I finally was able to schedule a day with my son Chris this past weekend and really wanted to put him on some big Falcon Hogs. Well, I didn’t manage any monsters but we did catch some in the 6 and 7 pound range. Most of the fish are coming off the spinnerbait. I am finding a lot of fish shallower than I normally do. The water has been on a gradual rise for the past week and the fish are moving with the water. 4 to 8 feet in open water areas of the bank are holding fish. The points are still producing the better fish but this past week the wind has made it difficult for some of the anglers to feel the fish and besides when a fish bites the spinnerbait you know it. So I opted to fish the spinnerbaits. Falcon Specials in the white and chartreuse are colors of choice. I am throwing anything from 3/8 oz to 1 oz. The wind being the deciding factor as for baits. The heavier the bait the faster I have to reel to keep it off the bottom. The new brush jigs are working well some days and other days the fish won’t touch it. But, the days they want it the big bite is on! You just have to throw it an see what mood the fish are in. The last set of pic’s are Michael Anthony. The big fish was from a couple of weeks ago it weighed 11.02 pounds Caught off a brushy point in 12 foot of water on a 7 inch Yum “Dinger” in Green Pumpkin neon color.   More to come….

I have been waiting to update the blog until I was able to get back on the water. Before the “Great Flood of 2010” I was catching some pretty good fish. But with all this water, I was reluctant to make any big fish predictions. I went three straight days without much success on big fish. We were catching a lot of smaller fish and the big fish were only 6 to 7 pounds and not many of those. I was pleased that the smaller ones would bite but couldn’t seem to locate the big ones. All that changed on Saturday afternoon. I had some close friends stop by and we decided to go out for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. We’ll we wound up with 38 lbs on Saturday with the biggest fish and 9.11 lb. hefty and with that kind of fishin I decided maybe I should go out on Sunday. My expectations were not as good as they are now but I was hoping we would get a few more big ones. To my surprise we had another big bag (41.85 lbs). The biggest weighin in at 10.02. We were culling 7 pounders and I was in heaven. I have been using the Spinnerbaits to locate the schools of fish and then catching what I can until they quite and then Taking a Texas rig or a Brush Jig and finishing out the area. It has been working well for me to find the fish. These fish are not everywhere but when you find them the fun is on. We caught lots of fish and it’s hard to try and remember the actual count but we tried. Best guess is between 30 and 40 fish per day.

Patterns: I am looking for Points with brush ( Hah! every point in the lake is covered with brush) Not all points hold fish. So I us the spinnerbait as a search bait and cover a lot of water. Then I slow down when I find some fish and work the area. I am using a new spinnerbait 3/8 oz. Toledo Special and a new jig 5/8 oz. Watermelon Red Flippin Jig . They both seem to be working very well. Most of the bigger fish are coming out a little deeper. About where the old water line used to be. 12 to 17 foot is my prime depth. Some points will hold shallower fish as well. We didn’t fish much less than 10 foot.

Well, Things seem to be slow down here, Not many boats on the water. Not everyone is catching these big ones but some of us are and you need to get down here pretty quick and get you some. More to come………

If you are  looking for a lake with little to no fishing pressure Falcon should be your choice. With all the summer HEAT  temps in the 100’s and all the help with negative publicity about Pirates on the border, Falcon fish are safe from would be fisherman. Although we have not had a confirmed sighting of “Pirates” for more than 7 weeks Folks are still staying away in droves. I have been fishing on Mexico side for a while to test the waters and they are good. I have seen quiet a few other bass boats fishing Mexico as well with no issues to date. We had a big day on Sunday with over 40 pounds with our best 5 fish. 10.87 was the kicker with another 9.27 to back it up. We broke off two other big ones in the 7 to 8 pound range and had quite a few in the 6 to 7 pound class. All the fish were caught on Mag Flukes in either watermelon red or green pumpkin purple. I am fishing underwater humps and points with 10 to 12 foot of water on them. Some of the fish are on top while others are out off the drop. You can also catch em up in 6 to 8 foot flipping the bushes with 7” Sinkos in watermelon red or Green Pumpkin Purple. The deep fish are consistent but hard to fish for in the high winds of late. More to come………

My last report called for the fish moving out deep and abandoning the shallows. So I thought!!!  These Falcon fish can move faster than you ever dreamed from one spot to the other. Well, I have to say that they are back shallow and I am catching good numbers most days with some big fish in a shallow as 2 to 6 foot. Look for any points that has either rock or brush on it. I know that describes most every point on Falcon but the truth be known you need to fish a lot of points and you will catch fish. Some hints are points that have birds wading in the water feeding. I always try them. We are catching fish on the American side. I am not taking any of my clients to the Mexican side at this time to fish. I am 60m years old and still want to fish a lot more. So NO MEXICO FOR ME. Back to my report. Watermelon Red Sinkos, Flukes “magnum size with tails dipped in Garlic Chartreuse seems to take a lot of fish. Green Pumpkin works as well. We had a great day with top water baits. The fish were busting shad on the points and when you would catch one there would be 3 or 4 others trying to take the bait away from the one you had on your line. Falcon isn’t known for it top water bite but right now I would not venture out without some type of bait tied on. Chug bugs and Walking baits seem to do the best. Blue and Chartreuse see to be good color. More to come………..

