Picachos is Mexico's newest hot bass lake

tylerpaper.com

Saturday, 19 April 2014 22:11 

Written by Steve Knight

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.

 Lake Picachos, a 14,000-acre irrigation and water supply lake an hour east of Mazatlan, could be the next big thing in Mexico bass fishing. Time will tell, but the lake that has only been opened since last winter has already produced a lake-record topping 12 pounds and hundred-count boat numbers are normal. That comes just five years after being stocked.

“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.

Being the first, especially in Mexico, always comes with growing pains. For Speed and his group of young commercial fishermen and farmers turned fishing guides the problems have been the same as with fishermen on any new lake, finding the flats and drop-offs, locating roadbeds and arroyos or creeks, but in this case it is on a lake where 45 feet of water is not unusual and 60 feet isn’t uncommon.

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.

Mexico is a good place for fishing, adventure

dallasnews.com

RAY SASSER

RAY SASSER The Dallas Morning News

Staff Writer

08 March 2014

There’s a new bass fishing lake opening in Mexico. It’s the latest in a long string of fishing spots that have lured American anglers south of the border since largemouth bass ascended to the pinnacle of fishing popularity.

The lake is Picachos, a name that has a nice ring to it. According to an online translation dictionary, Picachos means “peaks,” and the lake does have a view of the mountains north of Mazatlan. Lake Tawakoni fishing guide Jimmy Smith, a longtime friend of Mexico fishing outfitter Ron Speed Jr., went to Picachos for a checkout trip in late January. Speed, who has a website (ronspeedadventures.com), is opening a lodge there.

Smith fished two days and reported using spinnerbaits to catch 93 bass the first day. The second day, he used soft plastics and jigs to land 57 bass.

Success like that is why Americans still fish in Mexico, despite U.S. State Department travel warnings, and probably always will. Smith’s report reminded me of my first Mexico bass fishing trip in 1975 when rumors leaked out about a lake called Guerrero. I was working in Port Arthur at the time.

My friend, Jimmy Olive, heard the rumors. Jimmy was a fishing fanatic who always had an eye out for the next hotspot. I’ve never fished with a better angler. Jimmy had both our ride and lodging arranged via a 28-foot Winnebago from his family’s used car lot.

We loaded up our tackle, and another fishing buddy, Lloyd Godbold, hooked Jimmy’s new Ranger to the Winnebago and headed south, swapping drivers and rolling pretty much nonstop.

What we found, where an old roadbed entered the water at the inundated village of Guerrero, was a bass angler’s dream — a gigantic lake full of hungry bass and almost void of other anglers.

There was one other motor home and four or five tent campers at the only launch site we saw in three days. The lake was full of brush and bass. We had planned to count how many we caught, but that didn’t last long. It was easy enough to catch 100 fish a day if you wanted to work that hard, and we did.

As usual, Jimmy was prepared. He had amassed several used golf gloves from golfing friends. We all wore one glove and used that hand to remove fish. Otherwise, our thumbs would have been worn to the bone. Each glove lasted less than a day before the thumb was worn through. I was 27 years old and may have caught more bass in those three days at Guerrero than I’d caught in my entire life. The big ones weighed six or seven pounds.

Every fishing trip to Mexico should be viewed as an adventure. The adventurous part of our early Guerrero trip really started on the way home. It was dark, and I was driving up Mexico Highway 101 toward Matamoros when I noticed sparks behind the Winnebago.

The support that held the trailer hitch to the left side of the motor home’s undercarriage had come unwelded. We couldn’t call Triple AAA, so we tied the support back in place with a nylon anchor rope. We were about 50 miles from the border when I got back behind the wheel.

About 10 p.m. on Saturday night, I drove into Matamoros with the 28-foot motor home trailing an 18-foot boat that was tied on with a nylon rope. It was a test of nerves and honking horns until we cleared the border.

Jimmy looked in a phone book for a welder and talked the guy into meeting us at midnight. The welder charged $100 to weld the support back into place, and it seemed like a bargain, even in those days.

I’ve caught bigger bass in Mexico, but I’ve never caught as many bass anywhere as we caught in the early days of Guerrero.

Mexico Bass Fishing: Lake El Salto

floridasportsman.com

by Larry Larsen 

February 4, 2014 

Lake El Salto is Mexico’s hottest Florida-strain bass factory.

