February 23, 2012
Lake Amistad is starting to change over into spring time patterns. Fishing has been pretty good but not excellent… yet! The lake water level has dropped down to 1100 feet above sea level and continues to drop, but much not as fast as it did in Jan. Water temps have reached the high 50’s to low 60’s and some bass are making some serious moves into shallow habitat preparing for spawning activity. We will have a cold front come in over the next few days but more stable weather over the next 2 weeks will get some numbers of fish up on the beds shortly. The most exciting change over the past 2 weeks is that the swimbait bite is starting to heat up!
Current Patterns -
Shallow: Lots of fish are in the very backs of creeks around hydrilla in 1-5 feet of water. Fishing around drains and flats in these shallow areas with 5’ Optimum BLT swimbaits in the ‘Bass’ color has been very productive. The squarebill bite also remains good as long as we have some windy weather. On days when the water is calm I have had very good success on El Grande Hatch-Match stick baits and dark colored trick worms texas rigged with very light weights. The past couple days has found some fish finicky and dead sticking plastics has been effective as well.
Mid-Depth: I continue to have good success with the Ima Flit 120 in TN. Shad in the 5-15 foot zones. Concentrating on points and creek channels with bait present has been the key to success. Texas rigging is also getting much better in the mid-depth zone around staging areas. Look for the last deep water before the flats to locate fish on your graph and target them with large plastic worms or crankbaits.
Deep: I haven’t fished deeper than 20 feet in the past 2 weeks.
Tip: I know it’s early but chucking around some topwater on flats in the mornings can be rewarding.
See you on the Lake,
Kurt
