Toledo Bend Guide

Texas Bassin’ By The Light Of The Moon..

The topwater chugger landed with a noisy “splat” somewhere out in the darkness.

My fishing partner paused for a moment, and then slowly started retrieving the lure. The bait made a noisy “bloop”, “bloop”, “bloop” across the surface of the water until it was about a foot or so from the boat. He had just started to lift the lure to make another cast when a large bass completely engulfed the bait and nearly ripped the rod from his hands. The rod tip jerked down into the water as line was violently ripped from the spool. The bass went air-borne, hit the water and surged like a freight-train away from us and then went air-born again. This was about the time that the line was strained to the limit, and with a loud “POW” it snapped. All of this had happened in the space of about 5 seconds. My partner set for a moment looking down at the broken end of the monofilament, still not quite believing what had taken place. His hands were shaking and his nerves were shot as he reached for the tacklebox to get another bait. I just chuckled and in a dry flat tone said “Did you get a hit?” He didn’t reply and I am sure it took a great deal of will-power for him not to throw me in the lake.

Over the years I’ve found that action of this type is not uncommon when you do your fishing at night. I realize that when some of you hear the term “night fishing” you immediately conjure up visions of creepy crawlers and other horrible things that go bump in the night. This is really not the way it is. The soft tranquility of a Texas summer night, mixed in with a blanket of sparkling stars and the occasional bellow of a bullfrog, will draw you much closer to nature than you ever thought possible.

And there are tremendous advantages to night fishing such as .. The sun is not bearing down; boat traffic is usually minimal; and if the wind has been howling during the day it will usually lay at night. However, to consistently catch some of these night-time bass it is important that you follow a few guidelines.

Know Your Water – Lunker bass that are either inactive or extremely weary during the daylight hours will often feed with reckless abandon once the sun goes down. Familiarize yourself with the general layout of the area during the day, and then you can easily fish those areas during the later hours. You will probably have to hit the water a few times to find the best feeding period. Once you zero-in on this feeding time take advantage of it because chances are the bass will be active for a number of days. Shallow bass are usually active fish. Many times the areas that you draw a blank during daylight hours will be red-hot once the sun goes down. I have done especially well near swimming areas, docks and boat launching locations.

Light – Always carry a good flashlight, preferably one that floats, but use the light sparingly. Once the light goes on your eyes will have to “re-adjust” to the darkness, and in many cases the sudden flash of the light can spook the fish. Once you get your “night-eyes” accustomed to the dark you will easily be able to tie a lure to the line. (That is assuming of course that you can tie a lure to the line with a minimal amount of difficulty during daylight hours:).

Safety – Be especially careful when landing a fish. Don’t try to “lip” your prize, but rather hold a net under the fish as you bring it into the boat. Nothing is more dangerous than a bass thrashing around in the dark with treble hooks that are ready to stick anything that comes near them. Also go slow when motoring to new fishing locations. Meeting someone “unexpectedly” out in the darkness is certainly not the best way to make new and lasting friendships. And ALWAYS wear a life jacket. It’s not a bad idea to have a compass in the boat since fishing areas can look much different once the sun goes down.

Tackle – For the majority of your fishing you will need a stiff rod with sufficient backbone to set the hook. I also recommend using at least 17-20# test line. Too heavy you say? Don’t believe it! When you get a big bass on out there in the darkness it’s amazing how many trees and other types of cover he will get into as you try to head him toward the boat.

Topwaters – Use noisy baits such as the Chugger, Chug Bug and Woodchopper. For years one of the most effective topwater baits for night fishing was the black Jitterbug in a muskie size. Darker colors will usually be more effective since they silhouette well against available light and the sky. Baits should be retrieved in a slow rhythm.

Plastic Worm/Jig – As I mention above, many colors will work, but over the years black has been tough to beat. For night fishing I prefer a Texas rig with a big slip sinker. A heavy sinker creates lots of racket as it crashes through brush and limbs and will better attract the attention of a big bass. I recommend a stout (3/0-5/0) Mustad wide-gap hook. Use a slow retrieve that will allow the bass to easily zero-in on the bait. Select a worm that has a big tail since the action will displace more water and create lots of vibration. I also recommend using a fish attractant since it will help you get more strikes and make the fish hold onto the bait longer. When the bass get “finicky” I insert a rattler into the worm and it can often make the difference of a bass ignoring the bait or jumping all over it.

