Opening Comments

This week let’s talk about winter bass fishing here in the USA. Our peak business at Lake El Salto and Lake Comedero Mexico is in the wintertime–January to April. Mexico bass fishing is at its peak and bass bite like crazy this time of the year in Mexico.

However, the opposite is true here in the States as the weather is mostly cold and windy. It’s usually really hard to get black bass to bite when the water temp is below 60 degrees. Bass in cold water have really slow metabolisms and they don’t move very much and they don’t eat very often as they are not using very much energy. They stay suspended off the bottom in schools and they just hibernate in a lethargic trance.

I really don’t recommend trying to bass fish in these cold conditions but if you must I will give you one method I have had some success with in past winters. I recommend that you pick one of the most popular creeks to fish during the warm months. Hopefully it will be a mid-lake creek that has good spawning areas later in the spring. I recommend that you put your boat over in the creek bed at a point where the creek runs into the lake. Start up the creek going toward the back of the creek with your electronics going full blast. You need to have the intensity set so you can read shad and bass and hopefully be able to determine which is which. You really are looking for schools of shad as the bass won’t be far off the shad. Both shad and bass will be suspended in the bed of the creek in water that fits their comfort zone.

Also you want to try to locate a creek bed depth of maybe 20 to 30 ft deep and the outside bank depth of the creek is 10 to 12 feet deep or less. Now that you have found the shad, bass and the right depth of the creek bank you now are ready to start fishing. I recommend a black & blue # 97 Stanley jig in a 3/8ths weight. I recommend a large pork trailer to make the jig fall very slowly. I also like to put a shaker or noise maker on the jig.

This type of fishing MUST BE DONE VERY SLOWLY and try to bump every stump on the bank of the creek. On every good looking lay down you probably need to pitch into them several times. Move your boat very slowly with your troller on a low setting. Your mind set should be to try and see if you can get just one bite all day. If you do catch one then your next goal is to try and catch one more etc.

There may be 100 bass suspended over the deep water in the creek but there may be only one or two in a 12-hour day that moves up on the bank to eat a crawfish or a shad. That means you must be in the right place at the right time.

One day Ron Jr. & I were fishing a tournament on Richland Chambers Lake. On practice day we heard that a fellow from Normangee Texas had located some really big bass suspended in Richland Creek. The creek bed was 35 feet deep and the bass were suspended in 20 ft of water. This guy tied up to a dead tree out near the creek. He stayed there the whole 2 days of the tournament throwing a Texas rigged 6 in. purple Creme worm. The first day he only got 5 bites all day but those 5 bites produced 5 bass that weighed 34lbs. The next day he caught 6 bass and the 5 fish weighed in at 35 lbs and he won the tournament. This was not a wintertime tournament, but I wanted to give you all an idea of how slow your wintertime fishing could be.

One note of caution: remember to locate the shad & bass with your electronics first. Don’t start fishing until you locate them as you are just wasting time.

Tournament of Champions at Lake Comedero December Winner:

Cindy Cox
26.75″ long 18.5″ girth
guide Arnaldo
Bait watermelon lizard

Cindy’s reward is a totally free return trip to fish El Salto or Comedero!

Tournament of Champions at Lake El Salto December Winner:

Christina Carqueville
28″ long 18″ girth
guide Armando jr
bait 8″ wacky rigged watermelon senko

Christina’s reward is a totally free return trip to fish El Salto or Comedero!

View larger pictures and read more about this monthly contest.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FISHING AND REMEMBER TO WEAR THAT LIFEJACKET.

Fish Report

Just a note to say Mexico bass fishing the past couple weeks looks pretty good as the lakes are full at both El Salto and Lake Comedero.

Tip

This week I am going to talk about a plan to help every outdoor sportsman with his every day life and the great benefits of the outdoor lifestyle. For many of my years I would just fish with no hunting. When the fish didn’t bite here in the winter I would either fish in Mexico or stay at home with no hunting.

