.m. CT, Gleason is on BassTrakk with a limit weighing 13-8. He is due in at 4:15 p.m. CT.
