Headed to El Salto? Or Picachos? No matter which one you’re fishing, or when you’re going, there’s one crankbait that MUST be in your tackle bag: The Bomber Fat Free Shad in Citrus Shad.

Based on years of experience, I can tell you that no matter how many hours you spend organizing your tackle prior to your trip to Anglers Inn El Salto or Picachos, by the second day everything is likely to be a mess. Here’s how we minimize on-the-water inefficiency.

At times fishing a Carolina Rig feels like watching paint dry, and when you break off it takes a long time to retie properly, another strike against it. At the same time, I’m honest enough to know that it can produce big fish and a lot of fish. There have been several times where we’ve been able to catch a few fish offshore on crankbaits, football jigs or Texas Rigs, while a Carolina Rig seemed to get bit on almost every cast.

When you’re at home, it pays to work on techniques for retrieving snagged lures. Learn to feel what you’re hung up in, because the strategies that you employ for a single-hooked lure in rock may differ from those for treble-hooked lures in trees, or any lures in a discarded tilapia net. It also pays to keep some sort of lure retriever handy. Here are some of our favorite ways to dislodge stuck lures.

Restaurants may sometimes have a strict “No Substitutions” policy, but here at Half Past First Cast we’re not that rigid. If you need to save a few bucks on your trip to El Salto or Picachos, we have some ways to shave down your tackle-buying bill.

When I go on a fishing trip, it’s about more than catching fish. It’s about finding products that work for me and for my readers. To quote Bryan Adams: “Everything I do, I do it for you.” Prior to our recent trip to El Salto, I wrote about a few items I planned to torture test. Now I’m reporting back, on those and some others that also passed with flying colors.

The rod that excited me most before our recent trip to Mexico was a Dobyns Rods Champion XP DC 795 SB, 7’9” and rated for 1 to 5 ounce lures. While I certainly hadn’t dialed in the big bait game in Mexico, I reasoned that part of the problem was not having the right gear—with the proper equipment I’d be more apt to confidently and efficiently chuck the big stuff around.

We’ve already provided a list of the lures that did or did not work for us on our June 2021 trip to Anglers Inn Lake El Salto. It was an exceptional trip, with I believe more 3- to 6-pound class fish than on any prior visit. Of course, being a confirmed tackle junkie, I can’t just leave it as a simple list – each additional trip provides revelations, discoveries and slight differences that I find noteworthy. Here are 10 of them.

The number one question Hanna and I get before and after every trip to Anglers Inn in Mexico is “what are they biting on?” Everyone wants to know the hot bait or secret bait to squeeze in on that last express-mailed Tackle Warehouse order. Because we have no real sponsors or advertisers, we’re able to tell it like it is.

I want to try some new things on our upcoming trip to Anglers Inn El Salto. We’ve proven again and again down there that the Gary Yamamoto Senko is magic, but we always use the same colors. I wanted to test out if some different colors could help me get an edge. These are the three that I chose.