Outstanding Week at El Salto; A Great Friend to Mexico Fishermen

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JW Peterson Group boated over 3000 bass[Editor: this article first appeared on www.ronsfishingblog and may only be used by permission of Ron Speed]

EL SALTO REPORT

The past 10 days have been outstanding at lake El Salto in Mexico. I truly wish every bass fisherman in the USA could enjoy this great fishing at least once in their lifetime. The JW Peterson group from Texas boated over 3,000 bass during their stay. Top fisherman was the group leader who had an 11.2 lb & a 13.4 lb monster caught on white spinnerbait in 4 ft of water. Rod Anthony had an 11.7, Dan Henson had a 10.1 and a 11.4 on the 26th and Tony Cox had a 12.4lb monster. Best baits for the week were watermelon jigs, and watermelon red senkos. — Great week! Read a first-hand report from one of JW’s group: Joe Earney Testimonial.

Ing. Jesus Pinedo Ortiz, The Great Man Behind Mexico’s Great Fishing (see collage of pictures below)

This week I am going to tell you all about one of the finest men I have ever known in my life. Ing. Pinedo spent 37 years working for the Corps of Engineers in Mexico building lake dams etc. He and his wonderful wife Dona Conchita lived in Los Mochis Sinaloa.

I met Pinedo through one of my closest friends and our partner in Mexico over the last 20 years; Roberto Balderrama. In 1986 I was out of the fishing business in Mexico and was having a great time running field trial bird dogs and raising cattle in East Texas. One night I got a call from Roberto who I hadn’t talked to in several years. He wanted me to come down and visit him and at the same time he wanted me to put in a business on Lake Comedero.

I explained to Roberto that my partner in Lake Guerrero had died and I was finished with the fishing business. He then told me I owed him a 20 year favor and no doubt I did and hadn’t forgotten. He said, “I am calling in that favor now. The governor of the State has made me the Director of tourism and he wants to promote the Cosala & Lake Comedero area.”

To shorten this story I went to Mexico and went fishing with Roberto and fell in love with the lake and the people in the area. In maybe 3 months Roberto told me he had a great friend who would register the business in his name and help with all the government red tape. He said to me, “THIS MAN IS SO HONEST I WOULD PUT MY HAND IN THE FIRE FOR HIM.” That person was Ing. Pinedo and that was 20 years ago.

Pinedo was involved in ALL of the wonderful things that have happened at Comedero, El Salto, and Huites. He personally stocked the F1 Florida bass in El Salto that so many Americans have enjoyed fishing these past years.

Pinedo and I spent one summer together in Choix getting the original trailers up and over the mountain to their location in Techobampo. We spent a week together in a lake called Agua Milpa farther South from Mazatlan. Pinedo went to Mexico City and stayed over 1 month trying to obtain a fishing permit for the El Salto cooperative which we were using as guides.

Day or night Pinedo was always ready to help in any way he could and the one thing you could always count on was his word. It was as good as gold. He was very well known and liked by all the people that met him. He was famous for his honesty and respected by all who knew him. He also was very much a nationalist and knew the history of Mexico better than anyone I have ever known. He had no use for the people who cheated, lied, or did things that gave Mexico a bad name. I remember one time — maybe in 1995 — he and Conchita went to the border and visited friends or family and Pinedo bought a television to bring back to Los Mochis. When they reached the first checkpoint in Mexico on their way back, Pinedo wanted to pay the legal tax on the television. The customs guys wanted him to give them some GRAVY and go on his way. Pinedo refused to pay the bribe and so he and Conchita sat there all day. A real standoff! Eventually Pinedo won the battle and paid the legal tax. TOTALLY 100% HONEST TO THE CORE!!!!!!!!!!!

Day before yesterday I lost my great friend Ing. Jesus Pinedo as he passed away in his sleep. Of course I am so sad that it hurts me to the core but at the same time I feel so lucky to have known this great man. I can only say that I hope each one of you has the opportunity to have such a great friend in your life. If you don’t have such a friend then you have truly missed out on one of the great joys of life.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FISHING AND WEAR THAT LIFEJACKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Oviachi, One of Our Early Mexico Bass Fishing Lakes

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Mexico bass fishing at Lake Oviachi or Obregon in the 1970s></a>[Editor: this article first appeared on <a href=www.ronsfishingblog and may only be used by permission of Ron Speed]

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.

Ron Speed with Lake Obregon BassI 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.

Lupe CotaI 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.

LupeI 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!!!!!!!!!!!


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