Low water levels and slow fishing
at Falcon Lake

Falcon Lake has recovered some of its drop and sits at 255.94 feet as of June 30. It reached a low of 254.82 feet on May 27, but since the 24th of June we have started to see lower daily levels. Many of you will remember that the lake was stabilized in December and remained above 268 feet through the first week in April. This produced an excellent early spawn. The lake level peaked at 268.77 feet on March 14.
Through this date we have received only 1.78 inches of rain in June, 1.02 inches in May, and .45 inches in April. In the first quarter, we recorded only 3.52 inches of rain. Actually we had a number of days in April with drizzle (in addition to the .45 precipitation recorded) that helped the lawns, but was not enough to measure. The drought has been severe to say the least. Most of you have heard that for the first time in 50 years, the Río Grande quit flowing at Big Bend. Because of this the watermaster will be conserving the water in Amistad so Falcon will bear the brunt of demands for irrigation water for the Valley this summer. Looks like another summer in the 246-248 foot range unless we see a hurricane or significant rain.
The fishing has pretty much varied from poor-to-good on black bass, but catfishing and striped bass fishing have been good-to-excellent most of the month. Bruce Fox had the big bass for the month of 9 lbs., but the fish was released without a picture. It was caught mid-lake on a plastic super fluke worked slowly over a brush pile. Slow is the key word. Do not rush your presentation.
Several fishermen have indicated that some fish are still being caught in the hardwoods in depths of 5 ft. or less early morning. Mid-morning and after the sun breaks through, fishermen have been finding fish on rocky points and drop offs anywhere from 8 to 15 ft. Plastic baits like brush hogs, baby brush hogs, worms, and lizards have been mentioned as types of plastics working. Colors have varied from watermelon with gold, red, or blue flake.
Crankbaits are always a good choice this time of year. For early morning success, I always have a GDD22-131 tied on. This is a Norman Gel colored bait in red/black back and it is an early-morning killer bait for big bass. I have taken a lot of 7 lb.-plus fish with this bait while bouncing it off the rocks before sunlight. When the sun breaks through, I usually prefer throwing a fire tiger or other another variety with chartreuse as the primary color. The GDD22-182 watermelon bait is always a good option.
Tournament activity for the month has been confined to several small clubs and results have been marginal at best, with 15 lbs. being the heaviest stringer for typical day and a half tournament, at least in so far as I have heard. Husband and wife team David and Mrs. Hertzog won first and second place at the Wildcat Bass Club June tournament. They each caught several 5 lb.-plus fish working brush piles. I heard rumors that some non-tournament fishermen caught 5-fish up to 25 lbs, but most of these reports were third hand.
Summertime means big gar and this summer is no exception. Be alert to gar obstructions when running the lake. They will lie around near the surface and can cause prop and/or lower unit damage via an unlucky direct hit. A 6 ft., 4 in. gar weighing about 150 lbs. was taken from the Río Grande north of Zapata on a bow and arrow by Esquivel Prieto and his friend Marilyn. Several of the perennial Oklahoma Gar Hunters were in town looking for big gar one week, but no reports probably means no big fish, at least not that week.
Fishing below the Falcon Dam has slowed down from the solid reports of big bass received for the past few months. This month's results have been sporadic with a lot of undersized fish and only a few big ones. Word is that jigs and craw worm trailers worked well for some of the local fishermen from Roma. We posted some of their recent catches on our website's Big Fish Gallery.
This week we received a letter from Roberta S. Jacobson, director, Office of Mexican Affairs, United States Department of State Washington D.C. 20520. Her letter was a response to the letter we wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell. She indicated that discussions were continuing between US Senior Officials and Mexico on the water issues. She stated, "We intend to continue these discussions with the goal of developing a long-term solution." You may want to write Ms. Jacobson and reminder her that this situation with Mexico goes back to 1994 and will be ten years of discussion and politics without progress next year. It's about time for action and an end to diplomatic discussion. Until next week, keep your hooks in the water, your powder dry and always be a good sport.

(Larry E. Bridgeman is the owner of Falcon Lake Tackle in Zapata, TX. Visit the Falcon Lake Tackle website at www.tackleandrods.com.)