[Editor: this article first appeared on www.ronsfishingblog and may only be used by permission of Ron Speed Jr.]

Jimmy Houston Lands Lunkers on Picachos!

I just returned from a 3 week stay at new and fabulous Lake Picachos! This lake continues to amaze all who have fished it…to include legendary pro angler and longtime TV fishing celebrity, Jimmy Houston! Jimmy arrived June 15th to see what all the buzz was about with Picachos. I informed Jimmy prior to his arrival that the big bass were on a true summer pattern and very few, if any, should be expected on spinnerbait. We all know how Jimmy loves a spinnerbait. These big bass were primarily on main lake structure…humps, shelves, ledges, etc. in about 15 – 20 ft. of water. No problem for Jimmy as he can fish it all. The first afternoon of fishing, Jimmy and his partner Dale Morrell landed over 50 bass up to 6 pounds on lizards and crankbaits…this in about 4 hours of fishing. That was just a little warmup for what was about to happen over the next few days. The second day (morning only), Jimmy and his fishing partner, Terry Oldham, landed over 60 bass on 7” Super Flukes, Lizards and crankbaits…with the largest being a 11 pound beauty that Jimmy caught on a Fat Free Shad crankbait! He and Terry also landed numerous bass up to 6 pounds with many in the 3 – 5 pound class! That afternoon, I personally filmed/fished with Jimmy, using crankbaits ONLY…no plastics, nothing else. We landed well over 50 bass that afternoon with the largest being close to 5 pounds. Many times we were “doubled up” with each having bass on! In fact, while Jimmy was landing a fish, I pitched my Fat Free Shad crankbait right behind the bass he was battling and hooked up with a nice 3 ½ pounder! While we didn’t land any lunkers that afternoon, we had a blast catching numbers of quality bass! We also enjoyed getting to fish together for the first time in 14 years…the last time being March 2000, on Lake Comedero, Mexico! It was truly special getting to fish again with my longtime and great friend!

The next morning (Day 2 of 3), Jimmy and his longtime friend and a well-known name in the fishing industry, Dick “Buck” Berryman, were fishing topwater lures early. Jimmy had a big bass blast his topwater and miss…Buck had a super fluke tied on and threw toward the big bass blew up on Jimmy’s lure…FISH ON! Buck landed the fish…a 7 ½ pounder! Buck also landed a fat 8 pounder later in the morning while fishing a 20’ shelf up the river! By noon, the two had boated 57! Jimmy finished the day with well over 100 bass but would have had more if not for the monsoon season just starting and interrupting fishing in the afternoons every day. We’ll get to the “monsoon” a bit later.

On Day 3, Jimmy headed back to the big shelf on the main lake where he had already boated numerous 6 and 7 pound fish to include the 11 pound giant. Just as before when he caught the 11 pounder after 11 am and just prior to lunch, he locked in to another big hawg! This time on a 6” plum colored worm. When Jimmy felt the bite and set the hook, his rod went straight down…fast! Jimmy knew this wasn’t a 6 or 7 pounder…no sir! This was one of the strongest bass he’s ever hooked! After a few powerful surges by the large bucketmouth, Jimmy finally got the fish close to the surface where he could lay his eyes on this baby. Oh yeah! Another MONSTER! His guide “Placido” scooped this beauty up in the net and it was time to break out the camera and scales! This bass tipped the scales at just over 12 pounds! The lake record was an ounce heavier but this was a trophy of a lifetime in anyone’s book!
Jimmy ended the trip with tons of great footage that will be aired on his show in the coming season(s)! We’ll keep you posted on when these shows air! Meanwhile, Jimmy had some great compliments about the lake, our beautiful new lodge and service. Here are a few…

“This is one of the best bass lakes I’ve ever fished and I plan on returning every year while it’s hot!”
“The new lodge is first class all the way and the view of the lake and mountains from the lodge is breathtaking”
“The food is the best I’ve ever experienced in a fish camp and I’ve been in fish camps all over the world”

There you have it folks…from the Legend himself!

Picachos Bass Lodge and Service blowing RSJR Customers Away!

Let’s touch on the lodge and service for a minute….
This lodge is the first on Picachos and at the time of this update, the only lodge currently operating on the water! There will be others coming…we know that. However, this lodge facility is and will continue to be second to none. Each house has it’s own private and single bedrooms with your own A/C unit , that will freeze you out if you so desire…two per house with a shower/bath. Each house also provides a living room area with a sofa, chair and coffee table. Each house also offers a kitchen area with sink and min-refrigerators…all loaded up with your choice of drinks. Coming soon we’ll have flat screen tv’s in each house (living room area). Also, the restaurant and dining room facility is HUGE and can accommodate up to 40 people or more. There’s already a huge flat screen tv in the dining facility so you don’t miss your favorite sporting event or news from back home. We have also just added Internet to our Lodge so you are able to check emails and communicate back home.

