THE FULL AMISTAD REPORT

PROLOGUE

Fifteen years ago I had a dream of taking my young family to this large remote lake on the Texas/Mexico border. Back then, getting everybody and gear on the cat was no big deal as there were two adults and two preteens. I had wanted to put everything needed to camp on the boat and sail for a week. Over time I developed some items that would make it possible but the trip didnt happen. As I planned the vacation I researched and Amistad was at record lows. At full capacity, the lake is 130,000 acres but with the level down 40ft, it was less than half that in surface area. Down but not out, we changed the venue to another Texas lake not far from home. That lake was Possum Kingdom. We had a good time but camped in developed areas as there is development all around the lake.

Fast forward to Fall 06 and I became intrigued with Amistad again as I kept hearing of fishing reports that were fantasy like. I usually take a canoe trip in September on the Brazos River with a buddy of mine named Mark. Instead of the usual venue, I suggested we try Amistad and he agreed. We went, we caught fish, and enjoyed the solitude. Like on the Brazos, we were in a canoe. It went well, but while paddling in the breeze, I couldnt stop thinking of the original dream from long ago.

Now it is Spring 07 and Ive convinced myself that im taking the Hobie this trip. Ive got a lot of work to do on the boat as it has sit unused for a couple of years. I took up windsurfing a couple of years ago and my poor boat has rested in the backyard until now. Problem was that the boat needed lots of stuff to make her dependable for a trip of this magnitude. Hulls needed reglassing, inspection ports installed, standing rigging replaced, and a new tramp, not to mention a trailer overhaul. Over the summer, my paypal got a workout on ebay gathering items needed for the boat's refitting.

Its now late summer and the trip is going to happen. Im 42, and my dad is 62. I decide to offer the first mate position to him as I know time is never forever. My pop is a busy guy and had just came out of the backcountry in Wyoming. Turns out he had been gone for 6 weeks. He really wanted to go but he had to return to work. Mark was second on the list and he accepted.

The plan was simple. Take the boat and a pair of kayaks to Lake Amistad. Sail to where we wanted to fish/camp. We had 8 days of this ahead of this. I hope you enjoy the story and pictures.


THURSDAY NIGHT

The Thursday before I left was a busy one wrapping up things to be ready for Fridays early departure. There is that list of things to do that seems to get longer instead of shorter when doing expeditions of this nature. The clock always seems to run faster than checking things off the list. I managed to finish up at 10:00 or so and tried to lay down and get some sleep.

FRIDAY

Mark arrives right on time Friday morning and we hook up the boat. Its then I realize the trailer light plug in isnt going to reach. AAArg! I end up cutting off the end off my motorcycle trailer and splice it in. We are behind a bit but manage to leave by 5:30am. Its not long before we clear Ft Worth and are making time to Abilene. From there we take a left and head south for a couple of hundred miles. The land scape starts changing slowly and by the time we clear Sonora, the topography and general environment changes in a big way. We are most definetly in desert now. After a quick lunch in Sonora, we hop in the truck for the last time. Before we know it, the turn off to Rough Canyon is before us.



We make the boat ramp and get our permit. 28 bucks for all of the boating and camping we can handle. Now comes the boat assembly. It goes smoothly and in 45 min I have Banana on the water with her sails showing and a bunch of gear strapped on. Oh yes, she is dragging two kayaks too. Its later in the day and there isnt much breeze but you know how it is. If there is any wind at all, the boat will move albeit slowly.

We shove off and slowly make our way up the northern canyon of the lake which is where the Devil River used to be. Camp is 8 miles up and we end up chilling as the sailing was less than hairy. I was concerned about the wind because as you go up the lake there are some really tall (3-400ft) cliffs on one side of the lake. The wind was quartered at our back and they didnt present a problem going in. We made camp in 2.5 hours. It would of taken 5-6hours by canoe and our arms would of been too tired to fish. Camp is quickly made and we hop into the yaks and fish until last light. Night falls and we make sandwiches for dinner as lunch was still with us. Sleep comes easy.


