A look at some good structure spots that are always worth a few casts.

Story and photography by Matt Williams

I’ve been fortunate to visit some of the very best largemouth bass lakes in the world, and thankful so many of those trips came at a time when fishing was still fishing. Not the video game it has become for so many since the evolution of high-tech electronics like forward-facing sonar, monster screens and other game changing goodies.

They say technology is the future. I’ve gotten a belly full of it over the last few years.

More power to those caught up in the race to reel in the next best thing. I’m much more fond of fishing in the past. Trolling around staring at a screen and waiting for a real-time blob to show up to cast at just doesn’t interest me much.

I like the challenges and surprises of fishing the old school ways.  Fishing by the seat of my pants.  Reading a map and contour lines.  Tying on a spinnerbait or Texas-rigged worm and slinging instinctive casts to potential sweet spots with a hope and a prayer.  The list goes on and on.

Speedy Collett of Zapata knows the rewards to be reaped from those old school sweet spots. Collett ran guide trips on lakes Falcon and Amistad in the early 2000s. The Texas/Mexico border reservoirs were regarded as two of the top muscle lakes in the country at the time.

Collett has reeled in his share of big ones from both lakes. Some of the best catches at Falcon frequently came from isolated places no larger in size than a 1/2-ton pick-up. Many were discovered through years of experience logged long before little black boxes, spot lock trolling motors and turrets found their way into bass boats.

Collett took me to one of those spots on a warm November afternoon in 2008. Just as he predicted, there was a wolf pack of hungry four to five pounders swimming around down there. They swarmed our big bill crank baits on consecutive casts.

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