The food….believe me when I tell you this but it’s second to none. Ron Speed Jr’s Adventures has upgraded it’s menu and our customers who have been with us to Lake Picachos already are raving about our food. We have found the best place to buy the best ribeye steaks…found anywhere in the world. No joke! These steaks are carefully marinated and grilled over open fire on our big and newly built grill. We also offer a seafood-fest one night with shrimp prepared three different ways …all delicious. That same seafood night we offer huge Lobster tail. This of course when “In Season”…and of course you can’t go to Mexico and not experience one night of a true authentic Mexican dish. So yes, expect to have a tasty local dish served as well. We’ve also added homemade Guacamole…prepared right at your table side…and prepared for your taste (mild, medium or spicy). Your waiter will also prepare at your table side, a homemade salsa that is one of the best I’ve ever tasted! Last about the food…many of our customers over the years have requested that we offer homemade burgers and hot dogs for one or two of our lunches, rather than having fried fish every day. So guess what? Yep…we’re serving giant Angus burgers and dogs from the grill for one of our lunch meals. Oh and desserts…again, second to none! Everyone is raving about our homemade bread pudding with ice cream…and rightfully so! It’s mouthwatering delicious! We also offer a tasty creamy Spanish Flan as well as various homemade cakes and pies. You’ll be hard pressed to find a fishing camp/Lodge anywhere in the world with better food! Just ask Jimmy Houston!

Monsoon Season In Full Effect!

As stated earlier, the monsoon season arrived in mid-to-late June. The first few days did not impact the fishing but after nearly a week, the lake started to rise. This had a major impact on fishing the last week of June as we saw the total numbers per boat/per day cut in half and the big fish all but disappear. This is really not that surprising as we’ve seen this happen on other lakes in western Mexico over the years. The only question is “WHEN” will the rains begin and what days/week will be adversely affected on the fishing? Well that is something that cannot be predicted or guaranteed. Unfortunately. The good news is that this tough fishing period lasted no more than 10 days…and during that 10 tough days, the lake level in Picachos rose approximately 8’. What I knew would happen, certainly happened. That after a week to ten days, the algae would start to grow on the fresh green vegetation that the water had covered and the Tilapia and shad would show up to feed on that algae. Naturally with the Tilapia and shad in the shallows feeding on this algae, the bass wouldn’t be too far behind…and they weren’t. The bass just needed the water temps to cool down before moving shallow. Well, when I arrived Picachos on June 11th, the water temps near the mouth of the creeks were ranging from 89 – 91 degrees. When I left Picachos on June 4th, the water temps were ranging from 83 – 85 degrees…and guess what? You got it…bass were in there and biting spinner baits once again! My last day of fishing I landed a beautiful fat 8lbs 10 oz bass on Oldham’s 1 oz spinnerbait in 6’ of water!!! The group I left at the lodge that had two more days of fishing left, ended up boating well over 100 bass per day, per boat and numerous 3 – 6 pound bass…all on spinnerbaits, topwaters (mostly buzz baits) and Zoom 8” lizards! So with the water temps cooling down and bait fish and bass in shallow water, IT’S ON AGAIN!!! At the rate the water was rising when I left Picachos, it should be nearly full by early August…if not before then. The water level, when full, will be right up to our restaurant so you can step out of your boat and sit down for a drink and meal a few 30 steps away! The rains usually arrive late afternoon…sometimes they last till dark and into the night, sometimes they chase us off the lake (due to lightning) for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Still, our customers are getting a minimum of 8 hours of fishing in before the storms arrive in late afternoons…and many days they get a lot more than 8 hours. So don’t put off till later what you can get RIGHT NOW! The monsoon season “usually” last till late August or early September. Remember the lake record 12lbs bass was caught last year on September 1st….in SHALLOW WATER!!!
Call us today so you don’t miss out on fishing fabulous Lake Picachos while it’s at it’s best! Most of you know these new lakes don’t stay new for very long. If you want to catch this lake while it’s at it’s best and red hot, you need to get there SOON! We have the first lodge on the lake…the largest and nicest lodge and restaurant facility on the lake…and we offer THE BEST food and service of any fishing camp in the world! Oh and most of our guides already have 6 months of training for boating safety, guided fishing and working for American sportfishermen! In other words, we’re ahead of the pack that is surely going to be coming and jumping on our bandwagon! Book your trip today to enjoy Lake Picachos the Ron Speed Jr’s Adventures way!!!
Good Fishin’,
Ron Speed, Jr
1-800-722-0006

[Editor: this article first appeared on www.ronsfishingblog and may only be used by permission of Ron Speed Jr.]

