THE LATEST NEWS
Pros Talk of Their Biggest Catches Ever at Toyota Texas Bass Classic
The Toyota Texas Bass Classic is taking place on Lake Fork and the legendary East Texas fishery is spitting out fat green largemouth in a manner that has many top pros wondering if they might catch their personal best 5-bass limit this weekend.
Terry “Big Show” Scroggins caught his personal best 5-bass limit in 2008 at the Bassmaster Elite on Falcon Lake.
It weighed a monstrous 44 pounds 4 ounces. He caught it on a 10” worm. But the likeable Florida pro says there’s no doubt he could – could – eclipse that mark today or tomorrow.
Scroggins isn’t being cocky. Not one bit. He simply knows what lives here. He was one of 14 pros that caught at least a 30-pound limit yesterday, and his biggest fish on Friday was a 9 ½ pounder.
VanDam has been there, done that, and seen it all in his 24th season as a pro, but even “KVD” seems a bit mystified by the catches he and other pros are encountering on Fork.
In wide-eyed fashion, just before weighing-in an 8 pound 8 ounce bass than any mortal angler would likely have called the fish of a lifetime, VanDam stated, “This lake has a lot of 10-pounders in it, and it’s been a long time since I caught a 10-pounder, and I’m gonna tell ya’, I saw one today that weighed way more than 10. It was an absolute freak of nature. I don’t know, hopefully I can catch her before this thing is over.”
Giant bass require oversized tackle. The deepest diving crankbaits ever invented are a common sight this week, and so are large spools fill with braided line, and large swimabits too. “Normally, in most places we go, we’ll throw a 4” swimbait, but here on Fork we’re throwing 8-inch baits on larger reels like an EXO 200 with a lot of line capacity,” explained VanDam.
He also noted that 10” worms, ¾ ounce football jigs, and magnum-sized topwater lures are all in play this weekend.
The ever-hilarious Gerald Swindle enters Day Two on Lake Fork dressed in bright red tennis shoes and socks, but knows the chance to eclipse the personal best 32-pound limit he caught with a Carolina Rigged Zoom Brush Hog from Falcon Lake is no laughing matter.
“If I can catch me a 41-pound limit today, I can get back in this thing,” said Swindle before blast-off.
Sounds funny. But it’s not. It’s the serious reality of what swims here, and the realistic chance of assembling your biggest 5-bass limit ever just about any day you launch your boat on Lake Fork – including this weekend for 50 of the best bass pros in the world at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic.
McClelland, VanDan & Scroggins Anticipate Huge Catches at Toyota Texas Bass Classic
The 8th Annual Toyota Texas Bass Classic began this morning on famed Lake Fork in East Texas. It’s been a long time since the best pros in the world launched on a fishery loaded with so many huge bass. There’s definitely a buzz in the air about the giant catches we could potentially see today.
Mike McClelland, Kevin VanDam and Terry Scroggins share their thoughts and excitement in answers to five questions we asked them on the eve of this awesome event.
What do you love about the Toyota Texas Bass Classic?
KVD: The atmosphere that comes with having this many top-notch anglers in a single event, plus the chance to catch the biggest bass of your life on any cast here at Lake Fork.
McClelland: Unlike any other tournament we fish, there’s a laid-back atmosphere at the TTBC because it’s not for points, everybody gets a paycheck, there’s a lot of non-endemic companies here to support our sport, and my wife Stacy and I love attending the free country music concerts after weigh-in each day.
Scroggins: You’ve got 50 of the best pros in the world here, with no pressure to earn points, so you can just fish hard, wide-open, weigh-in, grab a free cold beer, and take-in an awesome concert.
Will this tournament be won in less than 10-feet of water, or deeper than 10-feet?
KVD: Both – the guy that wins will have to fish shallow and deep.
McClelland: I’ll say less than 10-feet.
Scroggins: Both – you’ll need to catch ‘em shallow and deep to win this.
How many pounds per day will you have to average catching to win this year’s TTBC?
KVD: I’ll say you’d better average a 30-pound limit each day.
McClelland: I’ll say 31.
Scroggins: You’d better have every bit of 35 pounds a day to win.
Three lures you think the tournament field will throw most in this event?
KVD: Deep-diving Strike King 6XD, a swimbait, and a big jig.
McClelland: Topwater lures, swimbaits, and deep crankbaits.
Scroggins: Deep crankbaits, ¾-ounce football jig, big swimbaits.
How many fish 10-pounds or larger will this field of talented anglers catch in 3 days?
KVD: I’ll say six bass, 10-pounds or over, will be weighed-in this weekend.
McClelland: I’ll guess nine bass will hit the scales weighing 10-pounds or over in the course of three days.
Scroggins: I’m gonna guess we’ll weigh-in 10 bass that weigh 10 or more pounds in this tournament.
