May 2024 Lake Alamo

Presidents Perspective

Another spring tournament at Alamo Lake, one of Arizona’s prime bass fishing spots, and once again, it didn't let us down. We kicked off with 30 boats and 5 solo anglers. The fishing was great, with all teams bringing in their limits. As always, there's someone who's in the right place at the right time with the perfect bait, and this time it was Manny Madrid and Bob Cooley. They brought in an exceptional bag of fish, weighing a total of 17.61 lbs. Kudos to them!

Special mention to Troy Lindhorst for landing a 5.69-pound bass. Great job, Troy!

Tuesday night, we hosted a barbecue at the group use area with most anglers in attendance. A huge thanks to Manny Madrid for manning the grill and braving the wind, smoke, and heat. The food was fantastic. Special thanks to Doug Moore, our treasurer, who went above and beyond. He towed the trailer to the lake, helped with preparations, and even tackled a Costco trip with me (which is like shopping with a 3-year-old). Thanks to everyone who brought cookies.

A special shout-out to James Duel for his invaluable help over the weekend, and to everyone who pitched in to clean up and reload the trailer.

If all goes well, next month we'll be at Lake Pleasant. Hope to see you all there!

Tournament Summary

The recent tournament at Alamo Lake was a huge success, showcasing the skill and dedication of all participants. Manny Madrid and Bob Cooley took first place with a total weight of 17.61 lbs, catching fish on a variety of baits including spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and frogs. Manny's biggest fish, weighing 3.90 lbs, was caught just an hour before weigh-in. Their strategy involved focusing on the river and capitalizing on the shad spawn early in the morning.

Loway Shammas, fishing solo, secured second place with an impressive performance, catching all his fish on a frog. Despite technical difficulties early on, Loway managed to cull several times throughout the day, ending with around 20 fish. His persistence and clean fishing technique paid off, earning him a spot right behind the leaders.

Laron Porter claimed third place by adapting his strategy to the unexpected shallow bite. Initially anticipating deep, post-spawn fishing, Laron quickly adjusted to throwing frogs and flipping white creature baits in the river, where fish were hitting as soon as the bait touched the water. Paired with Jim Duel, Laron's experience and accurate casting resulted in consistent catches.

Fourth place went to a team that found success in flipping Senko’s and using Texas rigs in trees along the river. Their biggest fish came on a Senko in 25 feet of water.

The tournament also featured noteworthy performances from Floyd Vaughan and Steve Ferguson, who teamed up for the first time and caught fish all day long, as well as Doyle Wofford and Keith Weidert, who overcame equipment issues and capitalized on a topwater bite early on.

Special thanks were given to the BBQ crew for their excellent work and to Kevin Russell for his quick and skilled boat repairs.

Overall, the event highlighted the camaraderie and sportsmanship of the fishing community.

1st Place

(No Photo Available

Manny Madrid and Bob Cooley

Big Fish: 3.90#

Total Weight:17.61#

Bob Cooley

I want to thank everyone who participated in our annual BBQ. Great turnout and it was good to see everyone. "Grillmaster" Manny and I pre-fished and found fish everywhere we stopped catching fish on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, Texas rigs, and even spoons. Tournament day we started up the river since that's where the better quality fish were. All fish came on frogs and buzzbaits with Manny catching our biggest fish one hour before weigh-in.

Manny Madrid

I was teamed up with Bob Cooley for the Alamo tournament and we were able to get in a day and a half of pre-fish together. The prior week I had fished a small derby and had 3 days on the water then, so going into our pre-fish, I had a really good starting point.

We focused our efforts in the river and taking advantage of the shad spawn early in the morning. We threw chatter baits, spinner baits, flipped but frogs and buzzbaits to put our bag together. There is really not much to say other than we covered a lot of water in two main locations of the river that seemed to have a little better fish.

**2nd Place**

**Loway Shammas**
**Big Fish: 3.76#**
**16.19#**

Lowry Shammas

I was one of the solo boats and was excited for the chance to fish Alamo during my favorite time of year. Day started a little slow as I was having technical difficulties with casting and getting wind knots on the end of my rod from braid issues. Got settled and within 15 mins had the first bite, swing and a miss on a good fish that went for the frog. Oh well, kept on casting and finally got a good 3lber.

As the day progressed, I focused on launching the frog into every nook and cranny to find the bigger girls. I culled several times and probably had around a 20 fish day, every fish was on the frog, just the way I like it. Fortunately, through clean fishing and cooperating fish, I was able to put together a good bag to land me in 2nd place overall.

Thanks to all of you who provide us with this great platform to fish.

Laron Porter

Frogs, flipping, frogs! I was surprised by the bite at Alamo. I expected post spawn and deep fishing. Everything I tried deep didn't work. We fished in the river the whole day throwing frogs and flipping white creature baits. The fish were at the top of the water column and they were eating it as soon as it hit the water!!!

