Forum | Headed for Lake Falcon!

Yes good schedule id say,again nice finishes,bad though when one has to have long johns or carharts and thermals on in mexico.

Having a hard time getting started here due to boat  problems but almost all of dist 32 and many of another nearby dist are right on my door step where it all ends,ABA that is.It starts again here first of march.

Yeah in less than three weeks and its white.Not gonna flip no snow.

Yes it has the village but it's only visible when the water is down about 20'. I talked to a guy at the tournament that got some old bottles n' stuff from there when the lake was down but at 12' low it wasn't visible when I was there.

The ABA district that I fished last weekend was district 51. I plan on fishing all of their tournaments as well as my home district which is 119. 51's remaining schedule is:

2 – one day on Choke Canyon in March

2 – one day on Choke Canyon in April

2 – one day on Falcon in May

2 day championship on Amistad in June

Now that my friend is a heck of a schedule on some of the best lakes in the world!

Just to keep the record straight… I only caught 1 3# fish during practice in Mexico… Both tournament days I was on the U.S. side and never visited Mexico during the tournament…

Okiee Dokiee… here’s what happened on Lake Falcon.

Arrived Wednesday at 6am. First stop Falcon Lake Tackle. GREAT tackle shop where if they don’t have it – you don’t need it! Well… sorta. Wanted to buy a Mexican fishing license – they were out but would have some by 11:30. Wanted to get a Falcon Lake map – they didn’t have any because the maps were out of print and didn’t have a clue when they’d be getting any in. Weather – cold and windy but no rain. Attire – thermals, jeans, wind pants, t-shirt, flannel shirt, sweat shirt, snowmobile suit, nylon socks, wool socks, seal skin socks. I couldn’t move – but I was warm!

On the water around 8am. Windy cold. Water temp. 60 degrees. Ran up the river about 5 miles found an area that looked like it led to a spawning area so dropped the trolling motor and went fishing. Tried cranking in 10-15’ of water. Ain’t happening on that lake with all the mesquite trees. Went to c’rig – nothing. Had heard 10’ was a good place to start so started chunking jigs on trees/bushes in that range. Boated one that went 6#s in pretty short order then lost one at the boat that was a double digit fish. Those are the only two bites I would get for the day. Ran down lake marking fish on points but nothing I had made’em want to bite. Off the water at around 4pm.

Thursday – Light, intermittent rain but not bad. Fairly windy. Water temp. 59 degrees. Ran down lake fished several spots with no luck. Ran up the river where I caught fish the day before – nothing. Ran back down lake where the water was a bit clearer and tired swim baits, jerk baits, crank baits, three-quarter oz. football jig, c’rig and just about everything else I had in the boat – nothing. By now the wind had gotten up fairly strong and the ride back was – interesting. The trim tabs on the loaner boat do indeed make running in rough water a tad better. Finished the day with zero bites.

Friday – Ran up the river. Water temp 57 degrees. Pitching jigs caught 1 that weight 5.25. Moved to the Mexico side fishing coves/pockets off of the river. At the mouth of one of the coves caught one that went 3 pounds. Moved to the next cove/pocket. Idling in the engine starts loading up and dies. Crap… Put it in neutral, pray, hit the key – it starts! Whew…. Put it in gear – it dies. I know what the problem is. I got into a gill net. Trim the engine to confirm what I suspect. Biggest wad of nylon rope and mono gill netting covers the prop. Ain’t no way I can reach it to get it off. About that time two gill netting Mexicans happen by, see my predicament, turn around and come back. Those guys worked about 15 minutes in fairly rough open water trying to get that mess off my prop. They managed to get most of it and when they finished the prop would turn – good enough for me! Fished a bit more then ran back to the ramp and trailered  out. Score for Friday – 2 bites 2 fish and about 50’ of gill net. It ain’t looking good for the tournament.

Get back to the room and pull the prop. There’s a mess of mono gill net and nylon rope on the prop shaft behind the prop and the mono has melted and looks like a prop shaft seal. But the seal is in place and doesn’t appear to be leaking. Pull the plug and oil comes out. But there appears to be damage to the seal. There is only on Marine dealer in Zapata. I went there. They didn’t have any seals. Didn’t look like they had much of anything. Decided to take my chances and run it as is. I had no problems with it during the tournament though I’m pretty sure the lower unit has water in it. I’ll find out this week.

I’ve fished 3 days thus far. I’ve had approx. 6 bites and caught 4 fish. But I also have a game plan. Go up river to a deep cove and keep a bait in the water.

Saturday: Started with quarter oz. jig. First fish came about 11:30 in about 3’ of water and weighed about 2#s.  So I decided to fish even shallower… How shallow? My sonar on the bow read 1.5’ and it was as far back in the pocket as I could get the boat and I was pitching shallow from there. I caught 2 one about 7#s and one around 6#’s fairly quick. Water temp is 57 degrees. Then nothing…. There is not a tree in that cove without a jig mark on it today! Sooo…. Started casting a 3/4 oz. football jig shallow and dragging it deep. Deep is relative here as the deepest part of this cove bottomed out at 13 feet. But… boated one around 5#s and another around 4#. At the end of the day I caught one more fish with 3/4oz. jig that culled my first fish of the day but only for a about a half-pound gain. I wasn’t able to get rid of that one small fish. Figured it cost me the tournament but back to weigh-in I went. After it was all said and done I ended up winning the Saturday tournament with a sack tipping the scales at a bit more than 24#’s. Second place had 21#s and I think third was 20. There were several 18’s.

Sunday: Back up the river. Sink or swim, hero or zero the die has been cast. Just like yesterday I’m committed to spending the entire day in that same cove. I bought some 3/8 oz. Oldham jigs the night before(watermelon red) and that’s what I start the day with. First fish came quick in the first 10-15 minutes. But only 2 pounds. Second fish came in about the same amount of time but again only around 2 pounds. Third fish came shortly after that but… tipped my hand held scales at 8.02. Ahhhh… things are looking up! Catch fish #4 in short order but only around 2 pounds. I only have 3 culling beads on the boat and now 3 – 2 pound fish have been beaded. Soon I boat another 2 pound fish. At this point I have 4 fish but no more culling beads. This last fish is the smallest of the 2 pounders, the fish are biting well so I chunk it back in without having a limit in the boat. At about 8:30 I finally catch another in the 2 pound range… This one goes in the live well! That bite at 8:30 ended up being my last bite of the day. The weather turned off really nice on Sunday. Temps in the upper 70’s and wind under 5mph all day. We all thought the bite would turn on – it didn’t. Water temp finally did get back to 60 degrees but not soon enough to get the fish moving up or active. Back to the weigh in. I ended up weighing in 18.88 which was good for third place money. Thought I was going to win big fish as well until a guy in my division brought a 10+ to the scales. First place on Sunday was 22+. I’m not sure what second place was but it was more than 18.88 and less than 22.14.

Wondering if snowshoes would help your t fishing as its snowing in much of the great state of texas.

Well this time last year was running around in a long sleve shirt here,not so this year,envy that temp as its 30 here and white (unusual)(global warming my azz).

If it were same temps here id be out rather than typing.