To say Toledo Bend showed out on Day 1 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open would be an understatement.
While the pro anglers just missed cracking the 30-pound mark on the first day of the three-day event, a total of 17 bags weighed over 20 pounds and if the tournament ended today, an angler would have needed 17 pounds to cut a check.
That’s not even including the co-angler side of things, where Kerry Terrebonne leads with three bass that weighed an astounding 19 pounds, 4 ounces. Out of the back of the boat, 11 bags over 10 pounds hit the scales.
Not to mention there were five bass from both sides of the field that weighed over 9 pounds. Keith Tuma and B.J, Usie are tied for the Phoenix Boats Big Bass with 9-8 lunkers and Terrebonne caught a 9-6. Jacob Thompkins added a 9-5 to the mix and then Chris Kingree landed a 9-0.
The current tournament leader Ben Milliken landed 29-8 and his biggest bass was “only” 7 pounds, but he said he had several hooked that felt and looked (on his forward-facing sonar) much bigger.
As far as patterns go, they were across the board. Some of the top anglers were targeting individual bass with their sonar while others found offshore schools. A couple went dirt shallow and flipped flooded bushes.
Here is what was revealed after Day 1 at Toledo Bend.
Milliken quickly found his stride
As many of his YouTube fans already know, Milliken is no stranger to catching giant bass. He has continued to prove that in his first two Bassmaster Opens. After finishing 5th at Eufaula, the Texas pro is in great position to take the lead in the Elite Qualifier standings.
While he isn’t looking ahead, a start this hot could lead straight to an Elite Series bid.
Day 1 wasn’t necessarily all roses, however.
To start the day, he thought he would be able to catch 25 pounds off a deep school. That did not happen and the majority of the time was spent hung up in timber. He then pivoted to a different pattern that produced all his weight. He could see all of his bass on forward-facing sonar.
“I kept my head together and had some other stuff I caught 4-pounders on this week,” he said. “I had seen big blobs, but I hadn’t caught any of them. I did not know there were as many 5 to 10 or 11-pounders as there were.”
With the wind picking up a little today, Milliken said his bite may get even better.
Shad spawn playing a role
Some anglers have been fortunate enough to land on a subtle shad spawn that is starting to fire up on Toledo Bend. That has helped them achieve fast starts and at least get a baseline for the day.
Adam Rasmussen from Minnesota was one of those anglers. He caught his two biggest bass in a shad spawn on a flat that featured some submergent grass on his way to catching 26 pounds.
“I wanted to key in on the shad spawn (from the beginning) but I never did find it going good anywhere,” he said. “There just happened to be a few up there spawning.”
Missouri pro Casey Scanlon also started the morning on a shad spawn, but mostly because several of the offshore places he wanted to fish already had boats on them. He wasn’t expecting much from his stretch of shad spawn, but it kickstarted his 20-6 limit that has him in 16th place.
With his shad spawn paying off, Scanlon was able to save some of the shallow areas he found in practice.
“It is just getting started. It is something I anticipated and they were better quality than what I thought,” he said. “It was quick and it was over with quick. Hopefully that continues and it should be something that starts happening more and more throughout the lake.”
Josh Bragg caught the first 14 pounds of his 20-7 limit around the shad spawn before upgrading late in the day.
“I was going to be happy with that because practice had been super tough. This afternoon I pulled up on a point and caught a 5 and a 4,” Bragg said. “I found the shad spawn in practice. It is a long tapering point and I was watching (the bass) feed on the shad on my LiveScope. I didn’t get any big bites in practice, but I didn’t have anything else to go to.”
Brett Cannon’s day resembled Bragg’s. He got on a shad spawn first thing and landed around 13 pounds while boats were still taking off. He then found another pattern late in the day that carried him to eighth with 21-1.
“I was all by myself. It was kind of a nothing thing and I just stumbled across it. It was not what you think a shad spawn would be, but they are there. I pulled up to it in practice and I saw the shad everywhere on the LiveScope in 2 to 3 feet. I made two casts to this little bitty point and caught a 4 and a 3. They were everywhere.”
The Toledo Bend offshore bite
Many anglers on Toledo Bend this week have dedicated their time to fishing offshore, with several different patterns playing out. Tuma, Jamie Bruce and Rasmussen all mentioned they saw largemouth that acted like they were spawning on the offshore flats they were fishing. These flats are anywhere from 10 to 14 feet deep.
Other anglers like John Garrett and Kenta Kimura are focusing on feeding bass. Garrett is fishing flats in 20 to 30 feet of water while Kimura has bounced around from the 10 to 20 foot zone.
Stay tuned to Bassmaster.com for a more in depth look into the offshore bite on Toledo Bend a bit later in the morning.
Newcomers loving Toledo Bend
Much of the Top 10 had never seen Toledo Bend before this week including Milliken, Tuma, Cannon and Rasmussen. Fresh eyes seem to have a slight advantage so far, but lurking around in 10th is Garrett who has two victories on the fishery.
Largemouth dominate tournaments, but these newcomers are learning that there are tons of smaller spotted bass in the lake as well. Very few of those spotted bass are fish they want to bring to the scales, however.
Garrett managed to avoid catching too many of them by using oversized baits and baits he didn’t feel like the smaller spotted bass would attempt to eat. Forward-facing sonar has also helped the anglers identify which species is around and where they need to cast to catch the bigger of the two species.