Spinnerbaits – Use the black or red body with a big “thumper” blade. Vary your retrieve but keep it on the slow side. I have good luck on the ½-oz Texan spinnerbait that has a black skirt and black #5 Colorado blade.

Buzz Baits – I like to use the black ½-oz Lunker Lure or Texan lure that has either a black or silver blade. Retrieve the bait as slow as possible and still keep it on the surface of the water. Try to make the bait “bump” any cover in the area as it comes back to the boat.

Crankbaits – Use a steady retrieve across corners of points and cast parallel to the shoreline. Rip-raps along a dam are especially good for this type of fishing.

Nightfishing offers you the opportunity of catching more and bigger bass from the water you are currently fishing than you ever thought possible. Some people love night fishing while others hate it. But one thing is certain .. it sure is different. The strange titillating sounds that are echoed back in the night and the calm solitude you will experience is fantastic. Give this type of fishing a try and decide for yourself if bassin’ is really better by the light of the moon. JB

Additional Tips –

*The first couple of hours after sunset are not necessarily the prime-time for fishing. This doesn’t mean that bass cannot be caught during this period, but simply that the bass seem to bite much better between say 9pm and 4am. It takes awhile for the eye of bass to get adjusted to the darkness before they start prowling about in search for food.

*Full Moon or Dark Moon – Many anglers prefer fishing during the full moon, however, many believe that the bass are much less spooky and willing to strike a bait during the darker periods. Obviously during a full moon there are advantages such as feeling more comfortable since you are able to see your line and surroundings better.

*Remember when selecting your bait that bass feed by sound, sight, vibration and scent.

*Most anglers think that the only lure to throw to fish at night is a topwater. That is simply not true. The secret to night fishing is vibration.

*Look for flats near deep water. Big bass feed on these flats.

*Try red colors for your baits. This is especially true for spinnerbait blades or skirts.

*A line clipper tied to your belt is a great item. Line clippers always get lost in the dark and you constantly need them to clip line, knots and change lures.

*Stay On The Move – It is great to tie the boat up and fish those small spots that have deep water and sharp breaks, but generally I allocate about 45 minutes for a spot before I move on down the line. There are a lot of great fishing spots out there on Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn and I like to hit as many as possible.

*Positioning The Boat – The majority of the time you will have more success fishing a shoreline by casting your bait parallel to the bank. This will allow the bait to stay in the strike-zone longer.

The World According to Carp

The state's love/hate relationship with this not-so-gentle giant stretches back to 1881 when the first hatchery was created in Austin.

Someone once told me that the best way to cook common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) is by a technique known as planking. This works best with carp in the 2- to 10-pound range. The carp is attached to a plank, basted with olive oil and cooked over a slow-burning fire for about 50 minutes. After applying the seasoning of your choice, throw away the carp and eat the plank.

Carp cuisine may have a long way to go, but there are a growing number of people who believe carp fishing is poised to hit the big time. All it needs is a good public relations manager to revamp its image.

The carp belongs to the minnow family, a name that tends to conjure up an image of baitfish, but that’s better than some of the other choice terms that are often used to describe it. Don’t be fooled by such talk, because there’s more to this fish than meets the eye.

In terms of the size to which it can grow (world record is 82.3 pounds), its general level of awareness and its fighting ability, it would perhaps be more fitting to recognize this much-maligned fish for what it really is — an intelligent and powerful game fish. Would you believe that European anglers are traveling to the United States in the quest of our largely untapped carp resource and that guide services are springing up to cater to them? What do they know that we don’t? If you need an endorsement, here’s one from Izaak Walton, a guy who’s in a league of his own: “The carp is a queen of rivers; a stately, a good and a very subtle fish; that was not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now naturalized.” OK, so the man considered the father of angling (author of The Compleat Angler), who is the inspiration for the conservation group known as the Izaak Walton League, was British, and they like carp anyway.

Well, how about this quote from In-Fisherman magazine: “Carp — one of the toughest, most intelligent, and most powerful pure pullers in fresh water”? But what has all this talk about carp got to do with Texas? Well, for one thing we have been “blessed” with what is considered to be a world-class carp fishery right in the middle of our capital city. It would be churlish not to recognize it. Austin’s Town Lake is a standard bearer for carp fishing in the U.S.

