Mexico Bass Fishing Reports Lake El Salto

Name: Anglers Inn
Date: January 1st – 15th, 2008
Hottest Baits:
Rat-L-Traps: 1/2- and 3/4-ounce in silver with blue back and gold
Lobina Lures Rio Rico poppers: white, white with sparkles and bleeding shad.
Lizards: 8-inch Zoom, 7-inch Yum Zellamanders, 6-inch Berkley Power Bait in watermelon, watermelon red flake, black with blue tail, and junebug.
Berkley Power Worms: 10-inch in black with blue tail, red shad and junebug
Storm Wild Eye Swim Shads: 4- and 5-inch in shad, pearl white and golden mullet.
Rapala X-Rap and 4- to 5-inch jerkbaits in white, clown, perch and shad
Heddon Zara Spook, Lucky Craft Sammy and Reaction Innovations Vixen: clear, chrome with black top and white.
Bomber Fat Free Shad Crankbaits: deep divers in citrus shad.
Yamamoto Senkos, Yum Dingers and Bass Pro Shops 5- and 6-inch Stinkos: watermelon, watermelon red flake and black with blue flake.
Chatterbaits: 1/2-ounce in white, white and chartreuse
Buzzbaits: 1/2- and 5/8-ounce in black, white, chartreuse.

Colder Temperatures Outside But Hot Bite On El Salto!!
Brrrrr! It’s been unseasonably cold down here South of the Border, but despite chilly mornings, afternoons and nights, the El Salto bass bite has been extra hot. If you plan to come down in the near future, bring a heavy jacket for the boat ride early and late in the day. But be sure to pack some shorts and T-shirts, too. You’ll want to change into those for midday fishing.
Now for the good part—the fishing. Colder air temperatures have meant cooler water, but the bite hasn’t cooled down in the least. The big female bass are in the pre-spawn stage, and some being caught already have bloody tails. The smaller male bass have paired up with their partners for the season. That’s good news for anglers because it means more fish being caught for every hour spent on the water. With pre-spawn underway, bass are moving up into shallower water and cover.

Early-morning anglers have enjoyed their greatest success fishing Pop-Rs, Senkos and jerkbaits. Larger Senko-type lures—6 and 7 inch—are great for weeding out some of the smaller male bass. With luck, you’ll cast one right in front of a super-heavyweight sowbelly and land the biggest bass of your life. Only one way to find out, right? The bite in the later part of the morning has been on a variety of lures, including worms, lizards, swimbaits, crankbaits and chatterbaits. Most of the larger bass are holding off the drop-offs and creek channels with standing timber. Some of these big bass will even spawn on the top of trees.

Among our recent guests was a group of folks from the Pure Fishing Group in Spirit Lake, Iowa, a company whose portfolio of leading tackle brands includes Berkley, Stren, Spiderwire, Abu Garcia, Mitchell, Fenwick and SevenStrand products. Brian Perry was one of those people, and as you might expect, he landed a bunch of nice bass on lures from Berkley. “I caught 30 to 60 fish per session,” he said in a note sent after his trip. “Those bass weighed up to 7 pounds and averaged 4 to 5 pounds each. All of them were caught one of three Berkley lures: 5-inch Gulp! Sinking Minnows, 6-inch PowerBait Lizards or 7-inch PowerBait Ribbontail Worms. Green pumpkin was the most productive color.”Marty Brennan also was at Anglers Inn with the Pure Fishing Group. Here’s what he had to say about his visit: “I had a wonderful time, and everyone on your staff treated us like royalty. We caught over 160 bass during three days, all in the 3- to 5-pound range. My biggest weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces. Most were caught on 7-1/2-inch Gulp! green-pumpkin Carolina-rigged worms and others on Yamamoto watermelon with red flake. We also fished crankbaits, but the worm fishing was so fantastic we pretty much stayed with that. Our guide Lorenzo did a super job putting us on fish every day. I would love to come back again some time soon.”