MANY, La — During the spring, bass anglers can bet on one thing happening and that is change. That was certainly the case on Day 2 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Toledo Bend. While the 223 boat field produced 2751 pounds, 10 ounces total on Day 1, Toledo Bend was a little tougher on the second day of the event with 2159-9 pounds weighed-in.
No bass over 9 pounds hit the scales today and many of the anglers who caught 20-pound bags the first day watched their quality bites evaporate on the second day. Other anglers took advantage of the ever-changing conditions and vaulted into Championship Saturday.
Day 2 brought mostly sunny skies and some wind out of the south, compared to Thursday where clouds hung around for much of the morning and into the afternoon with very little wind. Anglers haven’t had a single day during official practice or the tournament that has set up exactly the same.
On top of everything, several anglers mentioned that the water level fell in a lot of places today after rising over a foot in some areas during the week. Warmer temperatures are also starting to speed up the spawning process up.
The one thing that didn’t change was the leader. New Caney, Texas pro Ben Milliken took a commanding lead by catching 26-15 to increase his two-day total to 56-7. Second place belongs to Trey McKinney, who has 44-13.
The Championship Saturday forecast has gotten a little dicey. The wind is expected to blow around 5 to 10 mph starting at takeoff and there’s a chance of stronger storms arriving in the afternoon.
Clouds and some sprinkles are present to start Championship Saturday.
Here are what some of the top anglers had to say about the ever-changing conditions on Toledo Bend after Day 2.
Trey McKinney (2nd, 44-13)
Other than Milliken, McKinney is the only angler to catch over 20 pounds on both days of the event, adding 23-1 to his 21-12 Day 1 catch. McKinney’s strength is fishing shallow cover in dirtier water and this week he has gotten to do just that.
The Illinois native benefitted from the sunshine today, as it put the bass in what he feels like were predictable places, as well as places other anglers would fish over. Any time of heavy cover, like bushes and trees, he would pitch as far into as possible.
“With this water coming up, I have heavy line and I am flipping the center of the thickest thing you can flip in,” McKinney said. “Yesterday we had some clouds and for how I like to fish, tough conditions are what I like. Today we had sun and I located them where I thought they should be. Yesterday was good but they weren’t as deep in it where I like them to be.”
Keith Tuma (3rd, 41-8)
Tuma caught one quality bass early in the day, but the rest of his time on Day 2 was a bit of a struggle. The bass he thought may have been spawning left and he could tell something different was happening around him.
“They were done. I want to say there was probably a shad spawn in there because there was just fuzz around every stump I was fishing. There was deep water all around me and I didn’t have anything shallower to run to. They may have moved shallow or deep.”
Even still, Tuma caught 13-10 and made the final day cut. In third place with a two-day total of 41-8, he said he will be running around trying to make something happen.
Todd Castledine (5th, 37-4)
Castledine was thrilled to see sunshine after several frustrating days on Toledo Bend. The Nacogdoches, Texas pro has been sight fishing this week, but with cloudy conditions have kept the bass from setting up how he needed them to. With the sunshine today, Castledine caught 21-8 to add to his 15-12 Day 1 showing.
“It has been horrible and I have stayed with it forever,” he said. “Today it finally paid off. When you have clouds, they will just sit around and not get on a bed. So the sun helped. Some finally got up there and they were a little easier to catch.”
Of the 20 bass he marked in practice, he was only able to catch three of them. But more have shown up and Castledine said he hasn’t seen one other boat this entire week and knows where a couple more bass are setting up. He also has been able to trigger a couple bites on a frog.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess I don’t really care since I made the cut,” he said.
Kyle Metzger (8th, 36-10)
Metzger was able to land a limit to stay inside the Top 10 cut. He spent Day 1 fishing for spawning fish around buck brush, but things changed on the second day. A shad spawn was going on, the water was warmer and the water level dropped as well.
“They dropped the lake and that hurt us,” Metzger said. “When you have fish moving shallow, and they drop that water, they don’t want to be anywhere else shallow. I was fishing drains off the shore and they were bedding those. I almost had the boat on land when I was pitching in there. That didn’t work out today.”
Metzger moved to an area that featured cypress trees and picked them apart with a stickbait and then as the wind picked up, he switched to a big swimbait. He had several fish follow a glide bait and not commit and then he lost another big one in a tree.
Casey Scanlon (10th, 35-12)
Scanlon added 17 pounds on Day 2 to his 20-6 showing on the first day. Scanlon believes there are plenty of fish on the move right now and each day has brought a different scenario for him. The good thing for the Missouri pro has been that he has been alone in a lot of areas. Today he found a pattern he had yet to try this week that lasted all day and he caught bass throughout the day, he just lacked a kicker bite.
“For me, it seems like a lot of the fish are starting to move out and are getting more on shad. I was catching fish on the bank all week really good and every time I do that now, I’m coming up with not many bites. I’m still fishing shallow, but as far as going up to fish cover, it is not working. I don’t know if it is just the weather getting warmer or maybe they are dropping the water a little bit too. Things are changing.”
Joey Nania (12th, 34-12)
Nania found a better quality of bass today, but he did not get a 7-pound bite like he did on Day 1. He caught plenty of bass throughout the day, including a key bite at the end of the day just outside of takeoff at Cypress Bend Park.
“I just kind of mixed it up and things kept clicking,” Nania said. “Yesterday I ended up figuring out that the fish were spawning on main lake rock and stumps. I was LiveScoping them in 4-8 feet of water and that is how I got clued in today. I was going slowly along the bank and LiveScoping stumps. The water is really clear on the south end of the lake.”
Chris Keeble (14th, 33-8)
Keeble made one of the biggest jumps of Day 2, moving from 124th to 14th with a 21-13 Day 2 sack. With the cloud cover yesterday, Keeble spent most of his day shallow and started shallow again today. But as the day moved on he moved to an offshore area and found it loaded with big bass.
“There were 50 fish sitting there,” he said. “They weren’t even there in practice. But it was a transition point outside of major creeks where they were spawning. I fish the Tennessee River. Chickamauga is home to me. You have the last few prespawn fish going in and would stop on it and the postspawn bass were coming out. The warm weather we have had the past couple days set them up.”
