February, 2010
At both Lakes El Salto and Mateos, bass haven't quite moved into their spawning patterns yet, but should soon. Anglers can find abundant smaller bass, those in the 2- to 5-pound range, off the points and shorelines. Many bigger bass came from deep water. Fish vertical rock cliff edges that drop quickly into very deep water.
Conditions:
Weather: Warm and sunny with a slight breeze. 60 degrees in the morning, 80s in the afternoon
Air Temp: 55°/60°F early morning & late evening. Siesta Time 78°/85°F
Water Temp: 72°/75°F
Average number of bass per boat per day: 40 - 60
Largest bass caught: 11.3 pounds
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
Berkley Power Worms: 10-inch, black with blue tail, watermelon and red shad
Zoom super fluke white
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
Fish Deep Cliffs for the Biggest Bass
Lake El Salto continues to hold big bass, but turned into quite a numbers lake in the past few weeks. Leonard Mailes of Oklahoma, achieved a lifetime milestone and topped the weekly lunker list with an 11.3-pounder, which sucked up a lizard. He and his fishing partner, Floyd Duncan landed 305 bass in three days. Floyd caught an 8-pound, 10-ounce lunker.
"Catching a bass over 10-pounds at Lake El Salto was on my 'bucket list.' Most of our fish were caught on Zoom 8-inch magnum lizards in watermelon redflake and senkos fished wacky style," Mailes explained. "We caught lots of fish in the 5- to 7-pound range. This was my ninth trip to Anglers Inn El Salto and -- as usual -- everything was excellent. The accommodations, food, boats, guides and fishing was great. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again next year."
Trip Copeland of Georgia, enjoyed a good birthday, catching several fish in the 6- to 8-pound range and topping it off with a 10.5-pounder. The big one hit a watermelon senko, one of the hottest baits lately.
Dave Precht, editor-in-chief of Bassmaster magazine also scored with a 10-pounder that smacked a watermelon lizard. In 3.5 days of fishing, Precht and eight friends caught many bass in the 4- to 6-pound range and some larger ones. They also caught fish on 12-inch black and blue or watermelon worms, 3/4-ounce chrome and blue lipless crankbaits plus Yellow Magic and Pop-R topwaters.
"The most and biggest fish came on 8-inch watermelon Texas-rigged lizards fished as deep as 18 to 20 feet in the back of coves," Precht said. "We also caught some around the trees in water 10 to 12 feet deep. During the warmer part of the day, we fished deeper holes. I pulled a lizard out of the tree and was reeling the bait really fast by the boat to prepare for another cast when my biggest one hit."
Not counting anything weighing less than 2 pounds, Terry Connolly of Chicago and five friends landed more than 685 pounds of bass in five days. The tally included two topping 8 pounds, 10 exceeding 7 pounds and 12 weighing more than 6 pounds. They caught most of their fish on soft plastics, white spinnerbaits and Zara Spooks. "We really enjoyed the trip," Connolly said. "The service and food were beyond good; they were great. I can't wait to go again next year."
