Lake El Salto, Mexico
May 5-9, 2006
A Motley Crew
From left to right: Brad Stone, Brian Bergstrom, Lee Ward, Wayne Zartman, Walt Zartman
It was another fun trip to one of the best largemouth bass lakes on the planet. The above
picture was taken at a restaurant in Mazatlan on the way home. Last year just Jeff Cotten and
I made the
trip to Lake El Salto. This year,
five of us took the adventure.
And what an adventure it was. Oh, the fishing was quite good. Everyone caught at least one
fish over five and a half pounds and there were several six's and seven's and one over
eight. I think we all lost some monsters too. Fun stuff. But there were, however, a few
non-fishing-related small hiccups along the way. Our luggage did not make our flight from
Houston to Mazatlan. Which meant we didn't have much fishing tackle for the first day of
fishing. Luckily we got our luggage in time for day 2 and 3. Lesson learned: bring
lots of fishing tackle in your carry-on luggage. I really like the rustic feel of
Club El Salto and
the staff was wonderful - the food was great. But the electricity in our rooms would
periodically shut off. It wasn't a disaster, but it was a little annoying. The folks at Club
El Salto have already assured me that they are fixing the problem immediately. That's good -
because all five of us (and maybe some others) are returning just eight months from now, in
January 2007. LOL.
Lee Ward's 8.3 Pounder
This was the big fish of the trip, which earned Lee $50 from the rest of us. Lee also
caught the most fish (81), which earned him yet another $50. But we should expect nothing less
from a guy who has his own
online tackle store!
I came in second to Lee in both the biggest fish category and the numbers of fish. I'll get you
next year Lee Ward!
Brad with a 7.6 Pounder
This was the biggest fish I caught on the trip. You can't tell from this picture, but this
bass was very fat. She must have been a late spawner and was still full of eggs. Otherwise
she would probably have only weighed 6 pounds. Like most of my fish, I caught her on a Texas-rigged
8-inch Zoom magnum lizard (green-pumpkin color). The lake was very low, so there was a lot of
exposed timber; perfect conditions to work a Texas-rigged lizard. As usual, we released the
fish and she swam off just fine.
We ate most of our meals inside the screened-in pavilion, but we ate our steak and lobster
dinner outside - under an enormous, muy bonita tree. No, I don't know the type of tree. Unlike
last year, the lodge was at full capacity - probably around 20 anglers. The staff did a good job
of keeping everyone fed and keeping lots of cold beer on ice.
Some Other Cool Fish Pics
This is the type of boat our guides used. Most were powered by a 60 horsepower Yamaha engine.
They're actually pretty good little fishing boats - complete with small front & rear fishing
decks. That's Wayne and Walt in the left picture embarking on the afternoon session of fishing.
In the right picture, that's me standing in the first boat with the white shirt - preparing for
the morning fishing. Each morning there would be several dozen boats heading out of the same
small cove. It was a pretty neat sight.
Windows Media Player Video Clips
If you don't have the latest version of the Windows Media Player you can get the free version by
clicking
here.
On some connections, the video may be a bit jerky as it "buffers" while
streaming in the video. In that case you might let it completely
finish and then play it again.
Brian caught a small bass (20 seconds)...05/06/2006
Walt caught an even smaller bass (11 seconds)...05/08/2006
Moving boat scene (19 seconds)...05/06/2006
Return to my home page