I am reposting because there were a few that asked me to post it here for them in pm and I forgot. If it is a prob go ahead and delete it
I have had a flurry of IM's asking about the fishing down at Amistad so here we go.
The weather was spotty at best we had 99 for a high on monday and then 56 on tuesday. The water was as high as 66 and as low as 54 so there really was no consistancy.
The Jerkbait limit and i stress limit bite was the key for us...Something I realized too little to late.
My first fish was a 7 on a jig in the mouth of California creek. This is the same place I made our state team last year. The key was finding submerged trees in 20-26 feet of water preferrablly where you couldnt see to the bottom. I spent the entire second day of the tournament working out this area. What happened is my fish that were in 20-26 moved up with the coldTook me too long to realize this and when I did I could only get bit on 8lb test anything heavier and they ignored it completly.
We found on day one after I had a small limit that the moderate 2-5lb females had moved up with the cold....I know it makes no sense and I managed to break off 3 at the end of the day which ultimately would have made me the team had I landed them. They were set on small but dense stickups and would only hit and I stress only we tried a ton of other stuff...A 1/16 slider head and a finesse worm.
Day 2 I figured I had it nailed and the wind was blasting so I stayed there all day. We had a decent morning Jerkbait bite but once the skies cleared that died. I resorted to the lightweight death hoping with the high sun they would move to the trees...They never did these fish ROAMED all day you could watch them cruising but I threw everything logical and illogical and nothing materialized. Once I realized this it was too late to run to my bread and butter spot and I blew day two with a whopping 2.5lbs...Shoot me...
Day 3 was calm and the warm returned the evening of day 2. I had to make a run just above marker 20 to my bread and butter spot...5 Minutes out the gate and RAWWWWRRRRRRRR prop hub lets loose...IN FLAT CALM WATER....So I slowly move on in and enjoy Amistads 56 degree water for a quick change...We get her up and running and I cruise to my spot. We get there and this spot has a series of shallow flats trailing off into as deep as 50ft. I hammered them here on jerkbaits in prefish. We stop in between 2 flats and I launch a Dog X (sammy). Spash it hits in the 50 ft range...2 twitches and BAM 2.5 hmm ok...I proceed to get my limit in 5 casts and move toward the back of the cut. We fish that out for a while I have around an 11lb limit or so. My non gets a nice 3.5 but just cant put together any more fish lots of blow ups on topwater but now they wont hit a jerk and no no jig bites or carolina or anything else in the trees.
We move to Del Caballo? and then Tule and I start throwing a carolina and a swimbait. I had the biggest bass I have ever seen swipe the swimbait at the boat but to no avail. There are easily 25 boats in Tule and I slid back to a cut and WHAT a 3lber on topwater again. We fish this for a while and it just tapers off. Its hot and stagnant. OK well we have 1.75 hrs left and I tell him I have to run to california I did this last year and it was the answer and if I dont go itll haunt me..
We make the long run get there with about an hr left. Find my deep trees ready my jig wham 4.5 first cast....Back off flip the next tree Wham 2.5...OK chit I did this again and waited too long. About 15 minutes left draggin a jig and wham a 6.99 and its time to go. Man I got a good bag but I am pretty sure its no enough.
Head in to weigh in and I have a 17.75 bag which was one of the heavier for the day.
If I had it to do over the first 2 days would be spent in zorro and tule draggin a carolina with a 6ft leader...The bass were moving off the deep beds as we traveled over them and then moving back on and occasionally during prefish the non would get them as they returned to the nest (something I didnt realize till too late).
I would then pummel the creek mouths in 20ish feet draggin 1oz jigs. The buck were up and lookin and the females were staged out at the mouths just waiting. The deep mainlake bite only materialized for one person that I know of.
Spend your time looking for bucks when you find them look for the closest deep water with either chunk rock with patched of weeds or deep timber. Here are a few shots if anyone wants more info post here and I will answer as I can
If your fishing a carolina and get a few on lizards or whatever your throwing and it dies switch bait and color for some reason they wuld do this. We hit em onlizards for half an hr then had to switch to red brush hogs, then gold brush hogs, then beavers etc...Do this in the back of zorro where the rock fall and fence is between 10-16 feet of water they are layed up on that gravel...Found this the day after the tournament
Good luck all!
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