Wow…just WOW! Folks, “WOW” doesn’t do justice to what I just witnessed and experienced at the awesome new lake, Picachos! I have bass fished for over 45 years now and been fortunate to do it on some of the world’s very best bass lakes. That includes Guerrero when it first opened, Comedero when it first opened and then later when it became one of the best trophy bass lakes in the world. This also includes El Salto, Toledo Bend when it first opened and many many other great lakes. I can tell you right now that what I experienced two weeks ago at Lake Picachos ranks second to none! Absolutely no question this lake is the best NEW bass lake I’ve ever fished! Most lakes when they first open are pretty much about ridiculous numbers of 2 – 4 pound bass with an occasional 5, 6 or 7 pound trophy. Well that’s NOT the case with Picachos!

In my previous two updates about Picachos, I’ve been very reluctant to mention the big bass possibilities at Picachos. I knew there were some in the lake and we’ve caught bass to 9 pounds and weighed the current lake record of 12.5 pounds, but I wasn’t exactly certain about how many. My father and I have both been a “tell it like it is” outfitter for all our years in this business and I had to be absolutely certain before claiming this lake can and will produce BIG BASS! Well, color me 100% convinced that Picachos is absolutely loaded with bass from 7 – 9 pounds! In fact, it’s filthy with them! Yes, it’s filthy with bass of 2 – 4 pounds as well but not limited to just that size.

On April 1st, my group of 6 plus myself, arrived at Lake Picachos around 2 pm. This group included pro angler and founder/lure designer of Rage Tail Lures, Steve Parks, better known as “Big O,” as well as Terry Oldham of Oldham Lures (best jigs and spinnerbaits on the market), Mike Leggett (Outdoors Editor for 30 years at the Austin American Statesman newspaper), Steve Knight (Outdoors Editor for over 30 years at the Tyler Morning Telegraph newspaper), Ed Lewis (longtime customer of Ron Speed’s Adventures) and his friend Leon Nichols. All, like myself, have been fortunate to fish the best bass lakes in the world.

That first afternoon, we all decided we just needed to knock the edge off and go for numbers. That’s extremely easy to do on this lake as all one needs to do is head to the shoreline and start throwing your favorite lure, mine being a big spinnerbait. I was fishing alone on this afternoon. I went to the mouth of the first cove, put the trolling motor in the water and made my first cast at 2:50 pm. For the next 3 hours, I didn’t move the boat more than 200 yards and landed 68 bass. Most were weighing 2 – 3 pounds but I had about a half dozen of 4 and 5 pounds. Edge knocked off! After arriving back at the lodge, all were sharing stories of the great action and quality of fish each caught that afternoon. At the lodge were David and Cindy Bednar, both are regular customers of mine in Brazil and Mexico. They had already fished 5 1/2 days at El Salto and were now on their third day at Picachos. When asked how they were doing on the fishing, they replied, “OH WE LOVE THIS LAKE!!!” David and Cindy are more interested in numbers rather than size and spend most of their time on the lake fishing shoreline. They were averaging around 100 or more bass per day at Picachos, and needless to say, they were very very pleased with the fishing.

The next day, Terry and Steve (Parks), rigged up a portable depth finder and set out to find schools of big bass. It wasn’t until that afternoon around 3 pm that they finally hit the jackpot and found Honey Hole #1. In almost three hours of fishing, they landed 93 bass with 35 over 5 pound and 17 over 7 pounds, to include a half dozen of 8 pounds and three over 9 pounds! Just prior to dark, they found Honey Hole #3, again, loaded with bass 7 pounds and bigger!

