The CatMasters on Toledo Bend—A Transition Tournament
by Ron Presley
The CatMasters on Toledo Bend was the last of its kind from the CatMasters crew. They will now set their sights on a new format for catfish tournaments as they develop The CatMasters Major League Tour. They are sure to continue a tradition of improving the sport of tournament catfishing.
The CatMaster’s at Toledo Bend is the last regular season tournament before the CatMasters circuit transitions into the CatMasters Major League Tour (MLT). (Read more about the MLT here.) The March 17-18 event on Toledo Bend was a guaranteed $10,000 for first place.
Competing teams were limited to no more than 3 anglers and each team could bring 5 fish to the scales with no culling allowed at the weigh-in. Teams were allowed 5 fish with only 2 overs.
Toledo Bend Reservoir is the largest man-made body of water bordering both Louisiana and Texas. It is the largest lake in the South and the fifth largest by surface acres in the United States. Competing anglers had plenty of water to search out their whiskered prey but were challenged by Mother Nature.
One catman, Jason “Spud” Barton described the lake simply.
“Trees, trees, and more trees,” described Barton a few days before the tournament. “Anglers can expect tough conditions with the weather cooling and the storms and post-front conditions that are predicted. Shifting winds make navigation tough on Toledo. The lake is known for big swells and very tight boat lanes. Fishermen need to be mindful of wind conditions and stay in the lanes if proceeding at more than idle speeds.”
Even as Barton spoke, there were reports of water temperature differences of almost 15 degrees from one part of the lake to the other. Those conditions keep fish confused and can make for a tough bite.
“Incoming rains affect the creeks and the Sabine River,” added Barton. “A significant amount of new water will likely change any pretournament patterns.”
Barton’s analysis was right on track. When day one came the anglers were facing windy, rainy, and cold weather that made for a challenging day of fishing. The rain had stopped by the time the boats came to North Toledo Bend State Park Pavilion for the weigh-in.
At the end of day one, Robert Thomas, Aaron Churchwell, and Daniel Mata (Team Partners In Slime) led the field with 104.71 pounds. Second Place was held by Mick Petree, Steve Nelson, and Cody Mullennix with 95.21 pounds. And third place was held by Jeremy Robinson and Kenneth Dyess (Team Kat Kapt’n Guide Service) with 61.52 pounds. The stage was set for day two, but the order of the finish would change.
First Place, Big Fish Day Two, and Top Lady Angler
The top spot at Toledo Bend went to Team Here Kitty Kitty. Shay and Courtney McDonald and Jase Scruggs teamed up to bring a two-day weight of 159.69 pounds to the scales. They climbed the leaderboard from 5th place on day 1 to claim the win. Their bag included Big Fish Day Two at 43.19 pounds and Courtney earned the Top Finishing Female Award.
“Going into day one we had a pretty solid plan,” reported Courtney. “It paid off pretty early after lines in. It was cold wet and windy but the bite was on.”
They fished with cut shad in 3 feet of water. They caught a 20-pounder right off the bat at 7:15 and followed with 10 unders after that. Once the bite slowed down they decided to try the main lake but that was a mistake.
“I hadn’t been here the majority of the week like Shay and Jase,” recalled Courtney. “I had no idea what we were riding into. First off, the boat lanes on this lake are insane. To get 100 yards where you need to be you have to go 1/2 a mile in all different directions just to get there. Or take the chance of idling through the forest of mystery praying a stump doesn’t pierce your boat or destroy the lower unit.”
In addition to the challenge of navigation, they were facing 30-plus mph wind gusts that were creating 3-4 foot waves
“It was not a ‘yay this is fun’ situation,” added Courtney. “Once we made it to an area we had pre-fished we struggled to set up. We threw the anchor in and cast out the lines while doing a balancing act and trying not to fall off the side of the boat.”
After all that work setting up, the spot did not work out. They happily went back to the creek beds and set up there for the rest of the day.
“We caught a few more decent size fish,” continued Courtney. “We ended up culling 3 fish to weigh in 46 pounds on day one. We were setting in 5th and we were happy about it. We caught our limit but had no idea what day 2 had in store for us.”
Team Here Kitty Kitty started day 2 in the same spot as day one. The bite was practically nonexistent and the only thing they caught was a bowfin.
“We moved to another mudflat with more current and BOOM we caught our limit plus a few more within 45 minutes,” explained Courtney. “Our biggest at that point was 12 and 10 pounds so we decided to go big or go home.”
The team tried 5 or 6 more locations, different depths, and various structures where they added a couple of teenagers by 1:45. Courtney suggested to Shay that they go back to the very beginning and finish the day there.
“I thought that maybe they would be there now,” confirmed Courtney. “Shay didn’t even debate it. We set up on the mudflat with half our rods thrown towards the ledge next to the river channel in about 1 to 3 feet of water and the rest thrown out on the flat in different areas.”
They got some little pecks for a while but nothing crazy. Then out of nowhere, a huge flock of red-winged black birds flew in and landed all around the boat on stumps and trees.
“We all sat there in silence thinking the same thing,” pondered Courtney. “Something is about to happen. A minute later, at 2:25 pm, my rod towards the channel slowly pulled and then bent completely over. As soon as I pull pulled up on the Hellcat Rod it was stripping drag and not slowing down.”
They had a big fish almost completely circle the boat as they moved every rod they had to keep up with it. As they gained control and had Courtney’s fish coming closer to the boat they heard a huge splash and they all turned to see Jase’s rod flatlined. A big blue had jumped out of the water to slam his bait.
