ZAPATA, Texas — Coy Callison doesn’t think he is risking his life when he steers his speedboat into crystal-clear waters that straddle the Texas-Mexico border, hoping to hook a few monster bass in an area marred with drug violence.
His marriage might be a different story.
“My wife threw a fit with us coming down here, but the fishing’s been so fantastic,” said Callison, a Texas Tech University communications professor, as he loaded his boat into Falcon Reservoir just after dawn. “I’m almost getting a divorce, basically.”
Anglers are again descending in droves on the dammed section of the Rio Grande where American jet-skier David Hartley, a former Loveland resident, was presumably chased and gunned down by Mexican pirates last fall — and where shootouts between Mexican soldiers and reputed drug runners have become frighteningly common in the eight months since.
Tourism plummeted after Hartley’s death Sept. 30, devastating Zapata and other shoreline Texas towns. But business has rebounded since January and gotten stronger as a drought has given visitors access to once hard-to-reach shore areas teeming with bass, tilapia and other fish.
Three-sided conflict
Falcon Reservoir borders portions of Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, which is engulfed by a turf battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Zeta drug gang, both of which are fighting the Mexican military.
On May 8, Mexican marines patrolling their country’s side of the lake discovered a staging area for smuggling marijuana into Texas by speedboat on a spit of land that becomes an island when the water is high. A gun battle ensued, killing one marine and 12 alleged Zeta gang members.
Many locals say such incidents are all too common since the Mexican navy stepped up patrols on its side of Falcon Reservoir. Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez ticked off examples from that same week that weren’t widely covered in the media, including a heavy gunfire battle May 12 and a Mexican helicopter that shot a drug suspect three days later.
Those shootouts and Hartley’s slaying were in Mexican waters, and violence so far has been contained to that country’s side of bluish-green waters stretching 25 miles long and 3 miles across.
But many fishing fanatics are heading to Mexico’s part of the lake anyway, saying the chance to reel in bass that grow larger than 10 feet outweighs fears about a drug war that has killed more than 34,000 people in Mexico since 2006.
“Everyone says, ‘Just stay out of Mexico.’ But we go over there anyway, and it’s no problem,” said Levi Messer, 26, who recently drove six and a half hours to hit Falcon Reservoir. “You might see a few less people than before, but there’s still lots.”
A stone’s throw from Zapata’s municipal boat ramp is a sign with red-and-black-lettering proclaiming: “Warning: Crossing into Mexico Could Be Dangerous.”
Nearby, a smaller sign bearing the seals of the Texas attorney general’s office and the U.S. Border Patrol asks boaters to report suspicious activity.
Gonzalez erected both signs two months ago.
“People can ignore them if they want,” he said. “But we could potentially have a situation where someone goes to Mexico to fish and has a problem, and we can’t go get them.”
Paco Mendoza, president of the Zapata County Chamber of Commerce, said that although tourism has yet to fully recover, hotel occupancy rates for weekends, when Falcon Reservoir attracts the most anglers, are now up 30 percent to 40 percent since the doldrums following Hartley’s shooting.
Recovery “a slow process”
“A lot of people don’t really realize how safe it is here until they actually come and see for themselves,” he said. “We’re working toward having our image repaired, but it’s a slow process.”
Guide Jim Edwards has fished recently within sight of the church that the Hartleys were visiting.
“The fishing is better than it ever has been,” he said. “And that’s bringing people back.”
The owner of another guide service, Jim Behnken, said that since February, he’s had only two days where he wasn’t fully booked. He was with visitors from Kansas, fishing in Mexican territory, the morning of Hartley’s shooting. The outing went so well the group headed back to Mexican waters that same evening despite what had happened.
“It’s a very big lake, and if you don’t go looking for trouble, you won’t find it,” Behnken said.
Speedy Collett is a lodge owner and guide who had a brush with Mexican pirates before Hartley’s slaying. In April 2010, he was guiding anglers who were approached by armed men after they went ashore on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake to take pictures. The assailants took the memory card from the digital camera of one visitor and checked Collett’s phone to ensure he hadn’t called anyone running drugs in the area.
“When they figured out we weren’t a threat, they let us go,” he said. “They told us, ‘Go fish and mind your own business.’ ” That’s what Collett’s been doing ever since, and he said his lodge and guide schedule are full again.
“We’re in recovery, but it’s fragile,” he said. “And if something else happens, we’re dead.”
Related
On Sept. 30, David Hartley, 30, a former Loveland resident, was presumably chased and gunned down by Mexican pirates on Falcon Reservoir on the U.S.-Mexico border. Hartley’s wife, Tiffany, said her husband was shot in the head by Mexican pirates after the couple drove their WaveRunners past buoys marking the end of U.S. territory to visit a historic Mexican church. His body hasn’t been recovered.
Above: A large wreath placed in the water in October by relatives of David Hartley marks the area where he was shot. The relatives came to the small town of Zapata, Texas, to pay tribute and have some sense of closure in his death. They were able to go to the site of the shooting on Lake Falcon in Mexican waters with an escort from the Texas Game Wardens and lay the flowers into the water. Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file
