Lake Falcon produces monster largemouth numbers
Everyone knew the Bassmaster Elite Series Lone Star Shootout at Lake Falcon on April 3-6 would produce some big numbers. But no one was certain how big things might get out there until Alabama pro Aaron Martens and his co-angler partner, Randall Jackson of Broken Bow, Okla., bellied up to the scales well ahead of the scheduled first round weigh-in.
Both anglers were toting weigh bags stuffed with fat bass of remarkable proportions. Martens five-fish limit weighed a whopping 42 pounds, which at the time was the second heaviest haul in BASS history. Jackson's bag weighed 32.10 pounds.
Amazingly, the plump sacks came after only a half-day of fishing that started out in a whirlwind of activity and ended with both anglers racing the clock. Martens elected to call it quits and head to weigh-in early, because the livewells on his bass boat were so jam packed with Falcon lunkers that the fish began acting sickly.
"There's not enough room in there for 70 pounds of fish, which is what we had," Martens said. "It's impossible to cull fish at that point. It was almost funny, until they started getting sick. This is the best largemouth bass lake I've ever been to."
Martens wasn't the only Elite Series pro nursing that notion. He and Jackston started a big bass parade that established an early pace seemingly destined to crush Steve Kennedy's all-time four-day weight record of 122.14 pounds set last year on California's Clear Lake.
The pace gained steam as the tournament progressed. For four consecutive days, Falcon Lake cranked out monster sacks of fish to shock the imaginations of some the best bass pros in the country. And Kennedy's record was thrashed. Not once but six times.
The numbers tell the story. All 12 anglers who fished the final day cracked the fabled century mark.
Veteran pro Paul Elias of Laurel, Miss., won the tournament, but not by much. Elias amassed 132.8 pounds, followed by Terry Scroggins, who rode the event's heaviest five-fish limit of 44.4 pounds on the final day to charge from 12th place all the way to second with a four-day total of 132.4.
Third place went to Del Rio's Byron Velvick at 131.15, while Martens was fourth at 129.7. Mark Davis of Mount Ida, Ark., was fifth at 128.15, and Scott Rook of Little Rock, Ark., placed sixth with 125.10.
Not surprisingly, just about every angler who crossed the stage offered rave reviews of the 84,000-acre lake that flanks the tiny South Texas town of Zapata on the Texas-Mexico border. Most had a story or two to tell about big ones that got away. Several reported tangling with fish too strong to hold on 80-pound test braided line.
The hands of former Bassmaster Classic champion Mike Iaconelli of Runnemade, N.J., were so badly mangled from handling fish that he taped them up like a prize fighter for protection. Iaconelli told reporters that Falcon is the best bass lake in the world, bar none.
"I have fished tournaments for 15 years and fished all over the world, and I've never seen a better lake than this," Iaconelli said. "It's the most amazing fishery ever. It is absolutely bar none, hands down, the best bass lake I have ever fished in the world. It's crazy."
How crazy did it get?
Some anglers reported throwing back as much as 30 pounds of bass in a single day in hopes of upgrading their weight a pound or two.
Velvick reportedly tossed back as many as 10 bass in the 6-pound range on Day 1 while trying to better his sack. Interestingly, Velvick was sharing his spot -- an underwater point riddled with rocks and remnants from an old home site -- with Martens, who lead the event until struggling in the final round.
Counting the fish weighed by their co-anglers, Martens and Velvick weighed in close to 280 pounds of bass off the sweet spot in two days -- and it was almost twice that if you count the bass they threw back.
The incredible fish stories continued.
Scott Campbell of Springfield, Mo., bagged 33 pounds, 15 ounces in the opening round thanks in part to a 13-pound, 2-ounce giant which he subsequently donated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Bud ShareLunker program.
Campbell's bass is the 452nd bass entered in the program since November 1986 and the eighth ShareLunker entry from Lake Falcon.
Bud ShareLunker program director David Campbell of Athens said the Falcon lunker was retrieved by TPWD fisheries biologist Randy Myers and his staff from San Antonio. The bass was taken to a lakeside tackle shop where it was placed in a large minnow vat to await transport to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. Myers said the big bass appeared to be "having some problems," probably as a result of being caught from deep water.
According to Myers, bass caught from water deeper than 20 feet and placed in a livewell sometimes experience difficulties adjusting to the change in water pressure. A fish's swim bladder compensates for the increased pressure in deep water by slowly inflating using air fed through its bloodstream. This allows the fish to maintain its balance and not struggle to stay at that depth.
Just the opposite occurs in a fish that gradually swims into the shallows, where its air bladder gradually deflates.
Problems can occur when a fish is reeled in quickly from deep water and placed in a livewell, because its swim bladder can't adjust quickly enough to compensate for the sudden change in pressure. According to Myers, these fish will often exhaust themselves trying to relocate to a comfort zone they can't find in a livewell that is only a couple of feet deep.
"If you catch a fish in deep water and throw it back immediately, it will often swim back down perfectly," Myers said. "But if you hold that fish for a while, it constantly struggles to go down, fighting the buoyancy. After a while it gets to the point of exhaustion and goes belly up."
Although TPWD does not advocate the procedure, Myers said "fizzing" can be an effective way to help alleviate a distended swim bladder. Fizzing involves using a hypodermic needle to pierce the swim bladder and manually bleed excess gases. It can be performed by inserting the needle through the side of the fish or through the mouth. Correct needle placement is critical.
"Fizzing can definitely help if it is done correctly by someone who is experienced," Myers said. "Saltwater fishermen do it a lot when they catch red snapper out of deep water. A lot of tournament anglers are doing it, too. The sooner you can deflate a distended swim bladder, the better the chance the fish has to survive."
Myers has been the TPWD point man for Lake Falcon and another South Texas jewel, Lake Amistad, for only two years. But the veteran biologist said he knew of Falcon's potential for producing heavyweight bass long before that. According to Myers, the unthinkable weights brought to the scales by BASS Elite Series pros last week may have surprised a lot of people, but not him.
"It didn't surprise me at all. I expected it," Myers said. "We've been saying for a couple of years that Lake Amistad is great, but Falcon is better when it comes to size of fish in a tournament situation. It's literally full of fish right now. Falcon hasn't received near the pressure that Amistad has over the last couple of years, probably because it is so remote, but that's probably going to change as the word begins to spread after this tournament."
Zapata native Robert Amaya has been fishing Falcon since he was a kid. Amaya runs a guide business and owns a lakeside tackle shop that became a hub for Elite Series anglers at the end of each fishing day.
Amaya said most of the pros he spoke with were stupefied by the phenomenal fishing they found at Falcon.
"They talked a lot about how mean and strong these fish are," Amaya said. "I told them I'm 50 years old, but I feel like I'm 32. This lake keeps me feeling young. Fighting these fish keeps me in shape."
• Matt Williams' e-mail address is mattwilliams@netdot.com.
Share this story:
Google
Yahoo
digg
del.icio.us
facebook
Slashdot
