Rayovac Amistad - Lesson 1

Posted by ken on February 14, 2015

I have literally fished hundreds of tournaments in my life and in all those tournaments I have never worried that I was going to zero (although I have a few). I had planned to drive down to Amistad on Friday the 6th and spend Saturday through Wednesday practicing. Actually I had hoped to practice 4 days and take Wednesday off to prepare tackle and get some rest. However the flu bug threw a wrench into those plans. I woke up Friday with a 102 temp and so sick I couldn't get out of bed. I got some meds from the doctor and by early Saturday morning I was upright and able to get the boat loaded and head south. I arrived in time late Saturday to spend about an hour riding around the weigh in area of the lake and just getting a general feel. The water was low 50's, gin clear, visibility probably 20 feet, and the lake was 27 feet low. I had been to Amistad once before back in the late 80's so in fact it was a completely new lake for me. I had made a few calls to some locals I met on line but they were struggling, 2-3 keeper bites a day, so I knew it was going to be tough. Sunday I decided to spend time up in the Devils river and as all I had heard about was a deep bite I spent the day 20-35 feet deep for a grand total of one 2 lb bite and a 10-11 pound striper on an A-rig. Monday I went into Evans and California creeks which I knew had produced the prior year and had the same results, only without the   

quality striper bite. Late in the day I was able to catch 2 short fish from flooded bushes and with a warming trend on the horizon I was starting to think my best bet would be throwing a square bill at a thousand bushes and hoping one or two keepers would give up the ghost for some points. I don't know if you have ever experienced anything like this but I was starting to spin out because I couldn't get enough bites to start piecing anything together. That night back at the camp my roommate Albert Collins shared that he had gotten a couple of solid bites on a jerk bait and A-rig. So Tuesday I picked up the jerk bait and managed to catch 8-10 fish including 3 squeaker keepers. I also threw the A-rig off and on all day but to no avail. Wednesday I went out and fished about 1/2 a day but with such limited time I decided to stay east of the big bridge and just learn all I could on that part of the lake, in hindsight this was a mistake as I never saw the grass mid lake out west which is the area most of the large stringers came out of. 

Tournament morning I went east up the Devils, I got bit quick and often, I probably caught 25 fish on the jerk bait and 2 on the A-rig (both short). I had 5 -6 keeper bites, I had one about 3 swimming around under the boat that broke my line, which I still can't figure, it was new 12# Seaguar and I had retied not too terribly long before, just one of those random things. Late in the day I had a 2 1/2 eat my jerk bait and come to the top, one about 4 came up and pulled the bait out of it's mouth and they both swam away (if this had been a practice day I guarantee you I catch them both)...the things that happen on tournament day. I had 4 keepers for a whopping 6 1/2 lbs and sadly I was please to be in 46th place after my practice, but both of those fish would have helped and put me in check range.

Day two dawned bright and clear (we had clouds and wind day 1) and I knew the jerk bait bite would slow so I spent more time with the A-rig thinking that if I could get bit on it it was my best chance for a big fish to get me into check range. I started with the jerk bait but after about 40 minutes of no bites I switched to the A-rig. I was able to catch one keeper on it about 10 and then after several hours of no bites about 1:00 I picked up the jerk bait again as the wind picked up just a hint. I saw 3-4 fish either bum rush the jerk bait or follow it and made one good decision, with about an hour left I switch to a D-shad . If you have not seen this bait...well it's a fish shaped bait, think Fluke, however it does not have the forked tail, in fact is has an odd shaped little tail that has some crazy hydrodynamics to it, when you let if fall on a slack line the tail kicks side to side exactly like a Senko, it's an amazing looking bait, literally looks just like a small baitfish swimming in place or swimming down in a circle. I was able to catch several fish including a solid 2 1/2 lb smallmouth to close out my day. Finished in 56th place, which was awful, and frankly I am ok with based on my practice days.  

In hindsight I don't know that I made many mistakes, if I could do day 2 over I would have thrown the D-shad more, they would eat it and I think I could have pieced together a small limit, I would have needed about 8 lbs day 2 to make a check and I think that was possible, but with limited practice time and so few practice bites you get tournaments like this on tough lakes.