PUERTA de SAN MARCOS, MEXICO – The water was green and clear and the surrounding foothills were almost copper in color. It was hard to know whether to look down or look up.
With seven days of fishing there was plenty of time to do both.
“Two and a half years after being stocked they caught a 7-pound bass. I knew then this lake was going to be good,” said Ron Speed Jr., of Ron Speed Jr. Adventures, the first American and only outfitter on the lake.
Being first is nothing new for the Malakoff-base company. Speed’s father, Ron Sr., who started the business in the 1970s, was the first to build a lodge at Lake Guerrero and has been taking American fishermen into the country almost continuously ever since.
Right now the lake is down about 20 percent for the spring growing season and could recede another 5 percent before the rainy season begins. Fishing is still good, but is only expected to get better after the runoff rain from the mountains refills it this summer.
Being first has also including dealing with a still-under-construction camp, but by the time the big fish season comes back around in November those kinks should be worked out. For now, however, the first wave of adventurous fishermen is making do without television by catching more fish in a day than they might in a month at home.
Located down scenic, winding roads leading from Mazatlan, Picachos is in the foothills of the western Sierra Madre Mountains.
Unlike Texas lakes, there was no bulldozer sculpting done within the lake’s footprint before the dam was closed six years ago. Everything that was there then remains, returning like ghosts from the dead each spring when the lake is drawn down during the area’s growing season. That includes three villages whose residents were transplanted to new communities built for them.
Just a couple of years ago Speed really hadn’t expected to start an operation at the lake, his first flying solo since his father’s retirement in 2013.
“I had heard about a lake near Mazatlan. I had heard it was going to be small so I didn’t put much stock in it, but then my partner Carlos Lizarraga called and asked if we were going in,” Speed said.
Only then did he learn that the lake was going to be at least 12,000 acres (there is actually no official size, only best guesses), and plans quickly began to fall into place, including partnering with Puerta de San Marcos on a lodge. That, along with hiring local residents as camp employees and guides, has created a beneficial partnership for both sides. It offers Speed comfort in stability and it brings tourists and their dollars to the town.
“The local mayor has clout and he is hell-bent and determined to protect the lake. He has control over both the sport fishing and the commercial fishing,” Speed said.
Like other western Mexican lakes, commercial netters are allowed on Piscachos to net talapia, but their nets were gone by April 1 instead of the state mandated May 1 with an eye on tourism. The local fishing co-operative also falls under the mayor’s rule so he has the power to close the season early and turn the lake over to visiting sportfishermen.
But recreational fishermen are also restricted. At least for now there is no legal harvest of bass, and there is a check station leading from the lake to make sure the rule is enforced.
“To me this is the best of all the lakes,” said Speed of the quality of Piscachos as a new lake compared to openings at nearby El Salto, Comedero and Huetes. “Comedero didn’t have Florida bass in it when it opened. Salto was stocked with Florida bass, but there was either 1-pound fish or 10-pound fish. There was nothing in between.”
Huetes, he explained started off hot, but within four years was a flop.
“I think this lake is going to hold up as long as they continue to protect it like they do now,” Speed said.
There were seven fishermen on the trip, only the seventh American group to fish the lake fed by Rio Presidio.
After one afternoon and morning attempting to learn the waters, it was clear how good the lake was when boat after boat had 100-plus-fish daily catches.
One day one boat had over 200. Those came mostly from a hole Austin angler Mike Leggett and I found one morning when we boated between 40 and 50 bass, averaging probably 3 pounds.
However, the next morning the spot turned cold. Showing it to Speed, he said he didn’t think the bass had left, but had just moved out as the water level continued to drop. After hunting and pecking coves, brush lines and points, the fish were found again by the boatload.
The key everywehre was finding spots where the water depth came up to 17 feet or less, or bass were suspended up in deeper water.
Across the lake other fishermen were honed in on humps coming out of deep water that were holding shad. Throwing three-quarter ounce spinners, crankbaits and soft plastics they were loading up, but with bass up to 11 pounds. Several double digits were landed during the week and even more 7-, 8- and 9-pounders were boated.
Living in a lake filled with forage including shad, tiliapia and freshwater prawns, a healthy 3-pound bass fought every bit as much as one twice its size. Spinner bait blades were constantly getting ripped off and 20-pound test line was being tested.
The fish were also so aggressive that one striking the bait would cause another equaled sized or larger to challenge making double hook-ups common for the fisherman quick enough to cast in behind first catch.
Although more like the canyon lakes of the western U.S., Piscachos is not for the weak or light.
Seventeen-pound test line is an absolute minimum. Twenty-pound and up is recommended. Submerged tree limbs and brush are everywhere, but unlike South Texas it isn’t filled with thorns. Fishermen can get their catch through it and retrieve hung lines, but only with good knots and tough line.
Being new and lightly fished, almost any color soft plastic bait is going to work. Watermelon green was a guarantee. Half-ounce weights are a necessity for getting down in the deep water quickly.
Heavier spinners, three-quarter ounce to an ounce, are also recommended. Speed is a spinner bait fan, especially as a locator bait. The heavier baits allow him to get to the bottom faster where he slow roles them back to the boat. It can work for catching big fish as well.
Through the week numbers stayed consistent and with each day top weights only got better.
Besides learning the lake, right now Speed is hamstrung by a lodge that still needs to get a few kinks worked out and is awaiting new boats to clear customs.
Those things are easy to forget about with good fishing and scenery that is outstanding. Along with the natural beauty the lake is a birdwatchers dream with species like parrots, green parakeets, long-tailed urracas and chacalacas screeching from the trees along the shore.
Despite some of the best big bass fishing coming in the summer, the lodge closes in mid-July for the rainy season at which time the lake will recharge.
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