Toledo Bend Showing off again

Sometimes, Toledo Bend bass can just be big show-offs. Really big showoffs.

It’s that time again. Five bass over ten pounds were caught on the same day in one event this past Saturday on the Bend. They were led by Louisiana’s Jody Pitt’s catch, a 13 pound, six ounce whopper and a 39-15 five-fish limit to win the Phoneix Bass Fishing League tournment on the bend.

Pitts big bass is now the biggest bass ever weighed in BFL competition. His bag is the biggest ever in FLW and MLF competition on Toledo Bend, and the sixth biggest single-day catch of all time. All the 10+ pound fish caught were kept alive and will be used to breed other bass for the future.

Pitt has now won three BFL events on Toledo Bend, and firmly established himself as the man to beat there in the winter. Practicing a week before the tournament, he caught a 10-pounder, two 7-pounders and a 4-pounder in a quick check of the juice. But, things had changed by derby day.

“I checked a bunch of stuff [Friday], we got a bunch of rain the last three days, and the water has been rising a pretty good bit,” Pitt said. “It seemed to scatter the majority of my fish. I had places that had eight or 10 fish, not giant schools, just places with a handful of big ones, and they went down to about two [fish]. I thought I could still get some good bites, but I figured I would have to work for them, which I did, it wasn’t pretty by no means.”

The end result is gorgeous, and Pitt was headed back to the weigh-in an hour early with nearly 40 pounds of largemouth. His magical day didn’t start great, though.

“I fished for the first two hours, and all I had was like a 10-inch Kentucky,” Pitt said. “I left that place, and went and checked another spot, it was probably the deepest I’ve ever caught big ones, and I caught a 6 in about 32 feet.”

From there, Pitt made perfect decisions for the rest of the day. Pitt is from Hineston, La, located between Sieper and Elmer. Okay, that’s southwest of Alexandria.

“The next spot I went to, that’s when I caught the 13, and I think I caught a 6 off that place,” Pitt said. “After I caught the 13 and the 6, I went to another place. Those fish had moved, and I relocated them. My co-angler caught the first one, he caught a 6, and then I caught a 4 and about a 3 3/4. I left that place, and I knew my co-angler needed to fill his limit, so I brought him to a numbers hole, and he filled out his bag.”

With two limits riding in the boat, Pitt decided to pour it on.

“I felt like I should have had enough to win,” he said. “But, some of them guys that LiveScope, Cole (Moore) and Tater (Reynolds), they whooped my butt too much last year. So, I knew I had to get rid of that one 2-pounder.

“So, I went to another place, and my co-angler caught a 7-9 off of it, and then I caught my second biggest, which was I guess a 7. That wasn’t it, though. I had one more little place, I probably shouldn’t even have fished it, I don’t know why I did. I ended up catching a 6 and a 5 ½, and the 6 culled one out, and the 5 ½ didn’t help me. So, I went in after that.”

The best is yet to come, if history from recent years continues. If you want to know the best time to catch lunker bass over ten pounds, it’s pretty obvious from looking at this chart from the Toledo Bend Lunker Program.