“Jase ended up having his fish to the boat before mine,” recalled Courtney. “So based on the sizes of the fish, Shay decided to make sure mine was netted first. Jase did figure eights with his fish until it could be netted and the celebration began.”
“I’m pretty sure a lot of bass boats could hear that something really good happened over in our area,” joked Courtney. “The big fish was 43 pounds and Jase’s fish was 38 pounds.”
“Just like that everything changed,” explained Courtney. “We ended up weighing 113 pounds on day 2 and added it to our day one weight of 46 pounds to produce a total weight of 159.69 pounds and take home first place.”
“Even though we marked good fish there all week and knew they were there, we had a little luck and fate at that moment as well,” concluded Courtney. “Toledo Bend was one of the most epic experiences for us fishing thus far. That’s why we do what we do and we’re so grateful for those who make it possible for us to do so. Thank you to all of our sponsors and family and friends. We could not do it without you!”
Second Place and Veteran Big Fish
The runner-up spot went to Team Partners in Slime as they failed to hold on to their day one lead. Robert Thomas, Aaron Churchwell, and Daniel Mata weighed 104.71 pounds on day one and added 22.3 pounds on day two to finish with 127.01 to earn second place. Thomas, Churchwell, and Mata also won Veteran Big Fish with a 29.66-pound blue.
“Our first day on the lake was Wednesday,” noted Churchwell. “We knew going into it that we were getting 2 inches of rain the night before the tournament. So we decided to check out some creek arms and figure out the lay of them.”
The team didn’t see anything they liked on the Texas side so Thursday they ran up the river to see what it looked like. They worked the north end all day and never saw anything that caught their eye.
“After the captains meeting we looked at some maps and imaging and found a promising creek,” recalled Churchwell. “It looked like it should have current coming out of it after the rain. It was dark when we got on the water so we couldn’t really see the layout or water color so we set up on the creek channel hoping for some passing fish.”
Once the sun came up they could see that a secondary creek in that arm was dumping muddy water into the arm. They eased over into the muddy water and anchored on the channel of the secondary creek.
“The boat was in 1.8 feet of water,” explained Churchwell. “We were casting into stumps that were standing in roughly 2 feet of water. We had a fish blow up on a bait about an hour into setting there. After that, we knew it was a waiting game. We fished that spot and 1 more the rest of the day and slowly caught fish.”
They went right back to the secondary creek on day two but the bite was considerably slower. They lost a teenager that got in a stump halfway to the boat and then lost a fish in the last 15 minutes of the tournament in a laydown.
“I think it would have been a lot closer if we could have landed those fish,” added Churchwell.
“Toledo Bend is a beautiful lake with all the Cyprus trees and swampy areas,” concluded Churchwell. “But man that lake is difficult to fish. It has a whole forest under its surface. Everywhere you go there are trees right at the surface or below the surface. If you plan on coming to fish here you should definitely bring some pre-tied rigs!”
Third Place, Overall Big Fish, and Day One Big Fish
Third place at Toledo Bend went to Mick Petree, Steve Nelson, and Cody Mullenix. They teamed up to bring in a two-day total weight of 125.71 pounds. Their day-one bag included a 58.71-pound blue that held up for Overall Big Fish.
Fourth Place and Top Finishing Youth
Kyler Kinworthy earned the Top Finishing Youth Award with 113.03 pounds. Kyler was fishing with Matt Weathers. They finished 4th overall in the tournament.
Fifth Place and Points Race Champions
The points race was also decided at Toledo Bend. The Points Race Championship was awarded to the team with the highest accumulated score from 3 tournaments. Team All American Catfish, John Berglund, Eddie Henney, and Ryan Berglund, took home the award while finishing in 5th place overall.
“After a rough week on Toledo Bend, we were able to hold it together and come up with just enough weight to get a 5th place finish,” said Bergland in a Facebook post. “And with that, we were able to secure the 1st place spot in the points race for the season.”
“It’s been a fun and challenging season fishing against some of the best anglers in the country that’s for sure. The CatMasters series has been a blast and an opportunity to meet a bunch of great people along the way. And as always we gotta thank everyone that helps us along the way. And an extra thanks to our family and friends that put up with us traveling all over the countryside chasing these catfish.”
Final Thoughts
With the Toledo Bend tournament weighed and recorded, the CatMaster crew will turn their attention to the new Major League Tournament format that they will feature in future events.
As CatMaster Director Bryan St Ama recently said, “The MLT concept will be our new format moving forward.”
The CatMaster plan is to continue promoting the catfish industry by introducing 50-boat limit tournaments with two anger teams and a marshal/cameraman to offer viewers live-streamed action from the water. This type of “social media” tournament is expected to attract a lot of viewers.
“When we had our exhibition tourney at CatCon (Catfish Conference) we had something like 300,000 viewers,” noted St. Ama. “When we live stream a regular tournament we would get 5 to 10 thousand viewers.”
St Ama told the crowd at Toledo Bend that work would begin in earnest on the MLT soon. They had wanted to get the old tournament style behind them so they could concentrate on the more complicated tournament format of MLT. He mentioned one important change they made already. The exhibition tournaments featured one angler teams but they have committed to 2 angler teams for the CatMasters MLT.
To keep up with the CatMasters Major League Tour follow them on their website and Facebook.