heading up the lake


your captain


first landing



SATURDAY

I sleep in a bit but hunger and heat drive me from my tent by 8am. I grab a poptart and a paddle and go out to do battle with the bass. Mark is already out there and has worked around a point. Fishing was a little slow until I switched to a spinner and started catching some monster bream/bluegill. It goes like this most of the morning. The plan was to pack up and head up the river as far as we could go. Lunch came and went and we loaded Banana. Again there is a very slight breeze and its blowing directly into the small long cove we are in. It takes awhile but we wiggle our way out and around the point. The lake is getting very narrow. Probably 200 yards across and more tall vertical cliffs are on our left. That light breeze is killing me as the boat is really loaded. The wind is of course swhirling. Im about to pull in sails and paddle when a steady wind picks up. One and a half hours to cover 1/4mile turns into a nice 5mph ride.



wind robbing cliffs

We make progress and a mile passes under the hulls. I start to notice water current going the opposite direction but the boat is still making forward progress.


notice the water is getting shallow

Im starting to see the bottom more frequently now and I hear the rudders thunking on the bottom from time to time. I decide its time to pull up the rudders, drop the mainsail and walk her upriver. I let the wind push the jib but I am steering it by walking behind the back beam.


as you can tell, there are "holes"

We soon find that we cant go any farther.




So we decide to set up camp.





Same camp except at night


SUNDAY/MONDAY

The next couple of days find us spending our time fishing some really nice water. The water clarity is amazing....for Texas anyway. The river bed is limestone and there is an algae that grows on the really flat stuff and gives the water that blue green tinge. Pictures dont do it justice. It looks like the water at the beach in those Corona commercials. We are armed with light spinning tackle and assorted plastics and spinners. We are make contact early and often.


Did you see that fish jump?


It really was a fish!


Typical water




Another nice Smallie

THE BIG ONE

I am standing in a foot of water and water is rushing over a lip just in front of me. This lip goes from bank to bank. 60ft in front of me there is another lip that goes bank to bank. In essence, there is a 10ft deep trough in front of me. I just know the current is dropping stuff in here and there should be some fish. I take my time and catch a few nice ones on my drop shotted 4 inch lizard. I am using 6lb flourocarbon fishing line and a 5 1/2 foot ultra light rod. I am casting to the lip in front of me and letting the current wash it into the the trough. The current brings it back to the wall I am standing on and I pick it up to make another cast. This time it is different.....

I make a cast and the current brings it back to me and as I am picking my lure out of the water, a really big fish comes out of nowwhere as he has been following the lizard at a distance. The fish hangs in front of the wall in front of me literally under my feet. He slides with the current down the wall and into the depths. I look at what I have in my hand and just have to laugh. I am armed with a pocket knife when I should be in a tank for this one. What the hey? I lob my lure to where the fish should be and immediately my line goes tight. I set the hook and get ready to get the buttwhoopin' I deserve. The fish runs 20 yrds off my spool. I touch on the spool a bit to slow him down. He then breaks water......not good. The hook still holds as I jab my rod in the water in hopes of keeping him from jumping. The fish is 20 yards away and I can see him thrashing under water. Its a big flippin fish. Im yelling at Mark who has to be a quarter mile upriver and he never hears me. The fight goes on. I get some line and he takes more. This has gone one awhile and I know the longer it goes, the hook is gonna give it up. He makes runs all over and then does what I hoped he wouldnt. He comes over the edge that I am standing on and uses the current heading down stream. For some reason, he reverses course and gets back in the trough. Now I am shaking as I am starting to think I have a chance at touching this fish. Slowly but surely I gain ground. I have no net, so I have to lip him. I make a grab and I now have the thing in my hands. Amazing. Ill bet they could hear me yelling in San Antonio.



Self portrait


Aint she pretty

After a long revival period holding her in the current, I let her go.


TUESDAY

We decide to spend the day fishing upriver and make a new camp as we had been coming back to Banana camp every night. We work our stuff and the river gives it up all day. By this point, Im sunburned and happy. I have been catching the huge bream that live in this river and had a couple on the stringer as we needed some meat for dinner. We crank up the burner and add the peanut oil and fry up some fish right there on the spot.


Yaks resting




Dinner and Camp

WEDNSDAY

The plan was to get up and make our way back to the Banana, load up, and be at the boat ramp for lunch. We got off to a good start and paddled our way down river back to the boat. We had tied her up good as the river can jump 3-4ft in a hurry from rains as far as 100 miles away. Everything was as we left it. We loaded up and used the current to get us down into the "lake". It was like magic, as soon as I dropped the rudders, the wind QUIT. It got so bad that I pushed/paddled 1/4 mile. Worst part was what little wind we had was at 12'oclock and there wasnt enough room to point out of it. It took an hour to go 1/2 mile. Finally, the water widened, and we made better time. We had to travel a mile of water to clear 1/4 mile upwind. It was slow progress but we were moving until we got to the really big cliffs. I have never been so frustrated in a blow boat all my life. These cliffs are huge. The wind was intermitent. I could feel it blow on my face and the sail would swing and then all of the sudden the boat would stop. It was like the wind would blow and fill the canyon and then backfill the sail. I would have wind in my face but couldnt hook it up. It took hours to make the next 1.5 miles. We missed our lunch at the boat ramp goal and dinner wasnt looking good either. Eventually, we worked our way out and the wind picked up.


