John Murray – Off the Mark at Toledo Bend

After my first day of practice at Toledo bend, I thought I was on the winning pattern. I started out fishing in deep water and my first cast of practice produced a ten pounder on a River2Sea Football Jig.

At that moment, I committed to fishing outside, and I went about looking to further build on the program. I knew I wasn’t going to get a bunch of bites, but when I did, they were going to be good. I had another backup plan that was in really shallow water with a dropshot, and I figured I’d get two or three bites a day deep, then fill in keepers shallow.
Then tournament day came.

I fished deep the whole morning and by 1:00 in the afternoon, I only had three little fish to show for it. So I went to the bank; caught a couple of small keepers to fill out my limit and went back out again looking for a big bite.
I got it; I caught a five pounder on that River2Sea football jig and twin tailed grub and then nothing else. I weighed in around 10 pounds; which wasn’t very good.

I started the second day out deep again, and couldn’t get any bites. So, I picked up my Powell Endurance 714 mhef; my Ardent S2500 spinning reel and a drop shot rig with a 6-inch Roboworm in MMIII. The result was that I caught a seven and a half pounder on an inside grass line. That meant I had made up from the low weight from day one; I just needed a solid limit; that didn’t happen.

I caught more small ones everywhere I went, and I ended up weighing 14 pounds; with the big one thrown in.

I completely missed the bite; in fact I was fishing on either side of it. The bite turned out to be in five to ten feet of water, and I was fishing too shallow or too deep. I really thought that with the amount of pressure Toledo Bend receives, and the additional pounding an Elite Series event brings; that I would need to fish deep; but it didn’t work out.

Basically; I tried to outthink the room, and I didn’t.

Anyway; we parked the rig in Alabama at a friend’s house and are flying home for a week to visit with my mom and kind of regroup for the rest of the year. We go to Lay Lake next week to fish the Mark’s Outdoors tournament there; so it will be a short trip; but a good one anyway.

Visit Fred on the Web www.johnmurrayfishing.com