Congratulations to the winners! What a fun tournament. I love the comradery with the barbeque. I'm most thankful to have drawn James Dueul! He spoiled me with the 5th wheel, dinners, breakfasts, and snacks. What a guy!

Jim Duel

Congratulations to Manny and Robert on there win.Equally as impressive is the second place being taken by solo boater Loway. Nice job. I got to watch the weigh in crew set up and get ready. They seem organized, efficient and ready to perform in no time.

I drew Laron Porter and he used his 25 years of experience to get us on quality fish. We found fish in the shade of bushes at the river in the early AM. The fish pulled in tight to the base of the bushes as the sun climbed. Laron is a pleasure to watch in action. His shots are very accurate and the fish are where he’s thrown. Thanks for the two day seminar. I’ve got alot to work on.

**Fourth Place**

**Troy Lindhorst and Robert Ferrera**
**Big Fish: 5.69#**
**14.68#**

Had a slow practice and caught more fish flipping than any other baits. First tournament for Bob Ferrera who is new to the club. It was a pleasure helping him learn new things as a co-angler.

In the tournament we started with spinner baits caught three fish that were culled by flipping Senko’s, Texas rigged into trees on both sides of the river in about 2’ to 10’. The BIG fish came on the senko in 25’ in trees by the ramp at 1 o’clock .

Floyd Vaughan and Steve Ferguson

Big Fish: 4.09#

14.48#

(No Photo Available)

Floyd Vaughan

Steve Ferguson and I teamed up for the Alamo tournament, marking our first time fishing together. Steve is a great fishing partner. We both have a similar approach to figuring out the bite. On Tuesday, we pre-fished and quickly found fish on primary points. We had success with jigs, brush hogs, and even got a few bites flipping.

On tournament day, it was more of the same. We caught our limit quickly, with our best fish coming from 30 feet of water on a jig. We continued to catch fish all day, upgrading our catch along the way.

Doyle Wofford

Congratulations to Manny and Bob on an impressive win and thanks to all the folks that work hard to make these tournaments run smoothly.

As luck would have it, I drew Keith Weidert as a co-angler for the second tournament in a row. We fished Mohave together and although we didn't win the five pound pot, we were lucky enough to take big fish honors. Keith and I met Tuesday morning to pre-fish and immediately ran up river to find that the top water bite was on. Unfortunately, most if these fish were pretty small so we decided to work further up river and found better fish flipping larger plastics. Later in the day we migrated towards the dam end of the lake and found a decent jig, Texas rig and senko bite.

Our plan for Wednesday morning was pretty simple. We ran up river with several other boats and settled into the trees. Keith caught our biggest fish on a frog and we had a limit by about 6:30. When the top water bite slowed, we started flipping brush hogs and man bear pigs in the brush. We culled several times and figured we had about 12 pounds total. When this bite slowed, we decided to move to the dam end with a plan to return to the river for the last couple hours. I caught several on a senko and Keith put the shakey head and drop shot to work. Unfortunately none of these fish culled. Luckily, we found a few larger fish on a jig bite and were able to cull a few more times. The bite was good enough that we never returned to the river.

Special shout out to Kevin Russell. On Tuesday both my graphs as well as my trolling motor pedal quite working entirely. I was forced to fish blind with just the trolling motor remote control for the remainder of the day. Kevin has just recently started his own mobile marine service business and I'm proud to say that I am his first (and second) customer. Kevin troubleshot my problem down to a loose connection under the driver's side dash. He tore the entire dash apart with limited tools and had me back up and running in a couple hours. I would highly recommend Kevin for anyone looking to have work done on their boat. He's an extremely talented individual with many years of experience.

Keith Weidert

Another great job by the weigh-in crew, congrats.

I was paired with Doyle Wofford for the second month in a row and loved it. Doyle and I pre-fished on Tuesday and really only fished three places on the lake, and all three produced fish. Since we were boat 22, we weren't sure if two of our spots would already be occupied. So, we went up-river on the northeast side of lake and started fishing the timber and worked our way to the shore. Doyle picked up 2 good fish with a buzz bait. Then I hooked into our 3 1/2 pounder on a white frog close to shore.

We had 5 fish by 6am. After 4 hours flipping the timber and not getting anything over 2 pounds, we decided to head for the damn. We culled probably 5 times fishing jigs and drop shot with only a small improvement on our bag. Then we finally started picking up fish over 2 pounds. Improving our total weight by 2 lbs. Then Doyle hooked into at least a 4 pounder, which we lost when it jumped near the boat and came off. Doyle and I probably caught at least 45 fish both days. Fantastic fishing.

Shout out to the BBQ crew. Great burgers.

Joe Michels

I would like to thank the launch crew, Jim Duel and Floyd, for helping get people into the lake. I want to thank Floyd especially because I was solo, and he launched me and then parked my truck and trailer.

