Miscellaneous Terminal Tackle for Mexican Bass Fishing

So you’ve packed up your clothing, tackle and other essentials for the trip of a lifetime to El Salto or Picachos and you still have room in your luggage. What do you do?

Certainly don’t add another shirt – Anglers Inn does your laundry every day. Instead, now it’s time to start supplementing the basic list of tackle we’ve previously provided. That might entail adding a few swimbaits or topwaters that you’ve always wanted to try. Alternatively, you might consider adding some new categories of terminal gear, which is less sexy, but often provides a greater ROI. After all, I’m pretty sure that soft plastics produce more bass on a consistent basis than any other category of baits down there.

If you’ve followed my previous advice, you already have sufficient hooks, weights and other necessities for Texas Rigging, Carolina Rigging and Wacky Rigging. In fact, in a worst case scenario, you could probably get by with some 5/0 offset worm hooks and a variety of tungsten bullet weights from ¼ to ¾ ounce. That would be boring, though, and there are other rigging techniques that are less consistent down there but might play on a given day or week.

TWO I DON’T CONSIDER OPTIONAL

Scrounger Heads – I’ve enjoyed some really good catches in Mexico on a Scrounger head with a pearl or chartreuse Super Fluke on the back, especially when the water is up. You can fish them at various depths and with a much wider range of trailers than I’ve utilized. Get some in 3/8 and ½ ounce, and make sure they come with a quality hook. You won’t lose many, so you don’t need a lot.

Swimbait Heads – While the Storm Wildeye may be the standard for bottom-bouncing, the rise of Basstrix and Keitech-style swimbaits has necessitated that you bring a variety of heads, from 3/8 ounce up to a full ounce. There are many different brands, styles and colors available, so go with what you know and like.

THREE I’VE TRIED

Underspin – While I think a regular swimbait head will get plenty of bites under most circumstances, I’ve been there on occasions when the addition of a simple blade under the chin of the leadhead makes a big difference. Maybe it’s the flash, maybe it’s the vibration, but if you get one with a good swivel you’ll get more bites. I’ve enjoyed some epic bites with the ones from Tennessee’s Ledgehead Lures.

Swing Head Jigs (aka, Biffle Heads or Wobble Heads) – I really didn’t understand how this presentation improved upon a football jig or Carolina rig, except that you could fish it faster, until a few years ago. We were down at El Salto while Daiwa engineers and pros were testing tackle. Brent Ehrler borrowed some heads from me because he’d dialed in a bite where he put a small swimbait on the back of one. He’d cast it out, let it hit the bottom, burn it for three or four turns of the handle and then kill it. It kept the schools fired up and produced some big bites. I’ve also watched my friend Duncan Maccubbin swim it through the trees with a creature bait and get absolutely smoked.

Neko Rig – There’s no question that a wacky rig produces in Mexico as it does just about everywhere, but it’s a pain in the ass to fish deep, especially in wind or current. With the addition of some weight, you can now make those presentations on deeper bluffs, points and ledges.

FOUR MORE YOU MIGHT WANT

Shakey Heads – I’ll admit it; I’m not a shakey head fisherman, and I’m particularly prejudiced against them in Mexico where the fish are big and often aggressive. At the same time, they are Florida strains, and they can get finicky due to weather or pressure. I wouldn’t drop down to a true finesse worm, but a Trick Worm, Mag Finesse Worm or Senko on a mag shakey head might be a good option when the bite is tougher than usual. One of our guides, Victor, swears by them in sizes as light as 1/8 ounce.

Dropshot Weights  -- In October of 2015 my friend Ray Kawabata put me on an epic dropshot bite for 5- to 8-pounders when we thought an area had been cleaned out – clearly it had not. He fishes it a lot there all the time. I’m not quite patient enough to deal with the high number of snags, but I learned my lesson. Even if you don’t want to bring traditional dropshot weights, you can create the same look with a small worm weight held in place with bobber stoppers.

Tokyo Rig – I haven’t experimented with it down there, but I intend to do so.

Magnum Ned Heads – I’m a little embarrassed to own up to it, but over the past year I’ve learned to love the true finesse version of the Ned Head. It catches lots of fish, it doesn’t require any particular skill, and while many of those fish will be small there’s nothing that says a big bass won’t eat it. I know that others have dialed in bites on big bass lakes like the TVA chain with mag Ned Rigs, and it’s clearly deadly on giant smallmouth, so why not Mexico? While I’m a committed Senko devotee, with one of those Elaztech baits you could fish the same lure at El Salto all day (or until you lost it in a deep tree).