The carp is indigenous to Asia, being introduced to Europe by the 13th century, the east coast of the United States by 1877 and to Texas by 1881. Surprisingly, the introduction of carp to the United States was not illegal or unintentional, but was federal government policy at the time. Under the auspices of the Republican administration of Ulysses S. Grant, the idea of distributing carp throughout the United States was envisioned and subsequently carried out under successive Republican administrations (Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur). It was reasoned that the introduction of carp would provide a cheap and readily available food source for the country’s growing population. In carrying out this plan, Republican leaders inadvertently laid the foundations for an exciting new fishery. Future generations of carp anglers will remain forever indebted to these founding fathers of America’s carp fishery. As for the carp, it had no say in the matter and probably deserves a presidential pardon for any impact it may have on our ecosystem as a result of its introduction.

On the plus side, it could be argued that the common carp spawned Texas’ freshwater fish hatchery program, because the first hatchery in Texas was the carp hatchery established at Barton Springs in Austin in 1881. Also, it should be remembered that it’s in times of adversity that you really find out who and what you can depend on. During World War II, the smoked carp stepped up to the (dinner) plate and served our nation well — helping to lower the country’s wartime food bill. Jerome Moisand of the Carp Anglers Group points out that “many of our grandfathers have a lot to owe to this introduction of carp as a food source — 36 million pounds of fish every year at peak time. That’s a lot of meals.” Even so, the popularity of carp as a food fish began to wane, and it started to acquire a reputation as an undesirable species. Two main reasons have been cited for this.

The first was the negative effect that large numbers of carp can have on a fishery by churning up the bottom in search of food. The result can be reduced water clarity and a reduction in light penetration, which restricts plant growth and generally makes conditions less favorable for bass and sunfish. As a consequence, biologists do not recommend stocking common carp if a quality bass and sunfish fishery is desired. Having said that, problems can occur when any species overpopulates a fishery.

The second reason was more circumstantial. As America became more industrialized and pollution of the waterways increased, the carp was able to tolerate these conditions better than most other fish and hence was able to do reasonably well. Unfortunately, carp soon became synonymous with pollution in the minds of many people. In contrast to some of their cousins across the Atlantic, the angling communities in the United Kingdom and other European countries have a tremendous respect for carp. Carp anglers always bring in a fish using a knotless landing net and invariably place it on a moist mat while removing the hook. Etiquette dictates that if an angler wants to have his photograph taken with the fish, the angler should kneel or crouch to lessen the fall, in case the fish is dropped. Carp aficionados might consider kneeling to be an appropriate gesture of respect for the “queen of rivers.”

American carp anglers use similar carp care practices, and some even apply a dab of antiseptic to the hook wound. Carp fishing in the United Kingdom is traditionally catch-and-release. Any attempt to market carp as food is looked upon with disdain. By contrast, in other parts of Europe anglers routinely harvest the fish; e.g., in the Czech Republic people enjoy eating carp and some even believe that it helps them live longer. In fact, in some Czech homes you may be surprised to find that carp is part of the Christmas dinner. Similarly, Germans are known to serve up carp as a traditional holiday food. In South Africa they prefer to bake or barbecue their carp. In many Asian countries, carp is revered as a food fish and is considered a symbol of strength. Carp are still commercially exploited in the United States, but on a limited scale, primarily for restaurants of the central and midwestern states, where a cold beer and a carp sandwich are local delicacies.

In the United States, there is a growing interest in carp fishing. Two of the early key players promoting carp fishing were Bud Yancey of the Carp Angler’s Group (CAG) and Bob Williamson of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. According to Williamson, “The common carp is the most popular freshwater sport fish in the world. It is also cultured and eaten in more areas of the world than any other freshwater fish.” CAG holds carp fishing tournaments (in the Chicago River and the tidal basin of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.), organizes special events (the First Fishing Folly and CAG Invitational) and disseminates a wealth of information about carp fishing.

Ray Scott, founder of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, supports these efforts and believes that carp fishing is a thrilling way of introducing youngsters to the sport of fishing. Just ask any kid who’s participated in the carp fishing event at Joe Pool Reservoir in Cedar Hill State Park near Dallas.