Headed towards the dreaded cliffs.


Escaping the river.


Before I was frustrated.

I was never so disgusted but as soon as I got a bit of wind, I calmed down and we headed down the lake. In the end it took 8.5 hours to go 10 miles. Not a good day on any kind of boat. We made the boat ramp around 6 and went to the marina establishment and had ourselves a pizza and ice cold refreshments. Fresh ice was added to the Coleman and we pushed off in the attempt to go further down the lake before making camp. As so common, the wind dies with the sun and we only made a mile or so down from the ramp. The Banana touched shore and we made camp. Camping on the upper portions of Amistad is difficult at best. There is rock everywhere and none of it is flat. Imagine trying to set up a tent on the rock riprap on the side of a dam. I brought a hammock along and found two trees willing to hold me up for the night. Oh yes, fire ants rule down here and they are ruthless as they are abundant. The previous year I had stepped on a raisin and it was crushed on the bottom of my sandals. One measley raisin. I brought that shoe in the tent along with two small brick sized rocks to hold the tent down. I woke up to 5000 ants that got in from a 1 inch opening in the door zipper. They really wanted that raisin and had already started building a mound under one of the rocks. It took me over an hour to shake out the tent and pick out stragglers.

There is still a couple of days left but Im tired. I will finish this thing as soon as I can.

Hey, great report and pictures too! I spent a year in Del Rio at Laughlin AFB, I learned how to windsurf on Amistad back then, 1983-84. We usually had plenty of wind, but we were down by the dam and under the railway bridge, near the AF marina. Ahh the memories. I've never been back since I live on the east coast. Is the AF Base still open? Looking forward to the rest of the story, thanks for the great pictures too.

Great trip report! The pics were very nice also. I never thought of loading up the Hobie with camping gear, much less, towing two kayaks. That seems like it would be great fun. Thanks again for the report!

TRIP REPORT CONTINUED


THURSDAY

Thursday morning greets us with a very nice 10-15mph breeze blowing in a very favorable direction. The plan is to get out in the open lake and head West. We will be going under the I-90 bridges and beyond. Our starting point for the morning is only a mile wide, so the waves were not a problem but I wasn’t so sure about the open water we were about to get into.


Traveling at a nice pace


Mark liking this pace much better than yesterdays

We soon hit open water and the waves are rolling 3 footers. I was kept an eye on the kayaks because they were bouncing off the waves like ping pong balls. An overturned kayak would have been a mess. So far so good. Soon we could see the I90 bridges ahead of us.


Looking through the jib.


Getting closer

As we get closer, I start to wonder if the boat will even go under. I had an incident on Lake Texoma a couple of years ago that Id rather forget. This time I slow way down and check to be sure.


Just checking

As we went under the car bridge, a train crossed.


Soon the bridges were behind us and we continued in the open water with Mexican water on our left. We are clipping along at a pretty good pace and we are 15miles from our starting point. The decision is made to find a nice cove and get back to fishing. So, that’s what we did. As I got off the boat, I found this.


Big crawdaddy

We had landed in a protected cove but I found the better fishing to be had on the windy side of the point. The water in the main lake is a crystal clear instead of the blueish water from the river. I caught lots of bass off the point while Mark found his in the back of the cove. Lunch came and we decided to head back to the original boat ramp. We both wanted to try the Pecos River. We would be putting the Banana on the trailer and using kayaks for the rest of the trip. As we leave the point I suggest that we make a marine invasion of Mexico. So we did.


