BROOKELAND, Texas – As is often the case, the great state of Texas and Sam Rayburn will kickstart the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats season. This year, the Southwestern Division event runs Jan. 23-25, and it should feature some really good bass fishing.
The Toyota Series is perhaps the best investment in bass fishing, with big payouts in the regular-season events and a huge payout of up to $235,000 for first place in the no-entry-fee championship. The Toyota Series Championship is really a can’t-miss event, and this year’s event on Grand Lake should be a good one – in fact, you can already see who’s angling to get there in the roster.
Though January is perhaps not the best month of the year to be on Big Sam, it’s not a bad one, and the top-end weights are likely to be extremely impressive. Already this year, Wyatt Frankens dropped 29 pounds, 1 ounce on the scales in the opening Phoenix Bass Fishing League event, and the lake has kicked out some impressive bags in other events.
Always in the hunt on Rayburn, Marshall Hughes thinks we’re in for a good event.
“I’m feeling like it’s going to take a lot to win it,” Hughes said. “As far as making a Top 10, I don’t think it’ll take anything crazy. The month of January has always been iffy for me personally as far as catching a mega bag. But, it seems like the colder it gets, the better it gets up until the water hits the 40s, which, really don’t see any 40-degree water temps normally. In the low 50s, those bigger fish, they just want to eat for some reason.”
Last year in the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event on the lake, Hughes put together a satchel worth 38-7 on Day 2. It was a highlight of the season.
“It went down in probably, I don’t know, maybe 20 minutes,” Hughes said. “It’ll happen that quick. I’ve had days where it’ll take me ‘til noon to build a 30-pound bag. But, normally, when guys catch those 30-plus-pound bags, it happens quick, and they’re together. This time of year, when you do land on them like that, it’s a group of them.”
That sort of turnaround is pretty common at Rayburn, and we saw it the last time the Toyota Series started there. In ’23, Dakota Ebare won a weather-shortened event with 48-10, and he caught 32-4 on Day 2, which moved him up from sixth place to the win.
With two runner-up finishes on his ledger in wintertime Toyota Series events on Rayburn, Frankens is itching for a breakthrough. After a win in the season-opening BFL, he might be right on track this year.
“Overall, it’s fishing good,” Frankens said of his home waters. “There’s been a lot of big bags being weighed in – some really big bags recently. I think it’s taken at minimum 25 pounds to win the first four tournaments of the year. Obviously, those are one-day events, so the Toyota would be a little different being a multiple-day event, but I would definitely expect to see a bag or two like that weighed in. I think they’re biting a little bit.”
The one downside of winter on Rayburn is the weather – you want to bring plenty of clothes and go into the event with a tight ship.
“The one thing I dislike about this time of the year is obviously weather,” said the Texas angler. “Being late January, usually when you get a front, it’s going to be a cold front with a strong north wind. So, that affects a lot, especially as far as the offshore fishing goes.”
On the plus side, now is the time for giants.
“The winter to prespawn kind of pattern, I think it’s one of my favorite times of the year just because those fish are big,” Frankens said. “They’re healthy. I mean, they’re about as big as they’ll be the entire year almost.”
Although most of the field will be hardened Southwestern Division competitors, with a lot of experience duking it out in the pines of East Texas, Rayburn is a destination fishery. Traveling south for an early start to the tournament season isn’t a bad call, be it on the boater or co-angler side.
For baits, Hughes recommends a few staples.
“A Bill Lewis Scope Stick, or any jerkbait, of course will be good,” he said. “And an [umbrella rig] is a player since we can throw it. And a Rat-L-Trap, it’s still a player with no grass.”
Frankens expects a big offshore event.
“The grass is just not growing great like we’ve seen in years past. It’s very sparse, and what little bit is around, it’s going to get beat up,” he predicted. “The offshore fishing is always good at Rayburn, especially in the prespawn. But now I think it’ll really be dominant.”
But, his best piece of advice is to be willing to adjust. Sometimes tournaments are won weeks in advance on Rayburn, but there have been a lot of events won with mid-derby adjustments.
“Rayburn’s constantly changing,” Frankens said. “Even right now, we’re going through a bunch of changes. The lake was 2 1/2 feet low just right before the season started, and now the season’s here and it is a foot high.
“So, my biggest piece of advice is just not to get too locked into one thing and be open-minded,” he said. “You know, that’s really what I did in the BFL, and it let me get a win there. So, just being able to make adjustments on the fly and not getting too locked in on a spot or area, that’s huge on Rayburn.”