I caught my fish on Blitz Baits white Popper Jr. Phrog and pitching shad colored swim jigs in a cove near the ramp. I had almost 11 lbs with the first 5 fish I caught in the first 30 minutes of the tournament. From what I learned in pre-fish, I anticipated the frog bite would last for the first hour, but that didn't happen on tournament day.

I then moved to the river to fish a Buzz From in the shad of the big trees. By the time I got there, many of the good fish had been caught by a number of boats fishing in the area. But I persisted in catching one decent Blitz Buzz Frog fish.

I then switched to pitching a shad-colored Zoom Z Craw and a custom-made white swim jig with a paddle tail and began to upgrade my bag to just over 13 lbs.

Fishing the river is hard on your trolling motor and your boat. I now have a few light scratches on the hull of my boat, one from bow to stern. But there is nothing like pitching into a tree, and when your bait stops dropping before landing on the bottom, feeling a fish and setting the hook. Fighting a fish in that heavy cover is fun, if not terrifying.

I was lucky and fished clean, except for one fish. I threw in the Z Craw, felt a fish, and set the hook, but the line broke. I didn't feel the fish, nor did the fish feel me. That line was in bad shape—my bad. But I picked up the swing jig and pitched it in the exact same spot again, and a solid 2.75lb ate it.

I did move to the main lake on a long point where I easily caught keeper fish the day before, with the objective of trying to weed through them, but I didn't get a bite. That was very strange. They moved, stopped biting, or didn't like what I used the day before.

I returned to the river and did manage to update one fish. But I could not get the 3lb fish to bite.

I want to thank the board members for the awesome cookout and weigh-in team. Without them, we don't have a club.

Lastly, great job, Manny; I truly believe the Alamo is your favorite lake!

Co-Angler article

Terry B. Johnson, CFKLP Coordinator

The May 14 tournament at Alamo Lake, celebrating my wife’s birthday, was interesting and fun. But before I explain that, many thanks to the guys who serve MWBA as: Board members, Tournament Director, ramp helpers, weigh-in crew members, event photographers, Bass Bites editor(s) and contributors, and/or BBQ workers. You collectively help make MWBA fun, no matter the tournament results.

Frankly, I wish everyone wrote up their tournament experiences. I believe that in MWBA writing up $$$ results is obligatory, not discretionary. Improving everyone’s skills is supposedly a foundational goal of this club. Sharing information about what did and didn’t work helps club members who read it become better anglers. In that regard, “non-winners” also have insights to share!

This time around, I was Eric Hively’s Co-Angler. We finished well back in the field but not for lack of effort or (on Eric’s part) prefishing, skill, or knowledge. He had 17-18 lb on (3 of 4?) prefishing days from Friday through Tuesday. The lake and fish were static, as they had been for the previous 3-4 weeks. Each day, he found spawning shad and bass 3 lb and up where they were the previous day. He thought (hoped) he had potentially winning spots and presentations nailed down. But Mother Nature had other plans.

On Tournament Day, we worked Eric’s spots. Neither the shad spawn nor the prefish bass were there. By mid-morning, we had a decent limit but knew some other teams were probably doing better. My contributions were meager. A few cullable fish and one quick-release frog fish that looked to be 4+ lb. In the clear water on the Santa Maria “delta,” with Eric ready at the net, we watched it let my frog go. We needed it. Three of our fish were clones, all between 1.81 and 1.86 lb. It would have been a 2.5+ lb cull. We moved around the lake, fished hard, and culled a few times. But we knew 10-11 pounds would not get it done. But I want to salute Eric.

Most MWBA Boaters treat their Co-Anglers well in terms of fishing, boating safety and etiquette, and friendliness. They do so even when the Co’s physical conditions or skills hinder their fishing. I’ve had the good fortunate to fish MBWA with many such guys as a Co-Angler and as a Boater. Eric just takes it to another level. He coped graciously with my limitations, including heat intolerance and a sub-zero sense of balance. But most MWBA Boaters do that. Maybe they realize that someday, if they are lucky, they will be older than dirt!

What Eric added was this: without fail, all day long he told me where and how the fish had been positioned in prefish, how to fish each spot, when and why we move with the TM or the Big Motor, where we would fish next, and what might have caused the fish not to be where he expected them to be. He was informative, not chatty. And that, my friends, is (for me!) the difference between a good Boater and a great Boater. Through excellent communication (dialogues, not monologues), he makes the day a truly shared, wonderful experience. So, major kudos to Eric! Heck, he didn’t even go ballistic when I lost our 2nd big fish of the day.

In closing, Alamo was my last MWBA tournament until October. When ambient temps exceed 85, my brain turns to jelly (due to brain trauma, NOT old age!). Hopefully, in October ambients will be better for me. If not, I’ll see you again in November. I just wish October tournament would be on Alamo again, instead of UnPleasant. For me, greater distance and a higher Co-Angler fee are irrelevant. I prefer to fish where Lake Lice are not prevalent. But it sure would be nice if burros were mute!

June 2024 Lake Pleasant

April 2024 Lake Mohave