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 Travel & Outdoors | January 2006 
Bountiful Bass
 Union-Tribune
| | Beautiful Lake El Salto in Mexico has become a destination for serious bass seekers. |
El Salto, Mexico – A thin ribbon of blue-gray light illuminates the tips of the Sierra Madre mountains as we motor from the boat dock at Anglers Inn on what is a brisk morning for this tropical paradise.
We are not in a panga on the Pacific off Mazatlan. We are about a two-hour drive east, in the mountains on Lake El Salto, a massive body of water that dwarfs any San Diego-area lake both in size and for the population and girth of its Florida-strain largemouth bass.
Covering 24,000 surface acres when full – and it was when we visited earlier this month – El Salto is 22 times bigger than San Vicente, 14 times larger than Lake Morena, San Diego County's largest reservoir when full.
That ribbon of light over Mexico's Sierra range serves as a beacon for our guide, Luis Vega, a veteran fishing guide who started as a youngster on another famous Mexican bass fishery, Lake Baccarac, before switching to El Salto and Billy Chapman Jr.'s Anglers Inn seven years ago.
Occasionally, Vega shines a flashlight, either at the shoreline to check for structure or to alert another guide and boat. He will guide from dawn to dusk, with a short break for lunch, but he'll do so without a fish finder or Lowrance depth finder. He'll use his instincts and incredible knowledge of the lake's structure and shoreline to put us on bass of a lifetime.
Soon, the darkness fades and we're casting Ricos and Vixens, topwater lures, to the shoreline for hungry bass. A night heron has beaten us and already is on shore picking apart a tilapia – the main forage fish in the lake and the main catch for commercial netters. My fishing partner, Bob Brower of Elbert, Colo., and I work the shoreline, and we begin to catch and release bass up to 7 pounds. Suddenly an osprey dives and yanks out a bass. Unlike the paying anglers here, the many species of resident birds don't practice catch-and-release fishing. That's breakfast.
Another day dawns here on what many experts like Tim Tucker of Bassmaster Magazine say is the most spectacular bass fishing lodge and finest trophy bass lake in the world. It's a five-star resort for bass fishing fanatics. And our group, each down with bass frenzy, found nothing in 41/2 days of fishing to contradict Tucker's sage opinion.
"I've caught more bass here in two days than I've caught in five years in San Diego," said Larry Wilson, part of a group of San Diegans at the lake.
Said Dustin Baker: "I've had more fun fishing here than I've had winning bass tournaments in San Diego."
Brower spent his first four days with Joe Aldridge of Poway. Brower grew up in San Diego, but his family moved to Colorado when he was a youngster. He and Aldridge, who fishes the pro circuit in San Diego, struck a quick friendship and became the top anglers in our group's four-day fishing tournament.
Each team had a scale on the boat and weighed every fish caught. There are no livewells, and all fish were released immediately. But anglers were allowed to count weights from their best five bass caught collectively each day. Aldridge and Brower's four-day total for 20 bass went 131 pounds, 8 ounces, a lake record. Their daily total of five bass averaged nearly 33 pounds, and their best 20 bass averaged 61/2 pounds. Aldridge had the big fish of the tournament, a 9-9, and also landed a 9-0 and an 8-14.
Most of the bass were so close to shore it was as if they were on it. Bigger fish lurked off deeper points and in structure or submerged trees, El Salto's trademark.
Aldridge's bigger bass hit a black sapphire Brush Hog, a lizard-like plastic bait, that he rigged "bubba-style" (Carolina rig).
"It was awesome fishing," Aldridge said. "I would recommend this lake to anyone. The guides are great. The service is awesome."
Said Brower: "It's not just the fishing, but it's the staff here that makes this a really special place. It's first class. And the scenery, it's absolutely beautiful scenery. Everywhere you go on this lake, the Sierra Madre mountains are in the background. And the wildlife. There are more osprey here than I've seen in my life. It's just really alive."
John Grabowski of Rancho San Diego and Ernie Marugg of El Cajon had 124 pounds for 20 bass in four days, a total that also broke the old lake record. Marugg tied Jim Sleight of El Cajon for big bass on the final full day, with both landing 9-pound, 4-ounce bass. Sleight fished with his son, Jason, and they had one of those father-son bonding trips that no amount of money can buy.
"I can't tell you how much it meant to me to be able spend quality time like this with my son," Sleight said. "We had the time of our lives here."
As for the rest of our group, I guarantee each of us spent some time since returning to the U.S. revisiting this bass fishing mecca in our minds. It's the kind of place that leaves that kind of impression. I know I woke from a deep sleep swearing I was still fighting a bass as it leaped out of the water to shake the lure.
For information on fishing Anglers Inn at El Salto, call Steve Babbidge at Hook Sportfishing Adventure Travel at (800) 583-8133 or email him at SBabbidge@aol.com. |
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