Floridians Carl P. and his son Carl J. Hochrein took full advantage of what Anglers Inn International has to offer. After averaging more than 80 bass per day up to 7 pounds at Lake Mateos, Carl P. caught his first sailfish and Carl J. caught his first roosterfish off Mazatlan. They also caught many dolphin, snapper up to 15 pounds, jacks and other fish before heading inland to challenge the trophy largemouths in Lake El Salto. The lake delivered! The younger Carl struck first, catching a personal best 9.5-pounder on a Strike King Rage-Tail Shad burned across the surface. Not to be outdone, the father demonstrated how experience can overcome youth. He landed a 10-pounder the following day on a bleeding shad Lobina Rico popper thrown on a medium-light spinning rod.
"My son's fish won the biggest bass of the day award and I think that he is still smiling," Carl P. said. "My 10-pounder was not my biggest bass ever, but on light tackle it was a really great trophy. The best part was that I beat my son as we are highly competitive when we fish together."
Gerald Davenport is surely another thankful person this year. He had a heart valve replacement operation in September, but decided to visit Anglers Inn El Salto for the holiday. It's his first time to fish the lake in his 77 years, but I think he'll be back. Before coming to El Salto, Gerald never caught a bass bigger than 8 pounds. Right off, he caught a 7-pound, 14-ounce bucketmouth and followed up with his personal best, an 8-pound, 4-ouncer the following day. Both lunkers hit topwater baits. "I don't know how I will be able to describe this to people back home," Gerald said. "It's even better than Kirby (his nephew) said it was."
Noted outdoor writer Robert Montgomery caught his share of trophy bass over the years, but this year decided to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with us at Anglers Inn El Salto. Robert, a senior writer for ESPN/BASS Publications, wrote Better Bass Fishing. In it, he lists Anglers Inn at Lake El Salto as his favorite bass fishing destination in the world and might add another chapter to the legend of El Salto now.
"Before this afternoon, we were struggling to catch fish, although Gerald did manage to get the 7-pound, 14-ounce bass on a topwater," Robert said. "We weren't having any luck patterning the fish. Everyone was catching a fish here and there, but the bass weren't concentrated anywhere. Then, we saw bass crashing tilapia off windy points and the topwater bite turned awesome. Our boat caught about 50 fish the day before Thanksgiving."
That same day, Gerald Davenport caught his big fish on a popper and Wiley Hatcher landed an 8-pounder on a lizard. The fish held on shallow points where they pinned tilapia to the banks. Toss topwaters toward the shorelines and twitch them a couple times, pausing occasionally to let the ripples fade.
"Bass were extremely aggressive and would chase our baits if they missed the first time," Robert said. "I had one 6-pounder flush my bait three times before I finally hooked her. Norm Klayman and I caught 25 bass on top during the last 90 minutes of the day. We had an 8, a 7, as well as several 6s and 5s."
Early in the morning, throw topwaters near the shorelines or flick 5-inch white flukes over the grass beds. Later in the morning, look for bass in about 15 to 20 feet of water. Drag watermelon lizards or black and blue worms, either fished Texas-rigged or Carolina style, over the bottom. Also toss a 1/2-ounce chrome and blue Rat-L-Trap toward the shoreline in about six to eight feet of water and work it out toward the depths. Keep a shad-colored Lucky Craft Sammie walking bait handy to toss at schooling bass.
