El Salto’s Low Water Scenery

We were warned prior to our recent trip that Lake El Salto was at record low levels, and while we can’t confirm the historical accuracy of that statement, we can confirm that the lake is lower than we’ve ever seen it – and that’s over the course of 15-20 trips, with one or both of us visiting during the low water season every year since 2013.

Knowing that the water will be low allows us to strategize about fishing, and also to recognize why certain areas we’ve fished at higher water levels are so productive. Furthermore, it demonstrates the exceptional skill of the Anglers Inn guides. Not only to they need to know prime areas and structural elements, but they also need to keep you safe. Remember that if you book with a fly-by-night operation: their staff may not have the decades of collective knowledge and wisdom that Billy Chapman’s staff offers. To give you a sense of how low it was, the area where we caught them best in May of 2013 on crankbaits and swimbaits during the lowest water we’d seen up until now was completely dry. Not surprisingly, the fishing was exceptional, with more 3- to 6-pound bass than on any other trip. With the lake reduced to what is more or less a river channel, there are fewer places to go, but we still had to work for them. Not every good area produced all the time, if at all. It still wasn’t like shooting fish in a barrel. For those of you who’ve been there, either in the fall/winter when the water is typically at its highest, or in the spring as it starts to drop, the photos in the following gallery are worth more than a thousand words apiece.

Here’s the view from camp. Normally the boats are just a short walk or trailer ride away from your room, but with no water for a couple of miles, we had to take a van to the shores of an island (now a peninsula) to get on the boats.

During our previous lowest-water experience, the boats were on the same shoreline pictured below, but much further up the bank.

On that same trip, we could go back into the little channel pictured below for more than a hundred yards throwing Senkos. Typically at this time of year the point on the backside of the island is a great place to chuck a deep diving crankbait, but with no water there now that wasn’t feasible. In June of 2015, we tied up to the bluff bank on the right and decimated the bass with Carolina Rigs and heavy Texas Rigs. It’s a money spot — if there’s water.

The low water conditions exposed all sorts of cover and structure that we’ve plied big fish on over the years, like house foundations from the flooded villages that line the lake bottom.

As well as old fence lines made of both wood and stone.

And textbook rockpiles that produce at a wide range of water levels throughout the year.

The bridge pictured in front of the windshield is usually exposed in the summer, but during the winter you can crank or worm it instead of driving over it.

This rocky ridge atop a treeline is typically a great spot to crank a 10XD in May. As you can see, however, that hasn’t been an option for quite a while.

This riprap next to the spillway is usually a producer 12 months out of the year. We’ve never seen the exposed non-rock section at its base before. This sits behind an island and you can normally access it from either side of the island, but now only one side provides a viable path. We caught a couple of smaller fish in this region, although it’s usually a solid area for both size and numbers.

During our trip last November, our friend Kyle Patrick flipped up a solid fish from the white portion of the tower on the left.

This is the spillway. When we visited in October of 2015 and the lake was 103% full, it was our best spot for big fish, and the first time I’d successfully used a Whopper Plopper. That was the only trip to date that we’ve fished the spot.

On that same extreme high water trip, I caught a good Plopper Fish from the uppermost bushes near this commercial tilapia fishing camp.

During our June 2017 trip, every day during the late morning we’d tie up to a tree atop this point and bring a swimbait uphill from the channel, across the rocks and to the boat – except on the many occasions when it was intercepted by a bass up to 7 pounds. What was truly amazing was that if you got there an hour too early or an hour too late, you’d catch nothing or next to nothing, but at the right time it was a killer migration route.

Near that point is one of the best spawning coves on the lake. During a January trip to El Salto a few years ago, every tree or bush had a spawning fish or three around it and a wacky rigged Senko placed anywhere in the vicinity of them would provoke jarring strikes. Now you can’t get within a mile or so of the outermost tree.

Some of this scenery may encourage you to book a trip right now (and you should) but don’t despair if you can’t make it. While the water may be exceptionally low, it’s all part of an annual and predictable up-and-down process which is a huge part of why the lake remains so productive. Sometime in mid- to late-July the rains will start in earnest and the lake will start to refill. Perhaps a hurricane or two will come in the fall and jack it all back up. That will not only turn the landscape from brown to green, but it will flood all of that newly-grown cover, refertilizing and rejuvenating this incredible fishery. I’m glad we got to see it at this level, just as I’m glad that we saw it “overfull” in 2015. It’s like visiting a different lake every time we go.

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• For more information about fishing in Mexico, check out our “Ultimate Guide to El Salto and Picachos.”

• For information on how to book a trip, click here or email us at fishmore@halfpastfirstcast.com.