Thirteen Pounder Tops Late January Report

Bob Owen boated the biggest bass in the last two weeks of January fishing. Bob’s beauty weighed 13-pounds. It smacked a 10-inch Berkley Power Worm in a junebug color.

Eight-inch Zoom watermelon lizards have been good early morning and late evening baits lately. During mid-day larger bass have been hitting the junebug color. Bigger bass are coming off deep points and creek channels where they are preparing to spawn. Bob’s 13-pounder was in 15-feet of water and loaded with eggs. Note the picture. Here’s what some of our other guests had to say about their recent visit to Anglers Inn at El Salto Lake.

Michael Wadell hosts the Realtree Roadtrips TV shows. “My life revolves around being on the road while hosting the Realtree Roadtrips TV show,” Michael says. “I’ve been very fortunate to visit and stay at some great lodges, but never have I taken a trip with more satisfaction than my adventure to Mexico with Billy Chapman Jr. The fishing was unbelievable and the trip was way over and beyond what I expected. The whole staff treated us like kings. The Hawg ride to Cosala was spectacular and the best riding I have experienced. Most definitely I will be back. Thanks for the best Roadtrip of my life! My fishing partner, Hank Jones, caught this awesome 10-pound, 8-ounce bass on a chartreuse spinnerbait. I caught 35 bass in the 5 to 6 ½- pound range on the same color spinnerbait up tight on the bank.”

Carmin Rosato and Rick Downey also had a great trip. “We fished from Jan. 27 to 30,” they said. “Fishing was the best we have had in the last three to four years. We caught both good numbers and good sized fish every day. We caught 120 to 300 fish a day to 10-pounds. The best lure was a 3/4 to 1-ounce chrome Rat-L-Trap cranked through the treetops. One day we caught over 300 fish from 2 to 9-pounds with 200 of them coming in just 1½-hours. Ten-inch Power Worms in black with a blue tail were our next best baits for numbers and size, followed by Senkos which yielded numbers but smaller fish. Ricos started out slow with half a dozen fish a day but on the last day we got 16 fish on them with several in the 5 to 8-pound range. Thanks to everyone for a great trip.

“On the day we caught over 300 fish, mostly from the honey hole on Rat-L-Traps, I hung up my lure on a tree down more than 7-feet. We knew how deep it was because I reeled down to try to push the lure off the tree. I was using a 6 ½-foot rod and had my elbows in the water while trying to free the lure. I finally broke it off. The next afternoon we came back and fished the area again. We still caught fish but not the numbers of the previous day. On one of my retrieves I set the hook on what felt like a fish that was foul hooked. It turned out to be my Rat-L-Trap along with a piece of the tree from the day before. I snagged it through the lure’s split ring. Note what a new Rat-L-Trap looks like after more than 150 El Salto bass get through with it! How do I know it was my lure? It was my only black backed Rat-L-Trap and it had my Gamakatsu EWG hooks and some of my green Trilene line. Believe it or not!”

Ralph Harkins was another of our January anglers. “Oh what a trip we had,” he says. “What a great fishing hole El Salto is. In 3 ½-days we had fish from 1 to 10-pounds, 5-ounces. We had more than 50 fish in the 5-pound plus range. One day we had 125 fish with an 8-pound kicker. Most of the fish came off Reaction Innovation baits. If you want five star treatment and great fishing on the side, then El Salto and Anglers Inn is the place for you. The food was so good I had to have put on 5-pounds. If you need anything, they will try and get it for you. Chappy and Billy Chapman Jr. have a piece of heaven in Mexico. Thanks and yes, I will be back.”

Here’s what John and George Honore had to tell us. “We fly fished sun up until 10:30 a.m. and started again in the afternoon about 4:00 p.m. til dark. We used poppers imitating frogs at first but caught no fish on them. Then we switched to a crease fly pattern, a top water fly imitating a minnow that makes a popping noise when twitched with floating line. We also used wet fly in shad colors dropped off the bend of the crease flies hook about 3 feet down. We got about equal hits on both. The smaller crease fly worked better than the larger one. My father and I together got about 50 to 60 rises per day while fishing against the bank. El Salto is a great place for fly fisherman and I recommend it to all.”

“I’ve fished El Salto out of Anglers Inn many times,” Carl Raffety says, “and the service and fishing has gotten better each time I visit. In one day’s fishing I boated 140 bass with my largest weighing 9 pounds, 8-ounces. It was cloudy most of the day. We caught fish on Pop R’s and Senkos. During the day we fished the creek channels looking for bigger fish. I caught the biggest. While I was there another angler caught a 13 pounder.”

Air Temp: 48°-55°F (Early Morning and late evenings) 71°-75°F (Siesta time)

Water Temp: 67°-72°F

Average number of bass per boat per day: 60-80

Largest bass caught: 13-pounds

Popular lures used this week:

1. Eight inch Zoom or Yum Lizards and 10-inch Berkley Powerworms in watermelon, junebug, watermelon red flake, black with blue tail, blue flake.

2. Rat-L-Traps in ½ & ¾-ounce in silver with blue back and silver with black back.

3. Yamamoto Senkos, Yum Dingers or Bass Pro Shops 5, 6 & 7-inch Stinkos in watermelon, watermelon red flake, black with blue flake, red shad and white & chartreuse.

4. Bomber Fat Free Shad & Rapala DT16 Crankbaits. Both medium & deep divers in citrus shad, parrot, fire tiger, white and red shad.

5. Spinnerbaits in ½ to 1-ounce in white, white & chartreuse, chartreuse and shad.

6. Rapala X-Rap or 4 to 5-inch jerkbaits in white, clown, perch and shad.

7. RicoPop in white, white with sparkles and silver & black.

8. Zara Spook, Cultiva Tango Dancer and Reaction Innovations Vixen in chrome, chrome with black top, white and motor oil color.