Takahiro Omori / Lake Toledo Bend
Lucky Craft pro Takahiro Omori talks about the tackle and baits he used at Toledo Bend. The LC RTO Series is the first high quality plastic square bill crankbait ever made. Over the last several years, the LC Series crankbait has replaced balsa wood crankbaits in tackle boxes for cover fisherman everywhere. The LC RTO Series is a high floating plastic crankbait that is much more durable than its predecessor wooden crankbaits. The LC RTO Series reigns supreme in heavy cover and hard rocky bottom areas where large bass lurk.
Get the same tackle Tak uses here.
Catching a Few Bass on the Molix Sator Worm
Josh Wich and Steve Soroko catching some Bass with a Drop Shot rigged Molix Sator Worm! The Sator worm has a ribbed body with a air filled ball at the tail that gives it awesome action!!
Jacob Powroznik Wins At Toledo Bend
It’s been a couple of days since I got my first Elite Series win of my career – heck, I’m already practicing for the next event, the Toyota Texas Bass Classic on Lake Fork in Texas – but I’m still a little bit in shock about how things went last weekend at Toledo Bend in Louisiana.
Early Fish Were Important
I had never even been to Toledo Bend before, but I felt like the fishery set up really well for me, and for the way I like to fish. Sight-fishing is my deal, and everything seemed like it was going to be a tournament that a guy could win “looking at fish”. It got real windy the last couple days of practice, though, and everything got a little muddy, so I didn’t feel like I could just sight-fish all four days and find the fish I needed to win.
So I went to work and got on a little shad-spawn bite early the first morning of the tournament. First thing in the morning on Thursday, I went out to a little pocket and threw a shallow jerkbait, and ended up catching a couple of 7s and a 4. I had 18 pounds right off the bat. I fished that shad spawn for a couple of hours every morning, and those fish turned out to be real important to my tournament. Not as important as a couple of fish I caught on Championship Sunday, though.
Making a Key Bait Switch- I came into Sunday 2 pounds behind Dean Rojas, who is hard as heck to beat on Toledo Bend (he’s won two Elite Series events there) so I knew I had some work to do. I had found about a 5-pounder at about 10 o’clock in the morning on Sunday, and felt like she was maybe catchable, maybe not, so I left her alone and went into the next pocket. That’s where I found my big one of the tournament – she went 7-13, almost 8 pounds. That fish wasn’t real spooky, but I tried to stay off of her because the closer I got to her, the more protective she got of the bed – she wouldn’t really leave it then. There was a buck in there, I mean a little bitty 12-inch bass, and I kind of messed with him to pull him off the bed, but that female wasn’t having any of the black-and-red Berkley Power Craw I was throwing.
A good friend of mine, David Dudley, and I always kid around about throwing something white on the bed. We joke around about it like it’s stupid, but the thing about those big females is that they love something white, and I think it’s because they can see it really good.
I dug around, and it must have taken me 10 minutes to even find something white on my boat, this little 4-inch craw. I think I might’ve been using that as a trailer on a chatterbait or something. I flipped it in there about three times, and man, it really charged her up. I looked at the camera and I said “She’s getting ready to bite,” because she’d never leave the bed when that white thing was in there. She’d just sit there. Finally she spun around and lined everything all up, and I hopped it one time and “shoooop”, she took off swimming with it. I had her.
My Last—Minute Difference-Maker
That big fish got me fired up and I went right over and caught about a 3-pounder on a wacky-rigged Livingston Ninja Stix. Right after I caught that 3, I told my cameraman “You know, if I went back and caught that 5-pounder from this morning, I think I’d have a pretty good chance of winning this thing,” so I ran back over to find that fish again. I eased up on that spot and got up real close to the bed, and that 5-pounder was just parked. And I mean PARKED. I messed with her and messed with her and she wouldn’t even budge, and I finally told my cameraman ‘Man, we have to get out of here by 2:25 to get in on time for weigh-in’.
I remember walking back to my Lowrance to check the time at 2:24. I had switched back to that white bait again and had left it sitting in the bed, and when I walked back up to the front deck again, she was right nose-to-nose with that bait, just right up dead on it. I thought, “well, it’s either now or never”, so I hopped that thing and “shooom”, she sucked it right up.
It was literally my last flip of the tournament, and it allowed me to cull a 1 ½-pounder. Catching that 5-pounder might’ve been the highlight of my day. I weighed in 19 pounds, 11 ounces and had 79-12 for the tournament. Chad Morgenthaler caught 21-14 on Sunday and had 77-6 when I came to the scales, so that 5-pounder was a difference-maker.
As I said, it’s all still soaking in. The $100,000 check and trophy are great, but it really sort of hit me when I was driving here to Lake Fork on Monday: I’m going to fish the 2015 Bassmaster Classic, man! I said this onstage, and it’s true: being able to fish the Classic feels like somebody just gave me $1 million.
PROZ NOTES: Toledo Bend is just getting to a point where a jerkbait like the Livingston Stick Master in XXX Shad will really smack ‘em. I promise you, in the next couple of weeks, you’re going to be able to catch the heck out of them on Toledo Bend – or any other lake where you have a good shad population – on a bait like the Stick Master.
See the full Livingston line up here.