Notice: There has been reports of some folks being checked on the Mexican waters by “Federales” so I would strongly advise you not to fish the Salanias or the Salado coves until the Mexico issues are resolved. If I hear of any other issues concerning the safety on falcon I will gladly pass them on to you.

Last report I had mentioned about the shad spawn and how the topwater bite was on in 2 to 5 foot on rocky points. Well, as usual that has changed for me. I am know getting bit a little deeper. 8 to 12 foot on the edges of creeks where you find brush which is most creeks. Some fish are still on points as well. I do have several areas out deep (18 to 30 where I am still able to get bit. In the creeks and edges of the creeks I am using Yum diggers in the 7 inch watermelon red and green pumpkin purple are working as well as Magnum flukes in the similar colors. Dingers and Football jigs are working out deep. I had one day of good spinnerbait fish using the 1 oz. white Falcon special in 10 to 14 foot throwing around the flooded brush. I let the bait go to the bottom and then worked it back on a slow retrieve. More to come…….

The shad are up on the bank and the fish are there with them. Look to find shallow fish on rocky points in 2 to 5 foot of water. The fish are there feeding on all the shad that are up shallow. This will not last much longer but it started about a month ago and has continued through today. We are catching the shallow fish on plastics and topwaters. Pop R’s are working as well as most any of your favorite top water baits. Look for the fish busting the shad and cast to those areas. Mother nature helps locate the good points by letting the white birds slip along the shallows to get their fair. So most points with white birds up shallow will hold some fish. We are getting a lot of fish shallow and some are good ones but the best bet for those of you wanting the big fish needs to be the deep bite. Football jigs and worms are doing the most damage for me. Look for deep points and humps out to 35 foot of water. Last couple of trips have produce three fish over ten. A 10.93,10.77,and a 10.43 with other fish in the 5 to 7 pound class. You will definitely catch more fish shallow but the big ones are waiting out deep. I have heard of several big fish being caught up shallow as well but for my bet I am doing better out deep for the big ones.

Water temps have risen in the last week and the Fish are moving to the shallows to spawn. I have been fishing for several weeks up river and the spawn has been happening for several weeks up there. I am now seeing bass fry around most of the trees in shallow water. So we have had a successful spawn up there. I moved up lake to around the mid lake areas the last several days and am finding the fish moving shallow and the spawn is happening there as well. All reports are fish on spinnerbaits and casting or flippin worms to bushes in 5 to 8 foot with the deeper fish being the better ones. The weather is due to stay warm so the whole lake will take off in the next several weeks. Fishing is going to be hot and heavy.

I say no!!! I have been fishing the lake hard and have only found two major spawning coves thus far. Some of my colleagues are saying they think the spawn is half way over but I think the main part is yet to come. Our water temps have been on a roller coaster ride for the last 6 weeks and the fish are really wanting it to happen but reports I am hearing are that some of us are on some schools of potential spawners and others are still looking. I have found one cove that is loaded with males and females and had I not shared this place with some of my other folks I think I could have made the whole spring in the one cove. The fish are moving up with the bucks in 3 to 4 foot along with some females but most of the bigger fish are coming from the deeper part of the cove. Flipping is working in the trees for the bigger females and Spinnerbaits and plastic Texas rigged worms are taking the majority of the others. I was catching up to 50 fish a day in this cove and still can manage a good day when the weather allows. Look for the fishing on Falcon to bust wide open in the weeks to come.

I have been searching for some shallow areas with big fish close. Yesterdays trip proved that the fish are really making their way back to the backs of creeks and drains. With North winds to 20 miles an hour and cool temperatures I tried to prepare my clients for a long day of casting and maybe not much catching. I was wrong. First stopped had a big fish on and jumping like she was an Olympic swimmer throwing the spinnerbait back at us. By 8:14 we had a 9:75 lb female in the boat and at 9:00 another Falcon lake monster jumps at the boat on slings the baits back at us. This fish was even bigger that the other monster. The rest of the day was good with fish in the 4 to 5 pound class. We caught a fair amount of bucks when we moved to the shallows but the good fish seemed to be on the points, creek edges in the trees, and on rocks. Spinnerbaits in the 3/4 to 1 oz range were the ticket in the wind. We used the big size to help us keep it slow. The magnum blade Chartreuse and white magnum spinnerbait definitely out produced the standard blades. Had several fish on worms but the blade was the bait of the day.

The cold has come and gone. I had been catching fish deep and that bite has gone south. I can still get some fish in 20 to 30 foot on Football jigs and plastics but the big schools I had located before the freeze have moved. I think the transition from deep to shallow has begun. Went out today to check some spots and found fish to 5 1/2 up shallow. Smaller buck bass and some big fish have moved to 6 foot or less. Still not a spawn going on but the fish are up looking and cruising. It won’t be long now. We just need mother nature to let us have a few more days of warm but the weather man calls for more cold to come. You can catch numbers in the backs of pockets on Worm (lizards and creature baits) I have also been successful throwing moving baits ( Spinnerbaits and shallow crankbaits). The fish are not everywhere yet but give them time and this spawn will happen. Look up the river on bad weather days and then almost any pocket or creek on nice days. More to come…..