The 2024 Tackle Warehouse Invitationals season starts Feb. 9 with Stop 1 Presented by Power-Pole on Sam Rayburn. A historic fishery and tournament hotbed, Rayburn is a great place to kick the season off, especially if the weather cooperates.
This year, the Invitationals season is set to be a very good one, with some new lakes and old favorites on the list. Including three full days of MLFNOW! livestream coverage like usual, one 2024 tweak is that only the Top 30 will fish on Day 3, which will open the lake up some for the top contenders and allow for more in-depth coverage. As in the past, the field contains some real luminaries, and 137 pros are signed up for all six events and set to battle for Fishing Clash Angler of the Year and Bass Pro Tour qualification.
Sam Rayburn
Brookeland, Texas
Feb. 9-11, 2024
Hosted by the Jasper County Development District
Tournament details
About the fishery
Sam Rayburn has a reputation as a phenomenal bass fishery and a giant in the tournament world. At more than 114,000 acres, it’s the largest reservoir contained entirely within the borders of the Lone Star State. The Angelina River feeds Rayburn, which sprawls out into a typical Texas lowland impoundment that features timber, bushes, submerged hydrilla, plenty of bank vegetation, and, of course, lots of legendary Texas “drains,” or ditches, that are renowned for producing giant bass.
The lake is a flood-control impoundment, so it does experience high- and low-water years, fluctuating roughly 7 feet throughout a typical season. This year, the lake is very low – about 3 feet lower than it was in the winter of 2022 and 6 feet lower than it was in mid-February last year.
Rayburn is an easy 20-plus-pound lake, where limits that weigh in the upper 20s are common and 8- to 10-pound bass frequently make it to weigh-ins.
Last time
Last year, the Southwestern Division of the Toyota Series hit Rayburn twice for two events that were amazing in their own way. In the winter, Dakota Ebare won a weather-shortened event with 48-10, which included 16 pounds on Day 1 and 32 pounds on the final day. Then, in May, Alec Morrison set the record for Toyota Series winning margin when he sacked up 73-5 over three days – nearly a 25-pound average.
Both events were won off the bank and not around grass. It’s a trend that we’ve seen a lot of in recent years on Big Sam, and one that seems likely to continue in 2024.
What to expect this time
Winter weather in Texas always has the potential to really mess up January and February events on Sam Rayburn, but there’s a chance we already got that out of the way this year. A recent cold snap dropped water temperatures into the 40s in surrounding lakes, but they should be on the way up again. And, due to repairs on the rip rap at the dam, the water level is projected to remain low despite recent rains.
Generally speaking, it sounds like Rayburn looks different, but some of the “normal” winter patterns could still be effective. Marshall Hughes, an Invitationals rookie who lives in nearby Hemphill, said his pre-practice period taught him a few new things and confirmed some old news.
“There is some good grass left in the water, but a lot of it is straight-walled, really thick and really tall,” Hughes explained. “Right now, you’re fishing the edge of the grass line, and it was 2-inches under the water. Some areas had some good stuff, but there could be more if the water comes up.”
That extremely tall grass is a product of low water. Prior to the water coming down, there was a lot of grass in Rayburn. Now there still is, but some of it is literally on the bank.
“You’re going to have to mix up the shallow bite and the offshore bite to be able to win it,” mused Hughes. “This is the first time I’ve fished Rayburn this low, but I saw some fish in some areas that they should be. I was surprised almost to see them in certain places where it is shallower that are normally a lot deeper. But, I did find some fish in areas where I’ve never caught them before.”
One thing that Hughes noted is that strictly combing open water with forward-facing sonar is unlikely to be a winning gameplan. For fans that like to see long casts or a little more targeted fishing, that could be good news if he’s right.
“I don’t want to say that it can be won straight ‘Scoping, because I don’t think it can be,” he said. “I ‘Scoped a lot in pre-practice, and I didn’t catch one that was over 3 pounds. But, if you’ve got five 3-pounders and you could catch a kicker every day, that’d be pretty damn good. I think you’re still going to need to do the traditional things – drag a jig, throw a Carolina rig and fish a lipless.”
Were the event on nearby Toledo Bend, where Cody Huff helped to start the LiveScope craze in 2020, that answer might be a lot different.
“I’ve never caught a giant one suspended on Rayburn that was just out in the middle of the lake,” detailed Hughes. “On Toledo, they wolfpack out here; catching 4 -or 5-pounders suspended is really not unheard of. But, I don’t ever see that on Rayburn. I’ve always wondered, if you took a fish out of Toledo and put it in Rayburn, would it act like a Toledo fish or a Rayburn fish?”
That doesn’t mean nobody will be looking at screens, but it’s likely that we’ll see forward-facing sonar enhance presentations as much or more than it defines patterns. So, a pro targeting a hard spot or a brush pile might judge the reaction of bass on their screen, but they may not find the fish with it. Or, you might get a scenario like Michael Neal’s 2022 win, when he caught a lot of fish on a jerkbait that he beamed up around main lake drains – simply using an efficient technique and modern sonar to exploit a pattern that has been present since Big Sam was flooded in 1965.
Headlines to watch for
In every event, there are a few factors that can really shape the outcome. At Big Sam, the storylines could be Texas-sized.
- Morrison is back – When Morrison lapped a field of Texas hammers at the Toyota Series event last summer, he opened eyes around the country. Now, he’s a rookie on the Invitationals, looking to move up in the fishing world and headed back to the scene of his greatest triumph. Does he have Rayburn figured out?
- The wind blows – Rayburn in the winter can get breezy, and it frequently blows down the pipe out of the north. Combine wintertime cold with timber, low water and the biggest lake in Texas, and it is probably best to drop the hammer every day you can.
- The first look – This year’s Invitationals field contains 89 rookies. You can look at the stats and tell that some of them have what it takes, but others still need to prove it on the water. It seems like great anglers show up with little warming more than ever these days, so by the end of the year, there’s a good chance some new faces are household names.
Follow along
You can follow the action at Stop 1 Presented by Power-Pole on Sam Rayburn all week on MLFNOW! and stay locked to the website for on-the-water galleries, daily stories and more.
The post 2024 Tackle Warehouse Invitationals preview: Sam Rayburn appeared first on Major League Fishing.
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