I arrived at Lake Amistad, at a park just off of 277, about
6:00 P.M. on Friday, March 30th.
The weather was nice, about 90 degrees, with high skies and a slight
breeze. I loaded up my Cuda with my “big-bass”
gear and headed out. I was aiming to
catch one big bass for the Kayak Bass Fishing King of Spring event and the 30th
was my last chance. I chose this area
because I felt it would be a great spawning flat, and should hold some solid
females. The cove has a gradual slopping
bank on both sides and has a mixture of limestone, gravel, and mud bottom, and
is covered in submerged mesquite trees.
The lake level was way down, leaving the cove to slope from nothing to
about 12-15 feet at it deepest point and then back up. My goal was to fish the deeper water, from
about 8 to 15 feet in search of the larger female bass that either just
finished spawning or were just about to.
On my second cast I landed an 18 in bass. Not bad, but not what I was looking for. I needed a fish over 25.75 inches to win, or
a fish of 21.5 inches to get in the top ten.
I kept casting my crankbait, a Rapala Fat Rap in a Bluegill pattern, with BioEdge sunfish scent wand swiped on. that
dove to about 6 feet. It was my thought
that the bass where either chasing predators off the nests and therefore were looking for sunfish. A few casts later I
hooked into bass number two that got off right at the boat. No big deal, it was a keeper size fish, but
again not what I was looking for. I
moved deeper, to about 12 feet of water and tied on the same pattern crankbait, same scent, that dives to about 10 feet. I fished it
for a while, and could tell I was smashing into some trees with it, but I wasn’t
getting bit. So…I switched back to the 6’
diver and started throwing it again. It
was just nicking the tops of the trees.
I caught another keeper bass almost immediately, so I knew this is what
they wanted.
A few cast later, about 45 minutes into my day, I hooked
into a big fish. She smashed my
crankbait and dove straight into the trees.
I thankfully pulled her out and got her to the kayak. She barely fit into the net! I finally landed the big girl and put her on
the board to measure:
Awww…21.25. Just
short! Oh well, she was a good
fish.
I made a few more cast with the crank and caught a couple
more small fish, all under 14 inches. My
guess is they were males. So I tried to
slow down and throw a big jig. Unfortunately,
the wind was picking up and I had forgotten my anchor. I was getting blown around way too fast to
fish the jig…so I had to go back to the crankbait.
I was able to fish for another hour before it got too dark
and I had to head home.
The next day I was busy and was unable to fish, but I could
head out again Sunday after Church. It
was April 1st, April Fool’s Day, and the first day of the next Kayak
Bass Fishing Tournament. I thought, well
I will just head back out to the same place, and try and pick up a few nice
fish. It would be great to get something
on the board this early. I arrived at
the lake at about 2:00 in the afternoon.
It was getting pretty warm pretty quickly. I remembered to grab my anchor this time
too. I just knew it was going to be a
good day! I started throwing the Rapala
6 foot crank…and caught nothing. I
switched to the 10 foot crank thinking the fish were deeper…and caught
nothing. I switched to a jig and fished
it slow, and fast, deep, and shallow….and caught nothing. It was very very windy and even with the
anchor I was being blown around.
I kept
moving around the cove, throwing crankbaits, jigs, and spinnerbaits trying to
find the fish. Later in the afternoon, I
picked up one 14 inch bass, then nothing again for another hour or so at
least. I fished until about 8:30 when a
nice sized storm blew in and forced me off the lake. I managed to scratch 3 fish out of the lake,
all on a crankbait. The longest was only
16 inches, so…I didn't even bother taking a picture.
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