The lake has many obstructions in the form of deadened timber stands, tree limbs, and underwater stumps.Brush, holes, points, bends.
This is an extremely large lake especially for this area. Its size is approximately 185,000 acres [290 square miles], 1,200 miles shore line, 70 miles long and varies in width from 3 to 5 miles not including the arms that goes up into the feeder streams for up to 8 miles. This lake sits open the Louisiana Texas state line with its most central location in Louisiana at Many, Louisiana. There are a total of 80 accesses to the lake around its entire perimeter including the so called “Texas side.” Many of these are large commercial launches some of which are full scale top quality marinas with all facilities. There is more than one state park and several facilities with large campground and lodging facilities. The lake has many obstructions in the form of deadened timber stands, tree limbs, and underwater stumps. However there is a lot of open water and there are many well marked boat lanes and boat roads. In fact near the dam area SCUBA diving is very popular. So, use caution, and safe boating practices when using this lake. Toledo Bend is a national known and used large mouth bass fishing lake and produces many trophy and monster bass. Many Bass fishing tournaments are held on this lake. In addition to bass the lake also is fished for the small bream, white-perch [in south Louisiana Sac-A-Lait], catfish, and last but not least the huge striped-bass. Many activities are practiced on this large body of water including camping, Jet Skiing, swimming, boating, water-skiing among other water sports.
Toledo Bend Reservoir is a reservoir on the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana. Construction on the Toledo Bend Dam began on May 11, 1964, and water impoundment began on October 3, 1966. The lake has an area of 185,000 acres (749 km²), the largest man-made body of water in (or partially in) Texas, the largest in the South, and the fifth largest in the United States.[1] The dam is capable of generating 92 megawatts of electrical power.