Over the next several days, Terry and Steve would locate 4 more locations holding these huge schools of big bass. There are too many stories to tell in this one update but I would be remiss if I didn’t share at least two of them now. First: on Day 4, I was fishing with my good friend, Mike Leggett. The previous day Mike and Steve Knight had caught around 150 bass in the 3 – 5 pound range on a road bed in the back of a cover on the opposite end of the lake. Mike really wanted to go back there for a second round. So away we went. We started catching fish on and near that road bed as soon as we arrived. Same size as the day before — mostly 3 – 5 pounds. I kept looking out toward the mouth of the cove and some deeper trees along the arroyo. They had BIG BASS written all over them. I even mentioned to Mike that sometime that day, we needed to go check them out. However, we stayed the entire morning fishing near the back of the cover and the area close to the road bed. We finished the morning fishing with 122 bass — largest 5 1/2 pounds. That afternoon we went back to that cove but started working trees in deeper water along the creek channel. It wasn’t long before Mike tied in to a 6 pound bass! The wind off the Pacific was also getting up like it does most afternoons and made it tough to hold the boat on that tree line. So we had our guide tie us up to a tree and were fishing parallel along the tree line. I looked behind me and saw a gap or break in the trees, about a 10′ x 10′ gap. What a great ambush location for bass! I pitched my 3/4 oz Oldham spinnerbait to the back of that gap and WHAM! Rod nearly yanked from my hands! As the fish got closer to the boat, I saw he was in that 7 – 8 pound range BUT, there were at least 4 or 5 big bass that were of equal or larger size, trying to take the spinnerbait away from my big bass! I yelled to Mike, “QUICK, THROW YOUR SPINNERBAIT BEHIND MY BASS!” Mike quickly pitched his spinnerbait in there and WHAM! Now we’re doubled up with big bass! Both weighed a little over 7 pounds! This went on non-stop for the next 45 minutes, big bass after big bass to include a beautiful 8.13 pounder by Mike! We finished the day with exactly 200 bass for the day with the largest being 9 1/2 pounds by Mike.

Skipping to the last day…. On this day we only fished a 1/2 day as planned before loading up to head to Mazatlan for our last night stay at the 5-star El Cid Resort. After a somewhat slow morning fishing Terry’s big bass honey holes, slow because there was zero wind and very calm and slick on the surface, I decided to escort Ed Lewis and his fishing partner Leon Nichols to another area of the lake where I had found some quality bass previously. This was right at 9 am when we headed out. Turns out, we we left about 2 minutes too soon as Terry found ANOTHER Honey Hole not too far from where we had left. When we ran in to Terry back at the lodge at noon, he told us ALL about it! Moments after we had left Terry’s fish, he saw a bass blowing up on a shad approximately 100 yards from his boat. He put his trolling motor on high-hum and quickly headed toward the spot. First cast he hooked up with what felt like a big big bass, AND a biggun it was — just shy of 8 pounds even! Next cast, another big bass hook up: 7 pounds! Third cast… ANOTHER BIGGUN! It was while landing the third big bass that the entire school of big bass blew up the school of shad! Terry said and I quote, “I know you guys won’t believe this but I literally had 7 and 8 pound bass hitting the side of my boat and crashing into the trees while chasing shad!” Terry proceeded to spend the next 2 1/2 hours catching big bass after big bass. He finished with 35 bass over 7 pounds!!! He also claimed to have gotten a hold of three bass that he never turned…. gone! Lost to the thick brush some 20 yards away! What an unbelievable experience! Terry backed up his story with photos as he took the time to snap off at least 20+ photos of bass he caught over 7 pounds during that insane feeding frenzy!

There you have it, my friends! There are so many more stories about our 6 days of fishing that I would love to share with you but there’s not enough room in this update. I’ll share with you if you’ll call me. Let me finish by giving you our approximate and very “conservative” final numbers. Our group of 7 anglers landed over 4500 bass in 6 days of fishing on Picachos! Of those 4500, over 200 weighed 7 pounds and above. Our four largest bass weighed 11.01, 10.6, 10.4 and 10.01!!! Most were landed on 3/4 and 1 oz spinnerbaits as that’s what most in our group were using. However, Big O was busy landing big bass after big bass on his new Rage Tail Hawg…both flipping trees in 25′ of water as well as casting it Texas-Rig to the open water and feeding shelves he and Terry found. No question about it, the Rage Tail Hawg is deadly! Bass simply can’t lay off it. For more info on Rage Tail Lures, please visit their website at www.ragetail.com …and also the Rage Tail Facebook page www.facebook.com/ragetail?fref=photo …also, these numbers do not include David and Cindy Bednar’s catches. Doing the combo of both lakes, they ended up catching 1123 fish over the 2 weeks (437 on El Salto in 5 1/2 days and 686 on Picachos in 5 1/2 days). Needless to say, they’ll be back! This summer pattern that these bass are currently holding to, will continue from now till at least August…maybe longer. NOW is the time to get down there and experience what this group did two weeks ago. We’re still on them now! Call us TODAY to book your trip to the hottest and newest bass lake in the world….fabulous Lake Picachos! Call 1-800-722-0006 today!

Good Fishin’,

Ron Speed, Jr.