Took a trip down to El Salto last week with a couple customers from New York. My sales rep was supposed to come along but for some reason... he was unable to get down there.

We arrived at Anglers Inn on the afternoon of the 11th and got the gear set up. After that we had an awesome dinner and a few drinks before heading off to bed.

Day 1 - I headed out alone and my two customers went out together. My plan was to fish nothing but big baits to see if I could find that bite. There was literally no reaction bite to speak of. I fished the big baits for no bites and no follows for the first 6 hours. As we were back at the resort, I talked with a few people that had fished the morning. They too had no reaction bite on standard bass baits (cranks, spinnerbaits, jerks, etc...). The only bites they had were either on a carolina or texas rigged lizard. After a short nap we headed back out in our perspective boats. I still had the big bait rods but brought along a carolina rig rod. As much as I hate to say it... I dragged worms and lizards around and caught about 25 fish. The majority were 1.5 pounders but I did have one 5 pounder. My customers had the same types of numbers but nothing over 2 pounds.

Day 2 - Same conditions as day 1. I tried the big stuff in the morning for nothing and switched to the lizard and caught about 35 fish or so. Once again... same sized fish. At the end of the day, we pulled into a creek and I fired out a MattLures swimbait. After about 10 casts I got hit on the fall and put a 5.5 in the boat. I fished the area some more and was able to get one other bite that got me in the tree. It didn't feel like a big one but probably one around the same size. The other guys had the same numbers as the day before (about 35 fish or so).

Say 3 - With a couple bites on the swimbaits the day before... I stuck it out all day without dragging a lizard. I had the guide focus on coves with creek channels in it looking for bends or other irregular features. We pulled into one cove and I noticed that there were two creeks that should have met up in this one area. There was one large tree out in the middel that was showing so I made a cast with a MattLures Baby Bass. I got bit on the sink and put about a 4 pounder in the boat. I ended up making the same cast for about the next hour and caught I think 16 fish next to the same tree on Storms and Matt's baits. Most were better grade (considering the lizard fish were all less than 2 pounds). Most of the fish were 3 pounders but I think I had four fish between 5 & 5.5 pounds. All of the bites were on the fall with the exception on one. I would take 5 or 10 cranks and let the bait fall back down. That would be when they would eat it. Some of the fish would hit the bait 4 or 5 times before finding the hook. I did hook one that got her head turned on me and got me in the tree. That one felt like a bigger fish. The other guys had a little better day too. One of them caught a 5 and a 7 on wacky rigged senkos in the morning and the other had a 5.5 after I told him to throw next to the tree I was getting them out of. Being from New York, they were happy to get a 5 & 7 pounder.

Day 4 - The guys left for NY in the morning so I fished a 1/2 day before heading home. I had two rods with swimbaits (Matt Lures and 6 inch Storm) tied on and about 30 baits. My guide was not happy I didn't have a lizard... too bad. I went back to the "tree" and caught a few fish off of it before losing one and shutting the bite off. We jumped around most of the moring and didn't put any more fish in the boat. With about an hour to go I told the guide to head to an area by the resort that looked good to me. When we pulled up, I made one cast and caught one that I think was about 3 pounds. The next cast was a 5 pounder. The third cast was a 7.5 pound fish. The fourth cast was another 3, etc... I think I ended up getting 6 or 7 fish out of that creek but the bite shut down when 4 boats crouded me to the point I couldn't even cast.

Overall... the fishing was very good if you were into catching fish less than 2 pounds. I'm sure someone with a drop shot sould have caught 100 a day if they wanted to. I was pretty surprised to hear the other 20 guys at the resort saying how happy they were with the fishing. I guess I just have a different mindset for bigger fish but for the cost of going down there... I'd expect more than 2 pounders.

Of the 25 or so guys at the resort over the 3 - 4 days... there were a total of (1) 11 pounder, (1) 9 pounder, (2) 8 pounders and (2) 7 pounders. I think I had the most fish over 5 for the group.

I will say though that the resort is by far the best I have been to. I have opportunities to go all over the world and I have never been treated better. The food was better than what you get in the states most of the time and they cater to your needs non-stop. I give them an A+ for service and food.

Overall... I was diasappointed in the fishing. I had been to the lake (with Rob) about 4 years ago and we struggled then too. The lake is definitely on a decline (not because we didn't get big ones) because they really don't take care of the lake the way it should. The food source for the big ones is declining due to the amount of Tilapia netters. 2 years ago the netters would average I think they said about 200 pounds per day. The average right now is 3 pounds... yes 3 pounds. There are a couple reasons for this. One if the amount of netters out there. They would string a cove that was a quarter mile wide completly across so anything that swam out of the cove goes in the nets. They were actually yelling over who got to string the coves and points.

The second reason is the netters really aren't that smart. Back when Rob and I were there... the lake was full of Hyacinth (a floating plant that gets blown around in the wind. This plant also was full of food for the Tilapia to eat and ultimately hide from the bass in. Well... The netters decided that it was too hard to fish around the stuff so they took all of the Hyacinth out of the lake.... I wonder why they are only catching 3 pound now. Nowhere to hide and they took their food source away from them. Now the birds have free reign over the shoreline and can feast on all the 2 inch Tilapia they want. No more places for Tilapia to hide... So their solution now was to wipe out the fish eating birds. 5 boats going around the shoreline with shotguns shooting anything that flew away... blue herons, cormorants, ospreys... you name it... they shot it.

I feel the lake is on a decline and has been for years. The netters just harvest the lake and have no regard for anything else. That is all they know and are looking for the short term profits.

Anyways... the customers had fun and that's all that matters.

Here's a picture of the big headed 7 pounder I caught that had sores all over it. I tried to get the better side but I wish I would have taken a picture of the other. There were nasty, red, open sores on this thing. Oh well... can't wait to get back to Casitas.



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