Heading South to Mexico


Rounding the bouy


Mexican waters

We are cruising back at a very good clip. The GPS had us at 10mph. With the boat loaded the way it was, it was hard to keep the hull from stuffing. I actually had to let out on the main. Four miles from the ramp, I had a CRAP moment. I could see my tent in the grass right where I left it. I had tied the boat up earlier and stashed my nice Eureka tent in the tall grass ahead of the big rock I used for the boat…….12 miles back. It was late in the afternoon and too late to go get it as the wind was easing up. We continued back to the ramp and I was pouring over the map looking for the closest ramp/water access spot I could find. Turns out I had two choices. The first was to trailer a ways and it would be a 12mile trip and me sailing with no lights way after dark. The second was to drop my kayak in at the I90 bridge and do a 7 mile open water paddle. Half of that being in the dark. It was that or leave a very nice tent for someone to find and I didn’t like that plan at all.


I chose the sunset paddle


Big Dummy Pose

The waves were quartering and sloshing a bunch of water in the kayak. I did get concerned as this kayak does not have a skirt. I also had my head on a swivel looking for boat traffic. I put on my LED headlight on flashmode for visibility and paddled like mad. My days track log on the GPS lead me right to the lost tent. By now, it was getting really dark and I had another 3.5 miles to go. I fashioned a skirt out of the tent to help keep water out but it wasn’t needed as the wind and waves faded away. There were border patrol boats running up and down the bouys, so I turned off my light to avoid detection. They were a mile on my right. The night sky came into full view without the moon and I actually enjoyed my paddle back. Its almost 10pm when I get back to the bridge. Mark helps me carry the yak up the steep riprap. He has been talking to a Border Patrol agent who was out looking for Mexicans in such craft as mine. Stupid tent….I mean stupid me.

I am famished and ate half the contents of the cooler. Loaded up we make our way west to the Pecos but not before getting pulled over by the Texas Highway Patrol for speeding. After 20 questions we were released with a written warning. We end up pulling in at Seminole Canyon State Park which is not far from the Pecos River Access. Tents quickly hit the ground and after a nice hot shower, we make like the tents and hit the ground too.


FRIDAY

The morning finds us here at this camp site. We wake a little groggy from our previous day’s 17 hour marathon. It doesn’t take long for us to get going because we are headed to the Pecos River for a paddle upstream and planned overnight campout.


Morning at Seminole State Park

Kayaks get wet at 9:30, and we make our way up the river which is lake like as this portion is part of Amistad proper. We ARE in a big canyon with steep cliffs on both sides. Its apparent that the wind is building behind us which makes for easy paddling…..for now. The canyon seems to be amplifying the wind effects and we are getting roller waves adding to our push. First stop is wreckage on the bank. Seems there was a canoe inversion and lots of the gear landed here. Conditions must have been bad because there was no reason why they couldn’t of retrieved it…..unless the wind was blowing the gear faster than they could paddle. In the end, I ended up with a very nice large drybag, some clothes, and a container or two. We tried to clean up everything but we just didn’t have room.


Heading up river. That bridge is a couple of hundred feet off the water.


Before the wind got to blowing


Canoe crash site. All of the gear was up on the bank.

We continued to paddle and soon found this critter that was floating along and drifting at a good clip. He must have been blown into the water.


Must have been a windsurfing snake of some sort.

Later in the morning, the skies cleared and the canyon narrowed, but the wind blew harder.


Little side canyon.

To be honest, the wind was very annoying. Wind is great for sailing but is stuff of dread for paddling. We attempted to fish but it was difficult trying to manage the yaks as they just blew across the water like leaves on a sidewalk. We make it up river about 5 miles when we find railroad bridge.



Like most of these pictures, scale is hard to discern. I assure you that the base concrete footings are monstrous. When trains went across, they looked like toys up there.

We caught a couple of fish. Mark got out of his yak and fished from the bank. I ended up pushing up the river hoping that it would narrow and become more river like. Two miles up I could tell it was starting to narrow but I was at mile 7 and knew padding back was going to be work. I did find a killer campsite and waited for Mark. It was getting late and I didn’t see any signs of him and decided to head back to where I last saw him a couple of hours ago. He had made the bridge and was hanging out scouting for a campsite when I reached him. The wind was still gusting and I noted that I was barely making 2mph paddling against the wall of air.

We discussed the situation. Knowing the paddle back was going to be tough, we tossed the camp out and hoped the wind would die down as we made our way back. The motivation for us to skip the overnight was that we could go back to Seminole Canyon State Park and take the rock art tour. Paddles dug in 5:30 and we couldn’t pick them out of the water or the yak would come to a complete stop in a matter of seconds. You had to paddle firmly and constantly to hold your ground. The wind was gusting and when it wasn’t, that’s when you paddled hard to make ground. My GPS spent a lot of time displaying 1.7mph which is agonizingly slow. We did pull out for a break though.