Larry Larsen discovered excellent topwater action where a shallow cut transitioned to a 20-foot dropoff. Larsen has been on numerous Mexico bass fishing trips.

A glimmer of light silhouetted arid foothills as we motored through flooded timber and around a few small islands into the main arm of the big lake. Our guide, Carlos, headed straight toward our topwater hole, a 200-yard stretch of pastureland bank broken by two wide, shallow cuts.

A sharp dropoff into 20 feet of water made the edge ideal for topwater, and an overcast sky and a moderate wind promised an extended bite. Dave Burkhardt of Clermont and I were sampling Lake El Salto in northwestern Mexico. Both of us love topwater fishing, and we’d had maybe an hour of surface activity on the first two days of our trip, primarily right at this same spot.
Largemouth bass were breaking the surface as we pulled up and dropped the trolling motor. Dave tossed to one splash while I shot my bait at another one. It was not our first double or even our tenth, but our confidence boost was maxed out. The two fish, weighing somewhere between three and four pounds, were quickly brought to the boat and released.

Dave again tossed the edge of the drop in front of the thin-water cut and was walking his cigar-type minnow back along the surface when a big fish tore into it and headed for the depths. He set back on the rod and hung on. Fortunately, the bass headed away from the only visible submerged tree in that area.
“Keep it coming up,” Carlos instructed. “There are some trees below the surface too.”
“How big is it?” I asked, straining to catch a glimpse of the fish.

“Don’t know,” Dave replied, as he ran forward to the bow and held his rod high as I ducked under it. The fish circled the boat and wallowed on the surface about 20 feet out.

Submerged timber comprises a great deal of habitat on El Salto.

“That’s a butterball,” I said as our guide slipped the net under the fish.
“Or a watermelon,” my excited partner quipped. “It should go 10 pounds!”

The fish had a small head and fat body on a relatively short frame. The proportions made guessing difficult for us Florida boys. Both Dave and Carlos had sworn the first day that one of my big fish was a 10-pounder. It weighed a little over 9 on our scale.

Dave’s fish was shorter, but a lot fatter. It looked huge to me. We had it on the scale soon and they were right on this one: Almost 10 1/2 pounds.

Fish continued to feed on or near the surface in the dim light. My biggest of the day was maybe three inches longer than Dave’s but was much leaner. Compared to the typical bass we catch in Florida, it was on the plump side for sure.

My hopes for a double-digit fish were dashed when the scale showed only 9 3/4 pounds. Still, that’s a nice fish anywhere and I was happy.

We headed to the Anglers Inn for lunch and a siesta at 11 a.m. We had landed 100 largemouths of varying sizes and some 80 of them on topwater plugs. Most were 3 to 5 pounds and plenty were 6 or 7.

We added another 60 bass to our day’s tally after lunch on Texas- and Carolina-rigged worms and crankbaits. It was a big day for us, but the first two hadn’t been too shabby, either. Dave and I had caught and released 100 on day one up to 9 pounds and 80 on day two.

Lake El Salto, at the base of the Sierra Madre Mountains, only 90 minutes from the coastal resort city of Mazatlan, is not just a numbers lake. These waters today have Mexico’s biggest largemouth bass, according to Burkhardt. This was his tenth visit to a lake where he has averaged two 10-plus pounders on each of his previous ventures. His biggest was a whopper 15-pound, 2-ounce largemouth, and on that day, his five largest bass totaled a little over 52 pounds!

Dave Burkhardt (fishing below) hoists a typical El Salto “football.”

The lake record at Lago El Salto is 18 pounds, 8 ounces, caught in May 2002, according to resort manager “Chappy” Chapman. Chappy, who is the 28-year-old son of Anglers Inn owner Billy Chapman Jr., has been working at the resort for most of his adult life.

“The growth of these fish has been phenomenal,” he explains. “My father and grandfather stocked the lake as it was filling (at about 3,000 acres) with 60,000 Florida bass fingerlings in 1985 and opened a lodge in 1990. In 1995, we found a dead 16-pounder floating on the surface with a tilapia stuck in its throat. For a largemouth to grow to 16 pounds in just 10 years is tremendous.”

From what we can tell, Lake El Salto should be at or near the top of the list of Mexican bass lakes for some time. But keep in mind it’s an impressive list.

