Air Temp: 55°/60°F early morning & late evening. Siesta Time 78°/85°F
Weather: Warm and sunny with a slight breeze. 60 degrees in the morning, 80s in the afternoon
Water Temp: 72°/75°F
Average number of bass per boat per day: 40 - 60
Largest bass caught: 11 pounds
Top 5 Lures This Week:
Yamamoto Senkos, Yum Dingers or Bass Pro Shops 5 & 6-inch Stinkos: watermelon
Lobina Lures Rio Rico poppers or Yellow Magics: Silver or white
10-inch Zoom Lizards: watermelon red flake
Berkley Power Worms: 10-inch, watermelon
Strike King or Booyah double willow blade Spinnerbait: Green/blue
Topwater Baits:
Lobina Lures Rio Rico poppers or Yellow Magics: white, white with sparkles and bleeding shad
Pop, n image Heddon, Baby Bass color
Heddon Zara Spook and Lucky Craft Sammy: shad, chrome with black top and white.
Swimbaits:
Storm WildEye 4 -inch Swim Shads: Shad, white with chartreuse top and pearl
Yum Money Minnows: 5-inch in foxy shad, hologram shad and herring with 5/0 or 6/0, 1/8-ounce weight hook.
Plastics:
Eight-inch Zoom Lizards: watermelon, watermelon red flake and black with blue tail
Yamamoto Senkos, Yum Dingers or Bass Pro Shops 5 & 6-inch Stinkos: watermelon, watermelon red flake and black with blue flake
Zoom super fluke white
Berkley Power Worms: 10-inch, black with blue tail, watermelon and red shad
Crankbaits:
Bomber Fat Free Shad & Rapala DT16 Crankbaits: medium & deep divers in citrus shad, hot mustard and fire tiger
Rat-L-Traps: ½ & ¾-ounce in silver with blue back and silver with black back
Rapala X-Rap or 4 to 5-inch jerkbaits: white, clown and shad
Spinnerbaits:
Booyah double willow blade: ½-ounce in white/chartreuse.
Tip of the Week:
Senkos, Yumdingers and similar soft-plastic baits, rigged either wacky or Texas style, top the list of hot baits this week. Rigged wacky style, the exposed hook sometimes snags on timber. String a rubberband from under the barb to around the shank. The rubberband across the gap might help deflect wood and keep the hook from snagging
Fish the Plastics off the Points
Comments:
Enjoying that cold weather up North? Here in sunny old Mexico, we're catching big bass from both Lakes El Salto and Mateos while wearing shorts and flip-flops. With tilapia hiding near the banks, bass hold tight on points in one to four feet of water. At first light, white surface poppers produce good action. "Tilapia are up on the banks in the morning with bass feeding on them," said Bradley Hallman, a professional angler from Norman, Okla. "That's why a Pop-R works so well on Lake El Salto. People might catch 20 fish in the first couple hours with a Pop-R, Rico or similar bait." Bradley and his wife, Dawn, visited Lake El Salto this week to catch bass, fished in the Sea of Cortez out of Mazatlan and enjoyed a stay at Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay. Anglers Inn International serves as the exclusive Sportsman's Club for all six Pueblo Bonito properties.
"This is the best lake that I've ever fished – and I've fished a lot of good lakes," the pro said. "The fishing is unreal. The accommodations are first-rate."
Fishing strictly topwaters on fly tackle, Will Van Rees from Los Angeles enticed a 9-pounder into hitting a white Pearly Popper. He joined his father, Norm, mother Diane and older brother Nick from Kansas City. Dedicated fly fishermen, they tallied many bass in the 3- to 5-pound range with some larger fish. "Topwaters have been really good in the morning, but not quite as good as senkos," Bradley explained. "As the morning progresses, bass move down the slopes into six to 12 feet of water. People are catching 30 to 40 fish by 9 a.m. on senkos with many bass in the 2- to 5-pound range, plus some in the 7- to 9-pound range."
Steven and Jill Svrcek from Apple Valley, Minn., tried to catch 100 fish in four hours one morning. I'm sorry to say, they didn't achieve their goal, landing only 98 before lunch! However, they did lose several lunkers. The Svrceks caught 14 bass in their first 18 minutes with most hitting in the 2- to 5-pound range. Some topped 6 pounds. They wacky rigged senkos around flooded timber or dragged watermelon red flake lizards through six to 12 feet of water.
Ando Takeshi, a bass pro from Tokyo, Japan, caught a 9.8-pounder on a Texas-rigged chartreuse senko. He and Emily Kamata landed quite a few other bass in the 4- to 6-pound range. "We had a great time," Takeshi said. "Normally, I use darker colors like green pumpkin, but for bigger fish, I like to use brighter colors like chartreuse." As the day warms, fish big lizards or black and blue jigs tipped with craws. Also try slow-rolling green and blue spinnerbaits through eight to 20 feet of water. Run blue and chartreuse deep-running crankbaits parallel to ridges or creek channel edges in 15 to 25 feet of water in the afternoon. "At mid-day, bass move into deeper water," Bradley said. "That's a good time to throw a Texas-rigged 10-inch worm. I caught a lot of big fish on a brown jig with a blue craw trailer, a watermelon or green pumpkin 10-inch worm and a Norman DD-22 crankbait."
Bernie Kuhel of San Diego used a 10-inch black and blue Berkley Power Worm one afternoon to land the lunker of the week, an 11-pounder. Fishing with his brother Ray from Virginia Beach, Va., that morning, Bernie caught a 9-pounder on a watermelon senko.