Looking down river and into the wind.


I do my Napoleon Dynamite “workout drink” move

We still admired the beauty of it all.






A couple of hours later and in the growing darkness, the wind dies……a mile from the takeout. We do our last mile watching the night sky go from blue to black and the stars arriving in bunches with each paddle stroke. Worn out, we finally hear the yaks scrape the concrete of the boat ramp. Yaks tethered to the trailer for the final time, we plop into the truck and make our way back to Seminole Canyon.

Tents up, dinner made, showers taken, and snoring finalizing our long day.

SATURDAY

We crawl out of our tents. Some of us before the other. As you can tell Im still having fun and am enjoying the sunrise before the construction equipment arrives.





Mark emerges from his nylon fortress and asks whats for breakfast. That is my que to get busy.



Its amazing what you can do with a single burner camp stove.

We head up to the park learning center and bought our tour tickets to the Indian Rock Show. It was a crazy time. Actually there were only 6 of us paying customers in the entire park. Seminole is what you might call remote and off the beaten track. Staff told us the park was used primarily as a stopover on the way to the biggie. That being Big Bend National Park which is the least visited of all of the National Parks. If you are looking to get away from it all, this is a good place to start. Mark and I have an hour to kill before the tour starts, so we take our time in the very informative exhibit.

Its show time and we meet our tour guide. His name of all things is Jack Johnson. That name might ring a bell. There is the semi famous Jack Johnson surfer/song writer. Anyway, he is young, enthusiastic, and quite the story teller.


Making our way to the “shelter”


Sample of the Rock Art


Jack doing his best to “learn” us


Looking outside the shelter and up the canyon.

After a very informative tour, Jack answered all of our questions about the people and culture of these rock artisans. Their diet made them cholesterol free for sure and Im pretty sure more of them starved to death instead of coronary problem. Tough life..tough people. We also found out in the more recent history of the area,that the railroads are what made life possible out here. There was evidence of rail activity all around.


Here is baking oven used by a rail camp.

The fauna in the desert is also quite easy on the eyes.











We all made the climb back to the top of the canyon and thanked our guide. The sun was getting up there and we were through playing on the water. It was time to head home. Soon the truck was pointing north and we retraced our steps down. Seven hours later, we make our final destination and make good with our families.

EPILOUGE

I admit it. I used the Hobie as a barge. I hope that doesn’t offend purist. I know its like taking a Corvette to Home Depot and loading a bunch of plywood in it. The boat did perform well though for this purpose. It seems Ive seen the load capacity listed for the 16 at 800lbs and Im pretty sure we were at least 650lbs. The boat handled fine and wanted to go faster in higher winds but the load on the front made that hull want to stuff. I didn’t push it as a rollover would have been a major hassle.

The racks were all made out of schedule 40 pvc. The front rack carried a Coleman cooler and two Rubbermaid totes full of food and gear. The side racks had foam backrests and mesh material to rest on. These are very sturdy,as I have used them to hike out. They make a long day on the water easy on the back. The side racks rotate up and fold flat on the boat for trailering. I estimate the weight of all the racks to be 35lbs or so. A weight I can live with for the gain in utility.


Racks folded up for trailering


Comfortable Mark?


Although there was a lot of weight on the rack, it was carried mostly at the mast. The there was no noticeable added load on the forestay/jib wire.

The kayaks were pulled on two different length ropes of 25 and 35 feet tied off the back. Yaks carried all of the fishing gear, as there was no safe place to store rods on the boat. We made covers out of poly tarp to keep water out of the yaks as they were being towed. The yaks never got in the way of the hobie except when we were going backwards at times in the shifty winded canyon ordeal. They tracked just fine and followed us with no complaints. I did worry in the waves that we might flip one but it never happened.


Kayaks on leashes

If you got this far, thank you for reading this report and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the trip. Thanks Hobie for making a versatile boat.

Well, I did make this far and I really enjoyed it all. Thanks a lot for sharing the trip with us.

Looks like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.

Wow! That's all I can say.

Timbo,

Yes,the AF base is still open. There was a variety of military aircraft coming and going. The AF marina is supposed to be really nice but iver never launched from the Del Rio side. Ive also heard that AF servicemen arent allowed to go to Acuna anymore. Im sure you had fun over there.