Lakes El Salto & Picachos:
I am back from sunny Mexico and lakes El Salto & Picachos with Billy Chapman’s Anglers Inn. I will be booking trips to both lakes in the future as part of the Anglers Inn family and am super excited to work with Billy first-hand! Of course I will be guiding on Castaic Lake and writing the weekly fish reports and tournament updates as usual. I have a few more surprises on the way and I’m looking forward to an awesome year!
Lake Picachos:
The pure Florida-strain Largemouth of Mexico didn’t dissapoint on this, my 15th trip to Anglers Inn in the past 20 years. Although we’ve been to El Salto many times, this was me and Kenny’s first trip to Lake Picachos, just a short 55 minute ride from the Mazatlan airport. The lodge is right on the water and is what you’d expect from a Billy Chapman Jr establishment. Beautiful, clean and safe accomodations along with superior dining and service is what Anglers Inn is all about. When we arrived the lake was spilling over the dam by a foot. Needless to say the lake was flooded up into the bushes spreading the Bass out anywhere from one to twenty feet deep. We had our best action on 6″ Senko’s, Chatterbaits, A-Rigs and 8″ Zoom lizards. We dipped all of our tails in chartreuse dye to mimic the Tilapia that are abundant in most lakes in the region. This lake is beautiful beyond compare and is absolutely loaded with two to three pound Bass. We caught fish up to six pounds and can’t wait to see this lake explode in the next couple of years when it’s full of five pounders.
Lake El Salto:
Still the mecca for Bass fisherman from around the world, this 25,000 acre impoundment on the Elota River rareley sees a bad day. It had just rained prior to our arrival so there was a brown stain to the water which gave us a wide range of bait options. By far the most and biggest fish were caught on Kenny’s homemade, single bait Alabama Rig. Keitech Fat Swing Impact swimbaits in either 4.8 or 5.8 sizes were the top producers on this rig as well as on a jighead or as a Chatterbait trailer. Pearl white or Shad colors with chartreuse tails were getting hammered on a regular basis, producing many fish from three to eight pounds. Rio Rico topwater poppers in the Cisco pattern caught lots of fish also, especially in the first two hours. Other baits we caught fish on were 8″ Zoom lizards in watermelon/red, deep-diving crankbaits in citrus shad patterns and Lucky Craft Pointer 158’s in the Bone Pro Blue color. There were plenty of fish to be caught all day on 6″ Senko’s in watermelon or green pumpkin but since we are addicted to the jolting strikes, we usually choose to fish moving baits with single hooks.
We are headed back in May when the water is down and the fish bunch up on structure. This is the time to catch the truly large fish that inhabit these waters and make this lake so popular. Special thanks go out to Billy along with his veteran staff: Jose and Giovani at Picachos and Ramon, Sammy and Julio at El Salto. As usual my “hermano de la sur” Loreto showed us why he is in such demand as one of the best guides in all of Mexico. I feel so blessed to fish these lakes and am looking forward to being down there more often in the coming years. Anyone interested in booking a trip or with any questions can contact me thru my email: jim@661fishing.com
Jim
