What you need to know about fishing Toledo Bend Reservoir

Toledo Bend, the largest man-made lake in the Southern United States, is a 185,000-acre lake that sits on the border of eastern Texas and Louisiana. The Lake offers world-class fishing and in 2016 Toledo Bend was ranked for the second consecutive year as the best bass lake in the Nation by Bassmaster Magazine. The most commonly targeted fish in Toledo Bend are catfish, crappie, and bass but the best time to catch giant bucket mouths is the spring. Largemouth will seek shallow waters (between 3-8 ft of water) to sit on their spawning beds and can be caught with a number of baits and techniques including slow retrieve spinner baits, wacky rigs, neko rigs, and bass jigs with a trailer. The crappie bite is best in the months of March thru June, and sometimes July depending on the previous winter. They can be found schooled up near natural and man-made structure and will hit on small panfish and marabou jigs with minnows or small soft plastics. White bass fishing is also best in the spring, but some anglers switch to striped bass in the summer and fall when their bite gets hottest.