In my opinion that is plenty of time for the fishing to go bad. Last may the water was 60.97 ft low, and rose 24 feet from May to November. In my opinion, adding 24 feet of water to a lake that quickly (including the time period you stated) would be plenty of time to scatter the smaller population of fish and decrease the population density of the lake drastically. It seems to be right in line with my earlier opinion on what happened.

We'll be pretty close to the historic low again if they don't stop releasing. 1071.98 and getting lower.

Some of us were commenting during a couple of early tournaments.. that something was wrong.
We fished a Feb. tournament then another in March. The numbers were less in March plus a lot of the better fish looked bad. It only got worse...

Mexico has owed the US water for years and durning the last heavy rain Mexico had, they released water from the Mexico side that had a silt to it. I believe the Copper Mines could be the issue and killed nymphs and crawfish. Last year this time I caught a 20# bag and when I got to weigh in all the fish had threw up crawfish in the livewell. This year I have not seen one crawfish in a fishes mouth or the livewell.

Lake Amistad has had its low water levels and its high water levels and they draw water every year. In the last 17 years I have been living in Del Rio and fishing Amistad the water levels, highs and lows and drawdowns have never had an effect on the fishing. when the lake was 58ft low several years ago it was some of the best fishing we have had for numbers. When the grass boomed thats when we had all the big stringers coming in. So its not the water levels and fish live in the water the drought does not bother them we have had droughts in the past and fishing was still good. We still have plenty of water even at 60ft low. The fishing went bad in a matter of a month. Our club went from most of the 20 fishermen catching limits to 5 people weighing in a single fish or 2 fish in June and this continued until last month. There was no perch on the banks and there was no grass or anything growing shallow until last month it just looked dead. What little grass that was in Mexico died off when it should have been growing. Chemicals is the only thing that could make that happen as fast as it did. I am not saying it came from the copper mines but it came from somewhere. Oh and the problem was not from those blood thirsty gar hell bent on destroying just the bass population. Either way what happened hopefully is over and we are starting to see some good fishing again. There was some very nice fish caught this last weekend. The 2 9's and several 7's and 8's were a nice change to see at the weigh-in.

+1....couldn't agree more!

I spent about 30 min. reading about copper mining and leaching and what I read - its pretty scary about what washed into the lake�

"Sulfuric acid, the leaching agent, is brought on site in large tankers. The sulfuric acid is diluted and sprayed or dripped over oxide ore, which dissolves the oxidized minerals completely in the solution. As the leach solution is reused, the unwanted metals concentrate into a very toxic solution, which sits out in open ponds, waiting to be piped back to be sprayed on fresh ore on the leach pads..."
http://www.savethesantacruzaquifer.info/Sulfuric%20Acid%20Impact.htm

AMD is the mining industry's greatest environmental problem and its greatest liability, especially to our waterways. An acid-generating mine has the potential for long-term, devastating impacts on rivers, streams and aquatic life, becoming in effect a "perpetual pollution machine."7
http://dwb4.unl.edu/Chem/CHEM869R/CHEM869RLinks/emcbc.miningwatch.org/emcbc/library/amd_water.htm

While I wouldn't rule out the possibility of something like that eventually happening, the IWBC does conduct continuous water quality monitoring on both Amistad and Falcon, along with the Rio Grande itself. So far they haven't reported anything unusual, at least nothing I could find. I am a past member of the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River Advisory Committee, and we routinely got water quality reports. Those reports also went to TPWD who used them to issue fish consumption advisories. I don't think there are any current advisories for Amistad.

There are signs everywhere warning about high mercury content, but nothing else. I read a great article in the Texas Observer that showed both the US and Mexico are screwing each other over based on "Treaty Verbage". This goes way back to 1944. Its easy to find if you want to read the details. The Treaty needs to be changed to help both sides (after all, the river only divides countries, not climates) and we must quit using our waters as a waste bucket. My second two cents...