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To angler James Burkeen's dismay, everyone
seems to know. The Bass are biting in Lake Amistad in a big way.
"I kinda liked it when it was a secret," said Burkeen, who grew up
near the lake. "Now there's a tournament here every weekend. You can't
go to a weigh-in and not have a stringer weighing at least 25 pounds if
you want to be in the top five. That's just the way it is."
The growing reputation of Lake Amistad, a 67,000-acre lake
north-west of Del Rio that borders Texas and Mexico, mushroomed after
the Citgo Bassmaster Elite Series held its 2006 season opener there.
The pros treated the ESPN2 audience to sensational fishing.
They turned in seven bags of largemouth bass weighing more than
30 pounds - including the 34-1 bag caught by eventual winner Ish Monroe.
Several pros, including Skeet Reese and Gerald Swindle, promptly
bought property at Lake Amistad.
"The fish catches were so extraordinary that a lot of the guys
just decided that they really enjoyed that body of water," said a BASS
spokesman. |
And the fishing has been even better recently, thanks to
flooding in El Paso that worked its way downstream, raising the lake's
water level, and cooler temperatures, according to Burkeen.
"To me, it's the hottest lake in the world," he said. "It's
nothing to go catch 60 to 70 fish a day. I'm catching bass in the
8-pound range consistently."
To that, Stan Gerzsenyis says amen.
"I recently won a tournament at 28 1/2 pounds," he said. "The day
after that, I caught a 9-pound bass, an 11-pounder and lost one that was
in the teens."
Topwater action at Lake Amistad is available year-round, in the
mornings at least, both anglers said. Burkeen likes to use a Zara Spook
and "walk the dog." Gerzsenyi prefers topwater frogs.
"When you're really shallow, you can see a wake as you pull the
bait," he said. "It looks like Jaws coming toward you. Before you can
see something, a bass is on the lure."
However Gerzsenyi, as well as Burkeen, believe lush expanses of
hydrilla have keyed the run on bass at Lake Amistad - with bass hiding
in the aquatic plant to both cool off and stage ambushes on prey fish.
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Gerzsenyi, who owns Lake-2-Sea Marine and Outdoors, said
he's enjoyed success in hydrilla by fishing "vertical."
He uses a Stanley red-an-black jig and a curltail trailer with a
wide wobble. Once his electronic fish finder spots where the bass are so
thick in the hydrilla that "it quits reading," he drops a line.
"I'm just vertical, not casting, in the 10-foot range," Gerzsenyi
said. "If I hit what I call the ceiling and they're not biting, I shake
it and the bait falls on down to the bottom."
Unlike many anglers, he's not keen on scenting his jig.
"The bait is flying right past the noses of the bass," Gerzsenyi
said. "They don't have time to smell. It's either strike or let it go."
Learning to fish hydrilla improves your chances of catching big
bass at Lake Amistad, said Burkeen, who is getting his captain's
license. It's required to be a guide since Lake Amistad is a national
park.
"A lot of people don't like hydrilla," Burkeen said. "But if you
learn how to fish it, it's a goldmine. Find hydrilla and you'll find
bass."
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He uses an oldham 1 1/4 ounce jig with a chartreuse trailer
attached to a 7-foot Castaway "East Texas Grass Rake." Flipping the jig,
Burkeen looks for pockets in the hydrilla where bass are hiding.
"You let it fall a bit and hit the first canopy," he said. "You
wait a second and drop to the next. you keep hitting pockets, jiggling a
couple of times. If you feel a snap, you crank down as hard as you can."
Like Burkeen, Gerzsenyi considers Lake Amistad to be Texas'
premier bass lake - and that's having spent 10 years as a guide at Lake
Fork.
"I see fish here that blow away what I saw on Lake Fork," he
said. "The water is super clear. If the wind's not blowing, you can see
25-feet down. If you're into fishing, you'll love this lake. The pros
are here for the same reason I am. The fishing is unbelievable, it's
beautiful and it's relatively undeveloped."
Not for long, though, now that the secret's out.
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