May 22, 2012
Time is flying by this month… I know I missed a report but it’s been very busy on the water and off. Lots of stuff going on in my angling world and some exciting things are popping up in the near future. Lake Amistad has been fishing fairly well over the last few weeks but we are starting to see some major pattern changes as summer takes hold of the prevailing fish behavior. The water temps are in the high 70’s to low 80’s and the lake level has recently come down a foot to 1093ft above sea level after nearly 8 weeks of stable levels. I have heard we could see a drop of another 8-10 feet over the next 4-6 weeks… we’ll see.
Current Patterns -
Shallow: Grass continues to hold fish in the shallow water and some of the hydrilla is now growing good in depths of 6-10 feet. Topwaters are still effective but seems to be fading over the last week or so. They will continue to catch fish but not quite the quality it was producing earlier in the month. I have been catching some good fish on 1/2oz green pumpkin chatterbaits tipped with Optimum double diamond swimbaits as a trailer. I’am working this set up around the grass and brush cover winding it slowly for fish up to 5lbs. Square bill crankbaits also continues to be successful around the grass in the pockets just off the main lake. Most of these bass are guiding fry in the back ½ of the pockets with good hydrilla around the banks. The El Grande Sapo bite is heating up in select locations around the lake. Stay as shallow as possible for best results with this presentation.
Mid-Depth: A 1/2oz football jig in brown/purple, Carolina rig and Texas rig plastics still produces around rocky cover and quick drops in the 10-20 foot depth zone. When the bite gets slow I have also used some deep diving crankbaits to get a ‘reaction bite’ from fish that are otherwise tough to catch in slow periods of the day.
Deep: The deep bite seems to be beginning to produce a lot of the bigger bites. 5/8oz and ¾ oz football jigs are my choice. I would not hesitate to drop shot some fish that are hanging on ledges in the 20-40 foot zone as well. You might not get a lot of bites right now in this depth zone but the fish are heading here as the water temps continue to increase over the next couple weeks.
See you out at the Lake!
Kurt
