[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

When 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.

These 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!!!!!!

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

Today I am going to talk about fishing the pre-spawn & spawn and use Mexico this season as an example. The spawn is one of the easiest times to catch bass because they are up shallow and will strike an artificial lure from both hunger and to protect the nest.

J.W Peterson of Dallas has taken a big group of fishermen to Lake Comedero each year for the past 10 years and they fish the spawn in both January and February over the full moons. JW just returned from Comedero and Salto last night. He called the office this morning and said this was the absolute best trip in all the years he has been going to these two lakes. His group caught over 3500 bass with 20 bass over 10 pounds. The #1 bait was a white spinnerbait which is an easy bait to fish as you just throw it into shallow water and reel it back.

On the 27th Terry and Sandy Russell from Texas caught 117 bass with a 12.3 pound bass from Comedero. Nearly all boats had over 100 bass per day and almost all had over 100 bass per day per boat with almost everyone catching a trophy bass.

The group was doing a 4-day combo, fishing both Comedero and El Salto. On January 31, JW and Jaime Beach caught 120 bass with a 12lb, 11.8lb, and two 10 lb bass. Just think about those numbers and the trophys all in one day. On Feb. 2 they had 75 bass on TOP WATER (chug bugs) with a 10.2, 9.8 and a 9.2. That’s fantastic topwater fishing. JW said there were several 12 lb fish caught while he was at El Salto.

This group was fishing pre-spawn as the bass have not spawned yet which means this year we will have actual spawns in February and in March. Things are running about 1 month behind normal for western Mexico.

In the year 2000 I took a group of friends to Comedero in mid-December to fish the pre-spawn. We made an agreement that we would only fish topwaters. We held a tournament where we would weigh in 5 bass per day but could only weigh 1 fish at a time. So when you caught a big bass you had to quit fishing and return to the dock and weigh the fish and turn it loose. You could then return for another big bass. We were going to fish 5 days but we caught so many bass we were worn out after 4 days. We caught 27 bass over 10 pounds with a 14.4 pound bass being the largest. On the last day I and my partner were leading the pack at lunch. However at the end of the day we got beat by Terry Burghart & Skeeter Joe Solice by 8 ounces. Their 5 fish weighed 51 pounds and our 5 fish weighed 50 pounds 8 ounces. That’s an average of 10 pounds per fish, all on topwaters.

Fishing pre-spawn and spawn can be great, but if you happen to miss by fishing between spawns you will only catch small male bass in shallow water. Therefore you will have to position the boat in shallow water and throw out into deeper water to get the big females that are staging in tops of trees waiting to move up shallow to spawn.

Here in Texas our pre-spawn starts most years in late February with the small male bass coming shallow to begin making nests for the females. If water temps are in the 60- to 65-degrees range in late March you will see the big females move in to start the spawning process. Not all females will spawn at the same time so the process will drag out through April as well.

I much prefer to fish the pre-spawn myself. but the actual spawn can also be great.

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