Lake El Salto Fishing Report

Monday - June 24th, 2013

Mazatlan, Xx

Posted By: lizardlover

Sunny and warm in the low 90's

May / June, 2013 Bass Fishing Report from Anglers Inn on Lake El Salto

El Salto Report:

We have had a banner year for Big, Healthy Bass at El Salto and there is no reason to think it will not continue until they close July 31st. My advice, is to drop everything and come on down!

Right now, the go-to baits have been soft plastics. You will see from the customer testimonies that the Berkley 10” Power Worms (Black & Blue) have been King, followed by, Zoom 8” Lizards (watermelon/red flake), Storm WildEye Swim Shad (white belly), Senko’s (watermelon/red flake) and Reaction Innovations, Skinny Dippers (black & blue). If you find the right spot try a crank bait. The Rapala Thug DT got great raves for cranking. Also, be sure to bring Bomber Fat Free Shad 14’ to 18’ in chartreuse color. There was not much top-water but it is coming!

The lake is at its lowest level and the fishing is crazy. All the fish are in 35% to 40% of the water and when you find one big fish you will find a bunch! I have seen 100 + pounds of fish taken off a single bush in one day! We start to get a little rain in June and the lake greens up and the nutrients on the mountains slip into the slow rise of the lake. We get some overcast and the top-water bite takes off!!

Dwayne Patenaude from San Diego (Group of 11, May 19-23) reported the following: Jerry Poehlman caught the 11 pounder on a black and blue Skinny Dipper, Texas rigged with 1/2 oz lead. Bob Williams caught the 10 pounder on a watermelon/red flake Senko. Our 2 largest fish (Dwayne Patenaude and Tony Shanley) were 9 pounders that came on Berkley 10 inch Black and Blue Power worms, Texas rigged, 1/2 weight in 15-20 ft. of water off steep banks . Most of our group’s larger fish were taken on Storm, white swim baits (WildEye Shad) fished 20-25 feet deep. We were fortunate in that our guide knew a shallow water spot where fish to 8 pounds were biting every morning. Our best technique, which no one else believed, even the guides, was throwing a Rapala Thug Crank bait, in natural shad, right to the shore where the Tilapia were concentrated and cranking back to the boat. It was a lot of fun the first 90 minutes of the day with the fish grabbing the lures very close to the boat and exploding out of the water.

When that bite died down, we fished steep banks with Berkley black and blue power worms in 20 ft. of water. One morning the Reaction Innovation’s (black and blue) Skinny Dippers were working real well in a shallow flat the guide found in the back of one of the many coves. The numbers of bass were down for the group but we caught a lot of 5-7 lb. fish, numerous 8 pounds, a half a dozen nines, 3-10's and one 11 pounder for the trip. Black and Blue Power worms and White swim baits were our most productive baits. Even Mike Ishikawa switched from Senkos to Swim Baits to get in on the action when the Senko bite would not pick up for him! One member of our group, Simon Hermez, loves bass fishing and was pretty stoked to get a chance to go to the famed Anglers Inn at El Salto Lake. He brought his friend Jose, a fairly new bass fisherman, and they did very well with fish to eight pounds on all the usual stuff. Simon told me he is hooked now and will definitely be getting back down to Anglers Inn! We also had three other new comers (Mike Sur, Matt Bralla and Brandon Buono) who also did very well with Mike and Brandon getting their personal best bass down there. Mike got an 8.5 pounder and Brandon got a 10.5 pounder. You could hear them having the time of their lives laughing it up every day! I can't wait to return in December!

This report comes from Best Interiors’ Marty Parsons. Marty hosted a group of 36 anglers May 15-19:
As you know, we had our annual tournament on May 15th-19th. This year we had 36 participants which was made up from various sub-contractors and personnel. We have a unique setup for our fishing trip for a couple reasons. This set up allows us to fish for individual awards as well as daily team awards. It also helps promote honesty since your fishing partner each day is a teammate as well as your competition. This year the quantity of fish caught was way down but the quality of fish caught way up. Every award category that was determined by weight was increased a lot over last year even with a lot of inexperienced fisherman in our group.

Overall Biggest Fish, 10lbs 5oz caught by Randy Burns. Last year’s big fish was 9lbs 13oz Most Weight for 15 fish, 75lbs 7oz caught by Marty Parsons. Last year’s most weight was 65lbs 7 oz Most Fish Caught 38 by Ron Hall. Last year most fish caught was 160. Our Daily team awards are based on the 5 fish biggest fish caught for each boat. Daily team awards were as follows: Day 1 team: Ron Hall & Isaac Alford 35 lbs 10oz. Day 2 team: Marty Parsons & Dave Weigel 36 lbs 4oz. Day 3 team: Ron Hall & Joe Isom 29 lbs 7oz. Last year all of our winning team weights were between 25 & 28 lbs. So you can see the weights for 5 fish were up significantly. In fact day 1 & 2 have a 7lb+ average!!!!

Most of the bigger fish were caught using plastics which are generally a very slow presentation. The usual Swim baits and Crankbaits were also successful but not for the bigger fish. Mine were caught on Berkley black & blue worms, both 10" & 12" Randy Burns caught his 10-5 using a watermelon 8” Zoom lizard with a bobber!!! Go Figure! Bob Betz caught this 8-12 on a Zoom, watermelon/red flake Brush Hog. The service was 5-Star as usual. Most of our guests were first timers or maybe a 2nd timer and they were really impressed with your attention to detail when it comes to the first class service. In fact, I heard a lot of comments regarding the great service. Since our trip is more about building and strengthening our business relationships, the excellent service we receive is a key part to the trip's overall success. And as you know, keeping 36 guys happy is not an easy chore.

Come on down to experience El Salto’s bass fishing bonanza!

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