Todd Driscoll, fishery biologist for Texas Parks & Wildlife Department says the bass fishing on Toledo Bend is in super shape. “It’s just a good positive story right now in terms of fish population and fishing quality.” Hydrilla is part of the reason, with large amounts located south of a line from Indian Mound to the Cypress Bend access point.

There is hydrilla up on the north end on what is called the 1215 flats area, but as Driscoll says, the further up lake you get, typically the more harsh the conditions get and it’s not as easy for grass to grow up there. South lake is more stable in terms of water clarity, enabling more consistent grass growth.

“Hydrilla on Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend is not a problem; it’s a benefit at this point,” says Driscoll.

“Ever since I got here, about 15 years ago, our fish surveys have always been very, very good, which gets back to the fairly consistent good habitat,” explains Driscoll, “which is primarily aquatic vegetation. Even when the lake level is lower than normal, there is still plenty of submerged hydrilla. Fisheries management is really easy when you have good quality cover. If you don’t have the habitat it’s really hard to manage for high density fish population.”

Driscoll explains how TPWD computes fish populations. “We index population abundance based on what we call relative abundance catch per hour. To a normal person that wouldn’t necessarily mean much. We don’t gauge the population on numbers of fish, or pounds of fish per acre anymore. Years ago fishery biologists did, but to get that data they had to block off a known area and kill all the fish, which obviously is a little counter intuitive.

“We measure on fish per hour using electrofishing. When you look at the catch rate on fish per hour, Toledo Bend is in the upper 10 percent of what we see across the whole state of Texas.

Big bass in Toledo Bend?

You may not hear much about big bass coming from Toledo Bend because a 7, 8, 9 pound bass doesn’t turn any heads on this lake. If you look at bass tournament data on the lake, the average big bass weight is almost always 8 – 9 pounds. “The Toledo Bend Lake Association has a free replica program for folks who turn in 10 pound fish,” (www.toledobendlakeassociation.com) said Driscoll. “It was almost a record year for that program this past year, giving 60 or 70 replicas.”

You ask any hard core bass angler and they are going to tell you Toledo Bend right now is fishing very well for bass.

Photo: Toledo Bend Guide Service