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!!!!!!!!!!!


Bass Fishing El Salto Report, Past Mistakes

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Why we now fish catch and release when bass fishing Mexico lakes[Editor: this article first appeared on www.ronsfishingblog and may only be used by permission of Ron Speed]

THIS WEEK’S REPORT

This week’s report is from El Salto: Lake level is low which is concentrating the bass, making them easier to locate. Most boats averaging 70 to 100 bass per day. Top bass was 11lb caught by Kirk Olsen from Nebraska on a watermelon zoom lizard in 6 feet of water fishing with guide Armondo Jr.

PAST MISTAKES WITH FISHING LIMITS ON BASS

We thought we could never hurt the lakeWhen I was a very young boy the limit of black bass was 15 bass per day per person here in Texas. At one time we even had a closed season on bass. In those days it was very unusual to go to a lake or pond and fish from the bank and not catch your limit of 15 bass.

There were not that many people bass fishing and of course most fishermen did not have a boat. Those were the great days for us bass fishermen. Lots of fish, not many fishermen and very few boats. This all began to change in the 1960s, especially with the opening of Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn lakes.

Fishing the limit gives you plenty of filets destined for freezer burnThese lake were fantastic and the limit was still 15 bass per day. I was guiding on Toledo Bend out of Six Mile Marina and I and two clients would easily catch 15 bass in the morning, come to the dock, filet the bass with a wood handle Rapala filet knife, and go back out and catch another limit. That’s 45 bass in the morning and 45 bass in the afternoon or 90 bass per day. Our crazy reasoning was that the lake was so big we could never catch enough bass to hurt the lake. WRONG!!!!

When I began to take groups to Mexico in 1970 we continued to catch tons of bass and filet them so our clients could take lots of filets home to freezer burn in the deep freeze. When I moved my operation from Lake Dominguez to Lake Guerrero in 1973 we continued to kill thousands of bass and send filets home with the clients. We had no idea that we were killing a great lake and putting ourselves out of business in the long term. We continued that practice until the early 1980s.

Finally, after so many years of stupidity, we learned that we were ruining and destroying our favorite hobby. We began a policy of catch and release just in time to save our business and save the sport of bass fishing. Today, we know so much more than back in the early days. We have done a pretty good job with our guides in helping to protect the bass, at least in Lake El Salto. Thank goodness we saved our most beloved hobby just in time.

HAVE FUN WITH YOUR FISHING & WEAR THAT LIFEJACKET!!!!!!


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