RUSSELL SMITH: Lunker chase continues in vain
18.05.12
Lake Amistad
My son keeps his center-console boat stored at Del Rio, and that is the No. 1 reason I chose Big Friendly as the place to pursue a record fish.
Another is because TPWD fisheries biologist Dave Terre, who managed Lake Fork, told me about 10 years ago that if Lake Amistad or Falcon ever filled, after being low for years, those fisheries had the ingredients to possibly produce the next Texas state record largemouth bass.
And finally the reservoir also is home to numbers of white crappie, channel catfish and striped bass — all category fish in the Mustad contest.
The current state record 18.18-pound largemouth bass was caught by Barry St. Clair at Lake Fork in 1992. The record 36.5-pound channel cat came out of the Pedernales River (1965). The 4.56-pound record white crappie came from Navarro Mills (1968), and the top 53-pound striped bass was caught in the Brazos River (1999).
Amistad's records include a 15.68-pound largemouth bass, 45-pound striper, 23.29-pound channel cat and a 1.47-pound white crappie. Of course, I knew the fish had really been growing since the lake filled several years ago.
Source: San Angelo Standard Times