The big reservoirs in Mexico are attractive to U.S. anglers for a number of reasons. For one, the lakes typically produce better numbers and sizes of largemouth bass than do most U.S. waters, even in Florida. Very seldom do visitors have a slow day on El Salto or any other Mexican bass lake. Mild weather makes for an extended growing season, and there is very little fishing pressure or predation on the lakes. Package prices including guide, boat, food and accommodations, are very reasonable considering the dollar to peso exchange rate and wages south of the border.

The Mexican government seems to build a new lake every 5 to 10 years; ground breaking to complete filling can take up to 15 years. In the next 10 years, Chappy’s father Billy Chapman Jr. expects to see two or three more reservoirs in the range of 20,000 to 70,000 acres. Most of the lakes are built initially for irrigation purposes, strictly for opening up new farmland nearby and not for hydroelectric generation. Several years later, some will become hydroelectric producers when regional needs warrant.

Today there are about 17 impoundments on the west slope of the Sierra Madre Mountains, and about five on the east side. The mountain range starts around El Paso, Texas, and runs down the center of Mexico. Most of the steeper gradients with substantial rivers drain to the west into the Pacific Ocean, and that’s why the Mexican government has created more reservoirs on that side.

From the day largemouth bass fry are stocked in the initial backup of water, it normally takes five years before they and the lake mature enough to support quality fishing. Tilapia are the main forage, and these fish are stocked by the government to provide a source of revenue to villagers displaced by the impoundments. The tilapia netting seldom impacts the bass fishery.

Mother Nature takes care of everything else. A lake is typically a “numbers” lake before fish grow to trophy proportions. Typical growth rate on a new lake is 1 11/2 to 2 pounds a year. The fishing for bigger fish starts getting good in five years when the bass are 8 to 10 pounds. The numbers may drop off some then.
“On almost every new lake in Mexico, the big fish after four years is 8 pounds,” says Billy Chapman Jr., “and then they are 10 pounds after five years. As some lakes get older than that, they don’t continue to see the 2-pound-per-year growth rate in their bass.”
He should know, after outfitting clients on several Mexican bass lakes for over 29 years. Billy Jr. began his Mexico outfitting career in 1973 when he went to work as a fishing guide on Lake Dominguez for his outfitter father, Billy Chapman Sr. In 1975, his father stocked Florida bass into the newly flooded reservoir called Lake Baccarac. Billy Jr. opened up a new operation for his dad on that lake in 1980 and hosted thousands of visiting anglers during its heydays in the early 1980s.

Grilled lunch at Anglers Inn.

In 1985, Billy Jr. stocked 200,000 Florida-strain largemouth fry from a fish hatchery in Houston into the newly formed Lake El Salto. He opened a mobile lodge at El Salto in 1990 and has been on the lake for most of the 15 years since. He briefly moved his lodge to Lake Comedero in 1993 and 1994 and to Lake Huites in 1997 and 1998, but he didn’t have the success he had hoped for, so he returned to El Salto each time.

Formed by the damming of the Elota River, Lago El Salto has 45 miles of shoreline and numerous rocky islands to fish around. There are plenty of submerged mesquite tree forests and hilltops, creek channels and a couple of flooded cemeteries. Forage sources include tilapia, as well as threadfin and gizzard shad and crawfish. The lake varies from about 24,000 surface acres at full pool to 16,000 at the end of the dry season in May or June. Day-to-day water levels are fairly consistent, as the lake is not connected to another lake and the only water leaving is for irrigation of the fields around the area. On a chain of lakes, such as Lake Dominguez at the bottom, then Lake Hidalgo and finally Lake Huites above, water can be released quickly from one of the upper “holding-type” reservoirs to fill a lower one.

“That can affect the levels greatly,” says Chappy. “I’ve seen the water fluctuate 30 feet overnight on Huites when Hidalgo needed water and got it.”

Agua Milpa is the newest Mexican lake, and Chapman has property there, but the government is building another lake above it called El Cajon. It may be 4 to 6 years away from completion, and that lake will be a holding lake for Agua Milpa, according to Chappy. Consequently, it will fluctuate a lot more than the lower lake, and the Chapmans decided not to operate at Agua Milpa for the time being.

“We always ended up coming back to El Salto,” says Billy Jr., “and until there is a better Mexican lake to fish, I’m not moving anywhere.”