The shallow wetlands of Caddo Lake, sprawling over 25,400 acres, don’t set up well for Gene Jensen’s largemouth fishing style. However, that is the fishery Jensen thought he’d have to contend with at the Yamaha Rightwaters Bassmaster Kayak Series at Caddo Lake/Lake Bistineau—the final series event of the season, held on the border of Texas and Louisiana.
That was until Jensen, who also produces content on the YouTube channel Flukemaster, realized the event had another lake attached to its name—Lake Bistineau. And, as he would discover, Bistineau held a fall bass tactic overlooked by many anglers that would help win him the tournament.
How Gene Jensen used the Lake Bistineau drawdown to win a Bassmaster tournament
What caught Jensen’s attention was that Lake Bistineau had begun to drawdown its water level for the fall. The drawdown is an annual occurrence used to fight growth of an invasive aquatic plant called giant salvinia in the lake. When Jensen signed up for the tourney he had booked his accommodations right at Caddo Lake, but once he spotted the lake as in bounds and drawing down, he didn’t hesitate to make the 80-mile drive for practice each day leading up to the Bassmaster event.
Just why was Jensen attracted to the Lake Bistineau drawdown? These drawdowns are a time many anglers fear—a season when some of their favorite structure goes high and dry. Yet, the fish go from being spread across the entire lake to concentrated in limited areas. According to a Bassmaster press release interviewing Jensen on the win and fishing the lake drawdown, Jensen mentioned why one place in particular was successful for him. There, the bass were using the back of a long drain to funnel in and out of. It was around four feet at its deepest and connected into surrounding areas where he found bass in two to three feet of water around cypress trees, laydowns and stumps.
According to the Bassmaster interview, Jensen also saw what he thought to be bluegill beds on his Lowrance SideScan, but turned out to be depressions Jensen believed were made by the bass as a place to hold in the current pulled through the channel.
“I’m guessing 5,000-plus acres of that lake drains down into this [area] when they draw it down,” Jensen told Bassmaster. “So, all of the bass in those acres pulled down into this deeper ditch. I found it on Monday, and when I went to check it again on Wednesday, they had moved a little deeper because the lake had dropped about an inch.”
Consider the underwater topography of dammed reservoirs. These lakes are backed into existing watersheds, filled in over streams and riverbeds. As the lake levels are brought down, the water lowers, creating closer to surface drop offs around the pre-existing streambeds Jensen speaks to. These fingers stretching back are also fed by the moving water of these headwater streams.
After seeing the success at Bistineau, Jensen took a shot at Caddo for one day before practice was over, just to see how it would go.
“I was catching 90 inches just searching,” Jensen said in reference to his largemouth hauls on Bistineau. “I went to Caddo and hit what I knew and caught 70 inches and said, “Nope.” I made the decision that night to commit to Bistineau no matter what.”
The plan paid out. Jensen ended with a tournament total of 198.5 inches to claim the win and $11,000 in prize money. Not only that, he won an invite to 2025 Yamaha Rightwater Bassmaster Kayak Series Championship, to be held next March in Yantis, TX.
Finding a fall drawdown of your own
Annual fall drawdowns aren’t limited to Lake Bistineau, and you certainly don’t need to be on the tournament scene to try your hand at seeking them out.
Reservoirs throughout the U.S. are drawn down in the fall for various reasons. It could be management of aquatic life as is the case on Jensen’s winning lake in Louisiana. But other reasons can include winter storage space for flood control, fish migrations, or dam maintenance.
Usually, these lake drawdowns are predictable, planned on an annual basis or announced to the public well ahead of time. For instance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates many dam sites and will have public information on local district webpages. You can also find information on lake drawdowns at the state level or through other dam control entities such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
If you’re looking for a fresh bass tactics this fall, consider Jensen’s tournament-winning strategy and embrace the drawdown.
Great information. Fish movement is a science in its own right.