Wow!

That one word is a good choice to describe the reaction of the few anglers who have had opportunity to visit our new Anglers Inn lodge at Mexico’s Lake Mateos. We had a limited number of anglers who signed on to be our guests during the two weeks prior to our grand opening on Nov. 1. Most of these fishermen had previously visited our operation at El Salto.

“Billy Chapman has done it again,” one of the October visitors said. “We knew he was Mexico’s leading outfitter and fishing lodge operator. We didn’t think he could ever come up with something that rivals the accommodations of Anglers Inn at El Salto, but he sure did.

There were a number of experienced anglers among our October visitors. Even they weren’t prepared for the tremendous bass fishing Lake Mateos offers. One of them said he wondered if the Lake Mateos bass had ever seen a lure before. The truth of the matter is that on this 55,000 acre lake, probably a good many of them hadn’t.

Our guests used a variety of lures to catch fish. We had many comments from those who were mostly throwing surface lures. There were others who had equally good success with either spinnerbaits or plastic baits.

As has long been our practice, we prefer to let our guests tell you how they felt about their Anglers Inn visit in their own words. Here’s what a few of them had to tell us about Lake Mateos before they left for home:

“The Lake Mateos Anglers Inn Lodge is absolutely a first class operation.” Says Bob Martin. “It’s the best we’ve found in 15 years of fishing in Mexico. We had excellent topwater action in the mornings. We also fished long brushy points with big plastic Lizards and Power Worms. Half ounce lipless crankbaits will also catch a lot of fish. Look for bass pushing large schools of baby tilapia into the flats and shallows. Try casting shallow running crankbaits into the baitfish schools.” Bob and Cam Martin are already rebooked to come back in March.

Gary and Ron Giudice were also among our October visitors. “This was the best ever,” Gary says. “Lake Mateos is the prettiest lake in the world and it has the most fish and the best lodge. It’s just great!” Gary’s largest bass was an 8-pounder that he caught on a jig in about 12-feet of water.

Ron had much the same kind of comment. “The high quality of everything associated with Anglers Inn always amazes me,” Ron said. “On Lake Mateos there were almost too many bass to count. We estimate we boated more than 100 fish per day. The action was never slow no matter what time of day we were fishing.” Ron and Gary Giudice are already talking about coming back this season.

The Lake Mateos topwater action was what was especially appealing to Ben Dilsaver. “Lake Mateos is the best topwater lake I’ve fished,” Ben says. “If you wanted you could just fish topwater lures. If the topwater fishing did slow down, a watermelon colored lizard was also excellent. I’m looking forward to learning this lake. We are already talking about coming back to Mateos this season”

Jerry Bott had the same reaction as Ben. “The topwater fishing is excellent,” he says. “We had hits on surface lures all day long.” Jerry also had good success using a slow retrieve with a large spinnerbait. “We had 80 to 100 fish each day,” Jerry says.

Many anglers don’t expect too many fish in the boat on their first bass fishing adventure. That wasn’t how things turned out for Scott Pacheco. “I had an amazing first bass fishing trip,” Scott says. Scott’s largest fish was a 7-pounder he caught on a watermelon colored lizard. He estimates he had more than 120 bass in three days. “It was unbelievable,” he says, “I will be back.”

Ever been on a bass fishing trip where for the better part of an hour you had a hit or caught a fish on almost every cast? James Leggeti will tell you that was his experience on his first visit to Lake Mateos. “We boated an estimated 150 bass in 2 ½ days of fishing,” James reports. “One evening in a period of 30 to 45 minutes we caught a fish or had a strike on 95 per cent of our casts.”

Joseph McCarthy was another of our October guests who had his first bass fishing experience. Joseph is a lifelong trout angler. “This was my first bass fishing trip,” he says, “I caught more than 50 fish each time out. “I even caught several 2 to 5-pound fish on my fly rod. The Lake Mateos fish are healthy and fat. They put up a good fight.”

Bruce Morain urges Lake Mateos anglers to get out early in the day. “The fishing was unbelievable the first hour of the day,” Bruce says. “It was the best action I have ever experienced. I personally caught 452 bass during the three days I fished and my partner, Jerry Brand caught over 300 fish. A total of 762 bass! We can’t wait to come back to Mateos!

Have you noticed how often the word “unbelievable” or “best ever” have surfaced in these reports from visitors to our new Anglers Inn operation at Lake Mateos? And keep in mind that many of these anglers have had considerable bass fishing experience, including multiple trips to Anglers Inn at El Salto Lake.

Even the first timers caught a bunch of bass. You can do the same. But don’t delay booking your Lake Mateos visit as soon as possible. Got questions? You’ll find many of the answers at our Internet web site at www.hookadventuretravel.com. Or just give us a call at 1 800 583-8133.

Remember that there’s still time to take advantage of the grand opening special. All you need is get your reservation in before December 15th! We’re looking forward to what you’ll have to say yourself about Lake Mateos once you’ve had a chance to sample the tremendous fishing it’s presently making available.

Air Temp: 73°-78°F (Early Morning and late evenings) 89°-95°F (Siesta time) Water Temp: 77°-81°F

Average number of bass per boat per day: 120 (2 anglers ended up with 762 bass in 3 days of fishing!)

Largest bass caught: several bass in the 7 to 8-pound range.

Popular lures used this week:

• Bomber Fat Free Shad & Rapala DT16 Crankbaits in deep divers in citrus shad, parrot, fire tiger and white.
• Eight inch Zoom or 7” Yum Zellamanders Lizards in watermelon, watermelon red flake, black with blue tail, and junebug.
• Storm WildEye 4 and 5-inch Swim Shads in shad and golden mullet colors.
• Yamamoto Senkos, Yum Dingers or Bass Pro Shops 5 & 6 -inch Stinkos in watermelon, watermelon red flake and black with blue flake.
• Rat-L-Traps in ½ & ¾-ounce in silver with blue back and silver with black back.
• RicoPop in white, white with sparkles and shad.
• Zara Spook, Sammy and Reaction Innovations Vixen in clear, chrome with black top and white.
• Rapala X-Rap or 4 to 5-inch jerkbaits in white, clown, perch and shad.
• Buzzbaits in ½ & 5/8-ounce in black, white, chartreuse