According to Bud Yancey, traditional American tackle and fishing techniques are adequate for catching carp of 8 to 12 pounds, but to consistently catch big carp (20 to 40 pounds), specialized “English style” tackle is required. David Moore of the American Carp Society indicated that if you were to buy new tackle specifically for carp fishing, you could get all the equipment you need for about $400. For the best gear, you could spend $500 for a rod, $400 for a reel, $450 for a rod holder, and more than $1,000 for the state-of-the-art bite alarm/pager/flashlight system.

Last year was an eventful one for carp fishing in the United States and is indicative of the growing interest in carp. In Texas, we had the Austin Team Championship, and, for the first time in this country, we had the World Carp Championship (St. Lawrence River, New York) with a $100,000 top prize package (two Chevy Colorado pickup trucks and the remainder in cash). In addition, $1,000,000 was available to anyone who broke the New York state record for carp (50 pounds, 4 ounces).

Even The Wall Street Journal took notice and published a front-page story about carp fishing and the World Championship. Finally, there was the St. Lawrence International Junior Carp Tournament ($20,000 minimum in cash and merchandise). The 4th Annual Austin Team Championship at Town Lake was coordinated by Brian Nordberg and Neil Stern of the Carp Anglers Group. Twenty-nine two-person teams competed at this event. The average cost to participate in the tournament was about $700 for each competitor (including travel, lodging, food and equipment). In addition to the representatives from Texas, there were anglers from 12 other states taking part in the tournament: California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. On this occasion, carp anglers from overseas did not attend, probably because they were busy preparing for the World Carp Championship. However, it is not uncommon for British carp anglers to come to Austin specifically for this tournament.

Many of the anglers at the tournament had been carp fishing since they were children, being introduced to carp by relatives or friends, while others saw people carp fishing and became interested that way. Among this group were Frank and Narda Walters, who have accomplished the feat of fishing for and catching a carp in each of the 50 states. It took them 12 years to do it. Another competitor honed his carp-0fishing techniques in the pay lakes of the southeast.

At these privately operated facilities, anglers are charged a fee to fish for carp and enter money jackpots that are paid on an hourly or half-hourly basis. All these anglers rated Town Lake and the St. Lawrence River as the two best trophy carp fisheries in the country, and both are considered world-class waters. Town Lake has been mentioned in dispatches to the world’s carp fishing community on a number of occasions. The chance of catching a carp that weighs more than 40 pounds is the main reason for drawing anglers from such great distances.

By the end of the two-day tournament, the top three teams had netted 890 pounds of carp. Jim Kirkman and Moses Lopez from Dallas took the top honors with 18 fish and a total weight of 350 pounds. Vaughan Osmond broke the Texas state record with a 41.5-pound carp. The spectacle of such large fish being caught was enough to stop cyclists, joggers and passers-by in their tracks. As you can see, carp fishing has the potential to add a new dimension to the sport of angling in the United States. The carp is worthy enough to be included in the repertoire of The Complete Angler. Why not give it a chance? You may be surprised to learn how rewarding it can be. Does anyone know of a good public relations manager?

The 5th Annual Austin Team Championship (March 24-25) will be followed by the Texas Carp Challenge (March 26-31). Anyone lucky enough to break the state record for carp at the Texas Carp Challenge will pocket $250,000. For additional information about carp fishing, check out the following Web sites: Carp Anglers Group , Texas Carp Anglers Group , the American Carp Society , Carp Fishing Network .

Fishing Euro-Style Many anglers at carp tournaments use European-style tackle. The typical setup consists of a rod holder (rodpod) that allows for three rods with a “swinger” and a bite alarm on each rod. The swinger and the alarm are located between the reel and the rod tip. David Moore of the American Carp Society explains that the swinger “keeps the line on the roller part of the alarm, and if a fish picks the bait up and swims back towards you (sometimes referred to as a drop-back bite) it will take the slack out of the line and set off the alarm.”

Carp Facts The carp is an omnivore that can feed at any depth, but prefers the bottom. It can be found in most major ponds, lakes and rivers throughout the contiguous United States. There are a number of varieties of common carp, i.e. mirror carp, linear carp, leather carp, Israeli carp and koi carp, but they are all the same species. Spawning occurs in shallow water from late March to September. The eggs hatch in a week or so, and the fry are planktivorous. The life expectancy of carp can be in excess of 40 years.

Credits: Mukhtar Farooqi