Until about 5 years ago I had gone 10 years without firing a shot, just fishing during the warm months of the year. I had forgotten just how much I loved following a couple good bird dogs hunting quail or even hunting squirrels in the Trinity River bottom. I wasn’t ever a big deer hunter but I do love to eat the back straps when they have been marinated in Worcestershire sauce (can you believe I spelled that right?!) and grilled on a pit using mesquite wood.

Last week, things just caught up with me with the economy, Virginia’s health, not being able to go to West Texas hunting and the local fish not biting. The only thing going well that day was that the Mexico bass fishing business is better than last year or the year before. Thank goodness!!! However, I was in a real funk and I decided to take my bird dogs and a buddy to Upland Game Bird Farm at Corsicana, Texas and hunt pen-raised quail. On our way to Upland I began to feel a very calming sensation as we talked about dogs and bird hunting and some great hunts we had years ago.

We arrived at Upland and found out that Steve Stroube had planted 18 birds early that morning so we went straight to the pasture and put the dogs on a stakeout chain. Man oh man did I feel good — really hard to describe. We watered the dogs, had the breakfast of champions (a good cold Coca-Cola) and then released my two-year-old English pointer named Penny. Penny took off like a bullet with her tail cracking and having so much fun it got Rick and me pretty excited. She had been down about 4 minutes when she hit a strong point, looking like a frozen statue. Rick had my 20 gauge over & under Ruger and a pocket full of shells. He walked up in front of Penny and out blew 3 bobwhite that were almost as fast as wild quail. Penny stood still waiting on Rick to shoot. Rick didn’t kill a single bird. In fact he didn’t even shoot. The birds came up all around him for a perfect shot and I knew he had a pocket full of shells. Come to find out that was the problem… He had the shells in his pocket and none in the gun. I told him it is hard to kill quail with an empty gun.

We put down a total of 6 dogs, got 3 good stop to flush, 4 more points, and 2 good backs, and killed a grand total of 2 quail out of 18 birds. Not too much for the skillet but it was just the perfect medicine for me. I had so much fun being out with a great friend and my string of good dogs. On the way home I told Rick that was the most fun I had in several years. When I got home I told Virginia I felt better than I had felt in years and was ready to get back to work full steam. The next day in the office I couldn’t talk enough about our Mexico bass fishing or our Brazil Peacock fishing. I think I worked about 12 hours that day and wasn’t even tired. In fact I really didn’t want to quit work!

The point I am making is that everyone should have a rule in their life to get away every so often from their work so as to live a longer life and a much happier life. Outdoors writer Ray Sasser, a long time friend who writes for the Dallas Morning News, set the perfect example for me years ago but I am so hard-headed. Ray changes his activities as each season comes and goes as that is his job. Without a doubt it is best to change up your fishing and hunting with the seasons but always take off every week or two and go do something you enjoy in the outdoors. REMEMBER IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO GO WITH A GOOD FRIEND.

Every outdoors man should have at least 2 freezers filled with a good amount of crappie, catfish, deer back straps, quail, duck, squirrel, turkey breast, hams off of wild pigs, wild turkey breast, and crawfish tails left from your last crawfish boil. If you will buy a FoodSaver (Professional 300) and freeze wrap your wild game and fish it won’t get freezer burn and will taste like you just caught it or killed it. If game is not freeze wrapped I won’t eat it if it is frozen any other way. Try it!

Today’s tip is a little different but one that could make your life much more enjoyable, and possibly longer. You don’t have to go with us on a Mexico bass fishing trip to satisfy your itch for fishing. It’s true that bass fishing here in the states is very difficult by comparison and that is why I don’t bass fish here anymore. But you can have a ton of fun catching other species of fish and have good table fare at the same time. REMEMBER THAT WORK IS FOR THOSE PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW HOW TO FISH.

Good luck with your fishing and wear that lifejacket!

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