The water temp has dropped on Falcon and although you hear reports of some Shallow fish. I am finding some pretty good schools of fish out in the deeper waters. I caught my deepest fish to date on a 1 oz. Copper Football Jig in 50 foot of water last trip out. Most of my fish are coming from 20 to 50 foot of water. Look for deep points and humps. The fish have been deep for several months but with the last cold snap I found fish out even deeper. Next weeks temps are forecasted to be in the low 70’s and if we can get several warm days the shallow bite will take off. The fish are staging in the mouths of the coves and channels
Speedy Collett and I went to Sugar to check out some spots for upcoming guide trips and we hit the “Mother Load”. A day that will rank as one of my top 10 Fishing days. We start the day loosing a big fish we didn’t see and then caught a 9-3 lb. At days end our best 5 were as follows: 14-8, 11-8, 9-3, 8-13, and 8-09. We could have beaten that weight had we landed some of the others we had on. All toll we broke off or hung up 8 more big fish that day. What a day.
Crankbaits were the key and the fish wanted them. DD22’s seemed to be the best and the color didn’t seem to be an issue. Points, Humps, and Drops were the pattern. More to come…….
It’s been a while since I updated the fishing on Falcon. I have been guiding several teams from Monterey Mexico in who are preparing for a tournament on Falcon this weekend. I enjoy fishing the guys from Monterey because I can practice my Spanish and they get to practice some of there English. Believe me the trade off is appreciated on both sides.
Well back to the report. I have really put in a lot of hours on Falcon so as to have enough fish to go around for all the Mexico boys and not put anyone on the same fish. The major pattern right now is fishing points. Lots and lots of points. There are fish in 4 to 14 feet on points up and down the lake. It seems like the Zapata end is holding the biggest fish on this pattern right now. Fish are hitting Dingers and Crankbaits. You need to slow down with the presentation Water temps are in the mid eighties and the fish do not seem to want to chase the bait if it is moving too fast. The fish bellow were caught early on a point we has 26+ pounds right off the bat. Big fish were up feeding and we broke off three others. Fishing on Falcon has definitely gotten better.
Well it has been quite some time since my last report so I will try and give a summary of what has happened on Falcon in Jan and Feb. First of all let me say that the word is out on Falcon and people are really starting to show up. My guide business is booming and I am busier now than before I retired. I am just coming off of 15 days straight and am really looking forward to some down time.
Fishing in Jan was difficult to say the least. Fish were moving up and back on a here today gone tomorrow pattern. From day to day we would have to search for the fish. That is not normal for Falcon (prior to the water rise) once you found them they were there most of the time. The river did not start the spawn as in most every other year. We found cold water in the river up until the end of January. I know a lot of folks spent a lot of money on fuel searching in the old places for January spawners and it was hard to find them. I lost my fish to the flooded cover as the water rose and did not see the point in looking for them until I heard from some reliable source that it was happening up river. I did not hear that until It was happening all over the lake. We had spawning fish in the Salanias the same time they spawned up river. So most of January was deep fishing for me.
February found us fighting North winds and cold water. The fish were trying to move shallow and the cold winds would drop the water temps over night and the fish would pull back out to the deep water. So I stayed deep most of the time aiming for the pre-spawn and post spawn fish. The full moon on the 9th seemed to make a big difference in the fishing and the fronts would come in but the fish could still be caught in the very little protected waters. There are so many people trying to fish that the limited protected fishable waters were getting pounded by fisherman. Something that never happened on Falcon before this year. At any rate I am content to just fish deep and let the chips fall where they may. I usually catch about 3 or 4 big fish a month and most of them are deep (18 to 25 feet). I think the weather will calm down and we are starting to see water temps stay in the 70’s. March will be the big month on Falcon. more to come…..
Since Falcon has filled Guiding for bass has gotten a little bit harder than it used to be. I have finally found several places where I know I can catch a decent bag of fish. Several weeks ago I found myself racking my brain trying to decide where to start fishing for the next days guide trip. But today I feel better. After several successful trips this week I am confident that I can go out and catch a decent stringer of 5 fish. I had 4 trips this past week and each one wound up with 24 to 30 lb. bags on our best 5 bass. Numbers ranged from (12 fish with 30+mph winds) to 29 fish per day. With that said fishing is still tough. When I leave my good spots looking for new ones sometimes I don’t even get a bite. It seems it is getting better though and I am catching lots of females that look like they can’t wait much longer to spawn. My thinking is the major spawn will start up river after the full moon on the 10th of Jan. That is if cold weather will hold off and not prolong the cold water temps. I had a good day up river with high winds and fish shallow and deep in 4′ to 22′ on soft plastics with extremely high winds. Water temps on the main lake are high 50’s in the morning and by afternoon they are in the low to mid 60’s. Presently fish are on flooded trees and rocks on points and creek channels. 12′ to 25′ seems to work for me using soft plastics in watermelon red and slow rolling a “1 oz. Green Shad spinnerbait. more to come………
As I write this report Falcon Reservoir is at 303.1 feet and 301.2 is full pool. The fish can still be caught but you have to fish pretty a little harder for them. You can still find some fish bunched up on points, humps, and creek channels but we still have not gotten back to the easy fishing of before the lake filled. In saying “bunched up” I have spent a lot of time looking only to find a few places that are holding good fish. The FLW tournament this last week proved this to be true as well with a mixed bag of fish. Some pro’s found Falcons big fish and some struggled. The tournament did set several records and the comments were made that falcon is still the best bass fishing lake in the US. Even in November you can catch five fish bags over 30 pounds. Fish are still out on the old brush lines while some are trying to move shallow a lot are still out deep. Mid January should start the move shallow. Currently my best efforts have been slow rolling big spinnerbaits and crankbaits. Football Jigs and worms are working as long as the presentation is slow. This pattern seems to be the most consistent.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If you have been to Sugar in last several years then you know what I am talking about looking at these two pictures.
Sugar is full and the water is still roaring over the dam. If you fish anywhere around the spill way on Sugar you can hear the roar of the water as it goes over. Fishing has slowed since the water has risen to full pool but you can still catch some monsters. We has a couple of trips that were not what we wanted with limits of around 25 to 28 pounds but the last trip we made found the fish ready to bite on worms in and around the brush. The lake has had time to stabilize with the high water and the fish are willing to bite when you find them. Look for fish on points up around the dam and also up the rivers.
