Back seat account of Falcon Stren by Randall Coyle

Hello, my name is Randall Coyle. I will be reporting on my season in FLW American Fishing Series, Texas Division, as a co-angler. The first tournament of the series was in Zapata , TX at Lake Falcon . I left Beaumont Texas at 6:30 am Wednesday where the temperature was 28. There is quite a bit of scenery to take in during the seven hour trip. Between Freer and Zapata, fifty collared peccary ran across the road. What a site that was!

We finally arrived in Zapata only to discover we didn’t need the heavy coats we adorned because it was a pleasant 70 degrees. However, this temperature would surely drop when the cold front reached this area.

Practice was not in the cards for this tournament. I have fished Falcon several times so I felt very comfortable. After the initial meeting, I met my first day partner, Jerry Propst of Sam Rayburn, TX. We were boat #65 which was the last boat in flight 3.

We started the first day of the tourney at 6:15am with a temperature of 55 degrees and heavy fog. The fog delayed us until 8: 30am. When we were finally released, we ran 20 miles south toward the dam and the ride was a fairly smooth one. By the time we arrived at our first location, the wind had increased drastically which made it very difficult to stay on our spot.

My very first cast yielded a 2 pounder on a Carolina rig in 25 foot of water. We drifted over that spot several times and my second fish was a 5 ½ pounder. By this time it was 11am and the wind was coming out of the North. The temperature had dropped to 33 degrees and my partner made the decision to head in. On our way back to the weigh in site, we hit a wave wrong which resulted in water getting into the cowling. As you can guess, we lost the use of the boat motor. About an hour and a half later, the motor finally dried out so we were able to crank it and restarted our venture back to the dock. By this time, the waves were at 13 feet and the exact same thing happened again. After letting it dry out yet again, we made our way back in with 30 minutes to spare.

I finished the first day with an 8 pound bag. I wasn’t disappointed with the weight because, honestly, I was just happy we made it in. Surprising enough, I was in 42nd place.

Jeff Richard of Helotes , TX was my partner for the second day. Once again, we were southbound with a temperature of 28 degrees. We made it to our first spot a little after 8am. The wind was blowing around 20mp out of the north. Being wet and cold was not a good combination. My hands were so cold, I didn’t fish for the first 30 minutes but, as I was about to find out, no matter how cold it gets on Falcon, fish are always biting down south by the dam. The first fish along with each and every fish I weighed that day came on a Carolina rig using a 10 inch Berkley Motor Oil Red Flake Power Worm.

I ended the day with approximately 17 pounds and moved up to 13^th place. Most of the top ten caught their fish on Senkos, brush hogs, and lizards. Keith Combs brought in a monster bag on the final day of over 40 pounds but still wasn’t able to knock Michael Yoder out of first place. Michael won with 93 pounds 8 ounces.

Tournament number two of the series is next month at Lake Sam Rayburn. Big Sam in February is every bass fisherman’s dream.