Help, just kidding but I could use some tips. Recently, it seems Like the Small mouth Bas bite on Lake Amistad has exploded. I have fish the lake for the past 24 years but have only caught a few through out the years but this year they are everywhere i have caught them from the Devil’s river to around buoy 23. I have been catching them in bunches but nothing of size. Everything has been just under 14”. So i say with a heavy heart that so far this year i have yet to catch a keeper small mouth. I have caught them on crank baits, jerk baits, top water plugs and a few on senkos. I dont know if i need to changed technique or strategy to catch some bronze hawgs. Does anyone have any tips?

What depths are you targeting and thus far, what techniques have you been using? Could be something as simple as depth/structure focus or region/area of lake to concentrate on.

Welcome to the TFF!

I have caught tons of them over the years down there and many more recently compared to 40 years ago when they were more localized to certain areas. Now it seems you might catch one anywhere. No advice on how to catch a bigger one. I seldom catch one over about 2.5 lbs, and like you said, the majority are smaller. If you are in an area where you are catching little ones, stay there and work it over with craw-type baits--football jigs, brown cranks. I have seen no rhyme or reason to the slightly larger ones I catch--you just have to wade through lots of small ones.

You can run up the arms and sometimes get into better ones, but that hasn't been a focus of mine.

I have been targeting rocks, all kinds of rocks big rocks little rocks. Rocks with steep drop off and rocks with easy slopes. I have noticed that sandy bottoms and those bronze hawgs dont go good together and the bigger the rocks the better the bite. I have had a better bite where ever i find larger boulders in around 5-10 feet of water. Top water bite has been better where ever i have smaller rocky areas with an easy slope and a deep drop off. I am thinking of starting to target the drop offs with a football head jig head and a Beatle/craw style lure. They seem to be pretty aggressive right not but i would like to land a few three pounders if possible.

I have never had a thing for those bronze hawgs but a buddy of mine is always fishing the Rio Grande down rive of the dam and has been knocking the heck out of those three and four pounders like crazy but since it’s all private access only it’s not an option for me or many people.

I have never had a thing for those bronze hawgs but a buddy of mine is always fishing the Rio Grande down rive of the dam

I got some football jigs and gonna order some brown cranks and see what happens. I really bite has been the best around box canyon. The bite was best close to the main channel and if i got more than like 100 yards into a cove the bite would pretty much die. I also just rigged up a few spinning reels with 10lb line and see if that leads to some bigger fish.

Thanks for the help

If anyone hits a pattern and a honey hole please pass on the info.

If you are looking for dots, look up Donald Harper on here.

I will try

Bronze Hawgs! gtfo

My first smallmouth was on Amistad.

I grew up fishing the nueces andfrom time to time i would catch some but very few threw out the years. I have been really amazed and the amount of small mouth i have been catching this year. I would say i have averaged from 5-10 on the days the days i has been out. The past Sunday i will say i got nothing and when i say nothing i mean nothing but Saturday was a different story. Once i figure out how to attach photos ill post som.

Gar1970 i am not at you alls level yet but you are slaying them small mouth on those videos. Great job. I guess it’s time to switch up my weapon of choice.

Let’s see

Thanks for the how to info. Here’s a couple that have been typical of what i have been catching. Nice little small mouth but not very big.

You know there has got to be some BEASTS in there somewhere!

My thoughts exactly and it’s kinda bad for my personality because now I’m so fixated on catch a butt load of those little beasts.

Greenhorn, would that friend's initials be J B??

We catch a lot that size. You just have to wade thru them but there are some bigger smallmouth in Amistad. You just need the right bait to catch them.

there you go again, braggin' on JIGLYF jigs; no brag, just fact, right; yawl are a pair to draw to; i got mine ready to go, just no weather to go fishin' in, yet

We catch a lot that size. You just have to wade thru them but there are some bigger smallmouth in Amistad. You just need the right bait to catch them.


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Those look awesome and gives me
Hope

They are prolific in Amistad the last few years but for whatever reason they don't seem to grow that big. A 4 pounder in big blue is a monster.

I have to report that the small mouth bite has slowed down for me some these last two weekends. Though i was still getting some out of deeper water around big boulders and drop offs. I am sure the lake going up a little and the change in water color has affected the bite.

Sunday before the flood. Notice the water color.

Sunday after the flood. Fish still biting

zzz

what did those weigh? that's a fight on those little Zebco's; is Y not takin' action films on the bigun's? what's it say on the back of the caps? anything that swims~~~!!!~~~ SON~~~!!!~~~

Flood?

Thanks crapyetr for your reply! The first bass weighed 7.89lbs didn't weight the others. The back of our caps say " catching anything that swims ".

RCarter, it actually rained 4 inches out here and the devils flooded raising Amistad about a foot
Amistad might be low but the fish are still here. Nevermind, scratch that! I repeat there are NO fish in Amistad

Man those are some awesome looking fish.

Thank you sir!