Texas drawdown will be demanding at Toledo Bend

TTT Championship contenders need to worry about battered boats, but not bad fishing

Big Toledo Bend Reservoir, host of the inaugural Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail (TTT) Championship this weekend, has undergone a not-so-small drop in water level recently that will cause tournament pros to watch their props as they seek out big bucketmouths and a cash prize of $70,000.

“The lake’s at an all-time low right now,” said Bill Taylor, tournament director for the TTT. “There are very few places we can even put in at.”

At Toledo Bend, a 200,000-acre impoundment along the Sabine River bordering Texas and Louisiana, the water has dropped roughly 10 feet below normal lake levels coming into the weekend bass-fishing championship. Officials have drawn down the water level in order to make repairs on the dam gates at the lake’s lower end.

If the water stays low throughout the weekend, it will make things tricky for competitors maneuvering around the lake during the TTT event. Toledo Bend is inundated with submerged timber. At normal levels, the timber rests a comfortable five to eight feet below the surface in the myriad “boat lanes” cut throughout the lake. But with the water so low, much of that timber is sitting at or above the water line, even in the boat lanes.

The conditions have already caused Operation Bass officials to move the official takeoff and weigh-in point from Frontier Park about four miles away to Pendleton Harbor where the boat launch process should be less dicey. Many marina operators on Toledo Bend have resorted to dredging channels to ease boat traffic.

Still, while they’re going to be forced to make their runs more delicately, TTT competitors should have no problem catching fish. If anything, the low water levels will help anglers find bass as the reduced lake space compels the fish to cluster more closely together.

“The fishing’s going to be fantastic,” said Taylor. “There will be a lot of big fish caught a lot of different ways.”

One of the fishing techniques to look for this weekend is one that was developed by bass anglers at Toledo Bend Reservoir: deep-water jig fishing. Using a jig and focusing on grass in about 15 to 20 feet of water, bass fishermen have historically had success mining the big Florida-strain largemouth throughout the lake. The Toledo Bend bass record sits at about 14 pounds, and Taylor says it’s possible that a few 10-pounders or more could come across the scale at the championship.

“The low water will make the fishing even better,” said Taylor. “It will make the deep grass more accessible.”

The tournament director expects 22 to 23 pounds a day will be the weight to shoot for in the Pro Division, with a two-day total ranging from 40 to 45 pounds taking home the trophy. The championship is a two-day combined-weight event with 51 anglers each competing in the Pro and Co-angler divisions.

Some pro contenders to keep your eye on will be Mike Hastings, Robert Ates and Chris Wilkerson. Hastings, a fishing guide out of Austin, Texas, won the second TTT event of the year at Lake O.H. Ivie in March and is the second leading money winner on tour. Ates is a past Wal-Mart FLW Tour competitor out of Lecompte, La., with a proven local tournament record and a number of high finishes on the TTT. Wilkerson, of Livingston, Texas, also looks to be a favorite with a strong track record on the 2001 TTT.

And don’t lose track of those who’ve been there before. David Hogge of Nolanville, Texas, and Jim Behnken of Garden Ridge, Texas, each won huge chunks of cash for respective victories during the 2001 TTT regular season and will be hungry for the $70,000 first-place cash at the championship. Co-anglers are gunning for $40,000 first-place cash.

“The anglers response to this circuit has been absolutely fantastic,” Taylor said about the Texas-exclusive tournament series. “The fishermen are really excited. Never before have they been offered this kind of cash for this low an entry fee.”

The two-day 2001 Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail Championship begins Saturday morning, Oct. 20, with takeoff at 6:30 a.m. at Pendleton Harbor Marina on Toledo Bend Reservoir near Hemphill, Texas. First-day weigh-in action commences at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Wal-Mart located in Many, La.

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