Additional Lake El Salto Fishing Notes from June 2022
I’ve already detailed the list of baits that Hanna and I used successfully on our most recent trip to Anglers Inn Lake El Salto. Nevertheless, I didn’t feel that particular blog entry captured everything about our most recent angling experience at the bass angling Disneyland. Accordingly, for those of you who are similarly obsessed, here are some additional factoids and opinions – I hope that they help you on your next trip South of the Border.
Tackle Notes
The jerkbait was a key player throughout the trip and while a Megabass Vision 110 and Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 127 were the primary choices for me and Hanna, our friends Mike Yee and Samantha Sukupcak did well with the (relatively) new Berkley Stunna 112. They used it in Table Rock, Northern Lights and Stealth Shad. “It suspended nicely and the hooks are legit,” Mike reported.
While many of our jerkbait bites came on natural baitfish colors, our deep crankbait fish (primarily Strike King 6XD and 10XD – along with the Berkley Dredger) responded best to something with chartreuse or yellow in it. Dave Mansell said his best color was the hard-to-find Sugar Daddy. Jennifer Combs caught number on a 6XD in Chartreuse Powder Blue Back and Citrus Shad.
Indianans Kelby Waldrip and first-timer Jeb Bond had some epic topwater sessions on fish chasing bait. While I tend to use the old Vixen, a Paycheck Repoman or even a Super Spook, they found the greatest success with a River2Sea Rover worked quickly. Color mattered – chrome worked best in the morning and Sooner (clear with a chartreuse back) was best in the evenings.
Typically we fish the Storm Wildeye swimbaits in Chartreuse Silver and Pearl colors, but on this trip Hanna had her greatest success with Mullet. It markedly outproduced even the similar Bunker pattern.
Lake Conditions
After encountering record low water levels that had the fish bunched up last June, a late summer hurricane filled the lake to capacity, and it was still very high when we were there in January. Agricultural water demand dropped the lake since then, but it was still probably 10 to 15 feet higher than last summer at this time. That gave us more room to fish but seemed to concentrate the bass less.
Typically the summertime rains that fill the lake start in July. In past June trips we’ve experienced a few drops of precipitation, but no more. This year the rains came early. On our first abbreviated afternoon of fishing we got chased off the lake by lightning. On two other days we fished through light drizzle. One night after we got off the water at the normal time a violent storm rolled through with blinding rains and extremely heavy winds that forced our dinner from the outside covered dining area into the enclosed dining room. Lesson Reinforce: Always bring a light rain jacket.
Miscellaneous
There was more bait – both shad and tilapia – than I’ve ever seen before. I assume it was the result of the early season high water that gave them protection from predators. Just about any time you threw a bait toward a tree a wad of bait would get frightened and move. Other times whole schools of them would take cover under the boat. Certain coves were simply “blacked out” with immense concentrations of small baitfish.
I don’t know if it was related to the proliferation of bait, but we caught more tilapia and mojarra than ever before – including some giants. They bit everything from topwaters to jerkbaits to crankbaits to Senkos.
The importance of getting a school fired up and keeping them fired up was reinforced to me on our final morning of fishing. Twice when we were about to leave one of us caught a bass on our “last cast” so we decided to stay a bit longer and ended up catch 12-20 more fish there. We ended up with nearly 50 for the morning (our best numbers morning) but it could have only been a fraction of that if we’d pulled the plug sooner.
One Up, One Down for Hanna
As I’ve detailed before, I’ve had the good fortune to watch Hanna’s continuing evolution as an angler from the front row. She caught more fish than I did on this trip, although her top specimens were not quite as big as mine. I saw her make some mistakes, and then redeem herself. Specifically, after I got three big bites on a SPRO Rat during a pre-storm, low pressure system, she committed to throwing it the next day. Unfortunately, post storm the fish got a little funky and wouldn’t break the surface for anything. I felt that she persisted a bit too long. That was the downside. The good news is that after we established a solid hard jerkbait pattern early in the trip, she continued to refine her bait choices and cadence. Toward the end of our stay one night we had fish busting all around us but they would only swipe at our Vision 110s and Slender Pointers. She switched to a Super Fluke and “loaded the boat.” Ten or perhaps even five years ago she wouldn’t have had the guts or the instinct to do that.
