well how big are these waves????Cauyse im lost when it comes to how everyone measures waves..... By the way this is lake ERIE!!

Ok, so I wasn't there, but I live on Livingston, have lived on Rayburn and fish Falcon quite a bit. If there was a 13 foot wave on Falcon I will eat every mesquite bush between Onalaska and Zapata. By the way I have worked in the Gulf of Mexico for the past 30 years and DO know what a 10-12 foot wave looks like. The wave height combined with the shorter wave period of the inland waters would destroy an bass boat in short order. I crossed Falcon last year from the Salinais back to the state park in 30-35 mph North winds and while I was wet and battered, the waves never got over a true 4 footers. If there had been 10 to 13 footers during this tournament they would still be hauling body bags back from Zapata! Gimme a break!

Just to clear a few things up; if you weren't there don't even try to question how big those waves were. I was there and I was in it. I did not make it back to weigh in the first day. I came around the point of the tigres trying to make my way back up the lake. Each wave I hit made my boat go completely vertical(a couple times I thought the front end was gonna come completely over). The back end of my boat went completely under water a few times. Luckily I was smart enough to know my 20' Legend would not make it back, so I headed straight to a cove just north of the tigres(nearly rolling the boat completely over a couple times just to get over there while riding in the troughs). While I was seeking shelter in that cove I saw a motor rip completely off the back of a boat trying to make his way back up the lake. I do a lot of offshore fishing and have been in 10 to 12 footers. You cannot compare the ocean to the lake it is completely different. I didnt have time to measure the waves but if I had to guess I'd say they were atleast 8 footers(that was just at the Tigres, I dont know what they were at the dam). All I know is I was doing around 3600 rpm and barely moving forward. I do think they should have cancelled that day as they knew what was coming. Then again so did the anglers including myself. I just didnt think it could get that bad but it did. Luckily there was a boat ramp in the cove I pulled into. I walked 6 miles down a dirt road till a border patrol picked me up and gave me a ride to 83. Then the good folks from Falcon Tackle picked me up and gave me a ride to my truck at county ramp. Drove back to that ramp and loaded my boat.I aslo called the TD to see if I could trailor my fish back to weigh in and he said no I had to bring them back by water even with the conditions. Well I wasnt going to risk my life or my co-anglers for fish so I just threw them back. I know one thing I learned a big lesson on running down a big lake when knowing the wind is going to blow!

I'm glad everyone made it back.

I guess it is just competitive nature and being a man but i dont understand why so many guys made long runs knowing it was going to get bad? Everyone is saying they should have cancelled before the tournament started and so obviously everyone knew it was dangerous so why put you and you co-anglers life in danger... i feel sorry for some of those co-anglers they prob didnt know what they were getting themselves into lol... and lastly this debate will continue about the darn waves until someone produces actual pictures from the lake that weekend.. i know someone has to have them.. and i would really like to see them... on a another note the oklahoma college team brought in like 34lbs how about that!

I wasn't there thursday or friday, but my partner for saturday was from zapata and he has lived on the lake his entire life. I don't know if the wind was coming from just the right direction or not, but his dad said it was some of the biggest waves he's ever seen on falcon and that was including some of the hurricanes that blew threw there. Personally I think anybody that tried it is crazy, but hats off to those who managed. Takes some serious skill to drive in weather like that. Anything 5 ft plus takes knowledge of how to handle a boat no matter what brand or size!

Falcon fool pool is 80,000 last year it was 83,000 b/c of all the record rain. Falcon is no joke I was in some big waves down there last year will not say how high but big...

Will, thier is definitely some 13' bass boat killers in that photo, I would like to see someone try to dropshot in those conditions!

I would have fished the nearest legal water from the launch, I have been on the lake a couple of times with 20-25 mph winds and swore never again will I cross that bridge.

Are you sure that those pics aren't from tawakoni?
That looks like Tawakoni

Lol. Could be,cept the waters too clear.

I've been on Livingston and Rayburn in the BAD stuff, and I've been on Falcon in some "rough" stuff. (Thankfully I wasn't there last week. I decided to pass on this tournament.) But there is something different about Falcon when the wind gets up. Just a little bit of rough is way worse than our East Texas Lakes. It's not like Rayburn OR Livingston, there is no comparison. But Bad is Bad. Especially with the Border limitations thrown in. THEN you throw in about 1/4 of the boaters should not EVEN be running a boat let alone trying to run dangerous water, and you have a recipe for disaster! It's bad enough when you know what you are doing and all your bilges and motor are running good. You don't get too many chances to fix a mistake!
Anyhoooo,
I am amazed at the weights that were brought in with those conditions. From what I heard many of the weights did come from down south but several did mention they didn't run very far or even ran north. I wonder how many of the big weights didn't come from down south?

If you have not been to Falcon Lake when the wind is blowing from the North at 35-40MPH with gusts above that you have no idea what that lake looks like...

My wife and I have been fishing that lake for 8 plus years now and love it; however, it can be extremely dangerous...

We were fishing our club tournament Jan 09 and we had a big storm come in on us, we launched at the state park as that is where our weigh is and went North to just State Park Cove which is just North of the ramp on the very next cut. When we went there into the wind it was 10-15MPH, not bad at all, then the wind started howling and I do mean howling so we stayed on the North shore tied up to trees and tried to fish...

When we left there we followed another club member out who has been there in very ruff water and learned to surf those big waves back to the ramp which also faces North thank God...

I could not imagine having to go into that wind to head up the river... I will tell you right now I would not even think of doing that and we had 6-8 footers, nothing like what they had this past weekend...

We had a couple boaters that were in Governor's cove which is right at the dam, they almost did not make it back to the State Park ramp as they had to go head on with those big waves and one said like the guys earlier in this string said his boat was straight up and down and he thought it was going to go over backwards several times. Him and his wife were terrified, fortunately there was another couple from our club that was more experienced and helped them get through it and back to the ramp....

Once again Thank god everyone is OK, hopefully everyone had good insurance....