A good outlook for the fall

"Falcon's fall season started out with some great fishing, some unbelievable bird hunting, and a rising lake." That quote was from last year's report for October, but it is equally true for September of 2003. Bird hunters are typically finding plenty of white-wing and morning doves in the fields around Zapata, and the opening teal season, although not well-attended by hunters, opened with the arrival of a number of ducks and some good shooting. The water level in Falcon has risen from a low of 254.82 ft. this summer to 264.78 ft. as of early October. In September we had almost 11 inches of rain here in Zapata and some of the outlying areas had even more.
The good early spawn of last year has produced a large number of baby bass, and we are seeing fish from three to 10 inches schooling and chasing shad in virtually all parts of the lake. The fishermen certainly cannot complain about action as it is not uncommon to catch 50 to 100 fish a day including one or two six-inch fish on a single cast with a six-inch crankbait. There are some good solid fish to be caught, either mixed in with the smaller fish or away from the crowded shallows in 25-30 ft. of water. We had a reliable report of an 11.5 lb. bass being caught on a crankbait in the mid-lake area and several other reports of nine-pounders being caught and released. One of the baits bringing consistent success is the venerable red shad seven-inch plastic worm. Some locals have found this worm has been working well, but in 30 feet of water I really do not think the color makes much difference.
Catfishing has been good to excellent and some big cats have been coming out of the river, while the lake around marker 9, the Tigers, and marker 1 has produced good eating-sized fish. Sugar Lake in Mexico just east of Miguel Aleman has started to produce a few big bass and a lot of cats are being caught there as well. Keep in mind that October is the beginning of tournament season at Falcon and two major events will be held here, one in Mexico (Miller Lite's Copa Tamaulipas, Oct. 18-19 at Nueva Cd. Guerrero on the Mexican point), and the OPEC Legacy Tournament to benefit Falcon State Park on October 24, 25, 26. If you need information on either of these great events call us or stop by the store. There should be a lot to eat and drink, plenty of prizes, and some good catches of fall pre-spawn fish.
About a year has passed since Sen. Zaffirini (and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez) responded to our requests for intervention in what has been a cycle of neglect and abuse of Falcon by agencies, commissions, and departments responsible for decisions and or inactions that have decimated several species of fish including the white bass, channel cat, and crappie. They scheduled and held a three-hour hearing Oct. 30, 2002, which included top-level representatives from Texas Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, International Water and Boundary Commission, Border Patrol, and Zapata County Commissioners. The culmination of this meeting was the appointment of a task force to lay out a course for Falcon's future and a water plan for the new millennium.
The hearing produced a number of encouraging discussions and one very positive step forward toward resolving the issue of stabilizing the lake during the peak spawning period. We had requested that during the months of December through May, Falcon be maintained at or above 257 ft. elevation. That will result in the shoreline being up in the vegetation and spawning fish will have cover. Second, we need to have the drop controlled to no more than six inches during any two-week period. That will assure that the eggs have water covering them when they hatch. Without help from the Watermaster and TPW, this would not have been possible. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has pledged their unused water rights to offset excess evaporation loss attributed to storage in Falcon versus storage at Amistad. While we did not agree with the contention that evaporative losses are substantially different at the two reservoirs, we are grateful for the TPW action that gave us a good natural spawn at Falcon this year. Unfortunately, Mexico again capitalized on the water available (regardless of their existing nearly 1.5 million acre feet debt) and again made excessive withdrawals during April, and the six-inch drop during the two-week period goal was rendered unattainable. This resulted in the killing of the late spawn by withdrawing serious amounts of water that, according to some, was not even needed. Had the US Fish and Wildlife folks pledged their water rights as they originally promised, we could have saved millions of fish that perished during the late spawn.
Unfortunately, nothing substantive has been done to curtail the illegal Mexican commercial fishing and we know from 30 years of experience that they will not exercise restraint. When it comes to netting, every fish on both sides of the border are fair game, and this continuing pillage of Falcon will never be stopped by a couple of Texas game warden boats patrolling the lake from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Unless we take some serious action such as cross-certifying Border Patrol agents to enforce illegal harvesting, we are never going to get the impact we so desperately need. Our appeals, letters, and phone calls to the State Department, Secretary of State, the President, etc., produced no action and very little notice.
Our hopes that TPW would restock Falcon without fear of loss due to predation and lack of suitable cover never materialized. We requested a restorative stocking of white bass, crappie, sun perch, Northern black bass, channel cat, and flathead because of the decimation of these species since 1992 as a result of drought conditions and illegal netting. Also, the excessive stocking of stripers (over 4,000,000 in the 90s) that feed on many of the species that are now extinct or perilously close to reaching that level has contributed to the problems with our fishery and we requested a cessation of the striper program. What we received was a token 313,000 Florida bass, 28 white bass, and 150,000 blue gill. Don't get me wrong. We appreciate what we received.
I was originally encouraged by the positive suggestions and attitudes reflected in the hearing. A Falcon Lake Task Force was appointed by Rep. Rodriguez and was charged with the responsibility of carrying forward and assuring implementation of the recommended changes. The Task Force was to have been the focus for development of a Master Plan to assure that future water needs of Falcon and other South Texas Reservoirs were predicted and provided for. NOT! The most discouraging reality of the Falcon Lake Task Force's accomplishments is that there have been virtually none. Only one meeting has been held in the 11 months since the hearing. TPW's water rights pledge helped keep a consistent level into April, but once Mexico opened the gates we were done. No more meetings, no meaningful coordination with Mexico by the Committee, no low level launching facilities or even a written plan for development at the State Park or in Zapata, no low level vegetation program, no curtailment of illegal netting, no dredging of access channels, no buoying of hazards on the lake, only minimal stockings of two species instead of a restorative stocking adequate to restore the lake with all missing or depleted species of game fish.

Good News!
A new and revitalized group known as Save Falcon Lake Association headed by Jim Murray has started to gather names of people who want to help save Falcon, and SFLA's goal will be to bring political pressure to impact the TPW and force some changes. We would like to have about 25,000 members from Laredo sign up to help SFLA on Jim's website at www.falconlake.com.

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