Oviachi, One of Our Early Mexico Bass Fishing Lakes
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THIS WEEK’S REPORT
This past week the fishing remained very good at El Salto Lake. Most boats were averaging between 60 & 70 bass per day. Top lures were watermelon zoom lizards, white spinner baits, and senkos rigged whakey style. Top couple last week was Clyde & Brenda McAfee from Texas. They used the zoom lizards in 10 feet of water to boat 2 bass over 10 pounds. Temps: 60 to 78 degrees.
LAKE OVIACHI
Over the past 40 years in the fishing business in Mexico I have had to be always looking for new lakes and new opportunities to stay in business and keep our clients happy. In 1994 I was forced to temporarily close our camp on Lake Comedero due to poor fishing. Comedero was experiencing one of its off years due to drought so I began to look for another lake.
I heard that the old lake near Obregon had gone dry several years before but the lake had refilled and been stocked by the fishing department. Reports of very good numbers were being caught and that was what I needed for my clients.I made a checkout trip to Obregon Lake and found the rumors were true as we caught over 100 bass the first day out. Nothing big, but plenty of bass in the 1.5 lb to 6 pounds which are money fish to a promoter as these are lots of fun to catch and provide lots of action.
The local name for this lake is Oviachi so that is what we called it instead of Lake Obregon. I thought I remembered that a promoter from Florida had operated on this lake for many many years. It was and is a very shallow lake and had gone dry several times.
I had no interest in staying on this lake for a long time…just long enough for Salto & Comedero to make a comeback. Therefore I decided to use the Holiday Inn in Obregon to house our clients and drive to the lake each day.
I moved boats from Comedero to Oviachi and began a fishing operation all in about 3 months. Lupe Cota, who is currently at El Salto, was in charge of the whole operation. Lupe hired his whole family to come work as guides etc. It was a new operation filled with men who had tons of experience, lots of hungry fish, good facilities, and fairly good food. With all these positives I knew in advance this operation was going to be a big hit with our clients and a big success for our company. IT WAS JUST WHAT WE NEEDED.The biggest negative was the harsh weather with its freezing temps in the morning and then maybe 90 degrees at noon. We were several hundred miles North of El Salto and the temps were drastically different. In fact, I can remember my 2 coldest days on the water in my life and one was on Lake Oviachi, and the other day was on Lake Guerrero making a TV show with Virgil Ward in 1975.
I could see pretty quick that the lake’s good fishing would not last long as the commercial fishermen had nets all over the spawning grounds and up the river for miles. The lake was a shallow lake like Lake Dominguez and the netters ruined it in only 3 years. I hoped to get 3 years out of Oviachi but unfortunately that didn’t happen. The netters ruined it in 2 full seasons both for tourists and for commercial fishing.
Lakes Salto and Comedero are so deep that unlike Oviachi the netters can’t catch all the fish out and ruin them like they did Oviachi. I truly believe God was looking over me because as we had to close our operation on Oviachi a new lake near Choix was ready for clients’ fishing. We simply moved our boats from Oviachi lake to Lake Huites and we were up and operating again in only 2 months. Lake Huites had saved my rear end just like Oviachi had done earlier.
Lake Huites is another story for another day….
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FISHING AND REMEMBER TO WEAR THAT LIFEJACKET!!!!!!!!!!!
