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

Sorry to be late with Part 2 of the Lake Palmito story but a trip to Mexico came up and I just got back. If you missed Part 1, click here to read what you missed.

After I got back to Lake Guerrero and talked to my partner Jose Martinez, we planned a trip to Palmito to see if a fishing operation was feasible on that very remote desert lake. We arrived to Palmito the very next week and went to the Corp of Engineers about renting some of their houses overlooking the lake down below.

We went then to visit Javier Bocanegra to set up credit for our groceries, sodas, etc. There was no ice in the village so Javier agreed to transport 1000lb of block ice from Torreon once a week. We wrapped the ice in tarp after we covered it with hay and stored it in one of the concrete houses.

Jose & I got everything set up in 4 days and left to return to Lake Guerrero. On our way back we stopped in Gomez Palacio to visit an old school pal of Jose who was the son of the owner of Viejo Verjell, the largest wine distributor in Mexico. We spent 4 or 5 hours with him touring his great vineyard and talking about our new business on lake Palmito. Jose’s school friend was Ramon Aviles and he decided to become one of our partners.

Ramon’s $20,000 investment allowed us to get everything up and running very quickly. We bought motors and transported boats from Guerrero and were set up and ready for our first group 3 weeks later. I got my Father (John Speed) to go to Palmito and serve as manager. He really liked setting up new operations.

I called Walter Teague with Rio Airways, our principal charter service out of Killeen, Texas and got a price on the round trip. The only problem was they couldn’t land on the short gravel strip at the lake so I had to find another place for them to land. Local natives said there was an old abandoned paved strip about 1 hour away.

I hired a crew of villagers to go and cut the weeds and clean up the old concrete strip which was over 6000 feet long. The local people had been piling Jalapeno peppers on it each year for drying. Remember this little tidbit as it will come into play later.

I brought the very first group of 12 from Dallas which were long time friends and clients. Some of the guys were Pete Peterson, Scrapiron Peterson, Kenny Peterson, Mac Duckett, and 8 more guys whose names I can’t remember.

The first day we fished was May 16, 1978 and it started off pretty slow and I was worried. When we all came in for lunch 2 boats had hit home runs. They had gone to the North river and found a honey hole and had caught over 100 bass that morning with over 50% weighing over 4lbs.

They invited all boats to join them that afternoon as they said there was enough bass for everyone. When my partner and I arrived to the spot we saw all the fishermen out on the bank casting into this large deep hole in the river. Well we just parked the boat and joined them and the slaughter was on. Everyone was catching bass and good sized bass on strawberry color plastic worms named fliptail.

We continued to catch fish after fish until we all just got tired of catching fish. At supper that night we all agreed not to bring any fish back to camp under 7lbs. Remember this was long before catch & release and every client wanted to take home filets. Rio Airways had a special tray built just to haul fish filets.

We ended this remarkable trip with over 2000 bass caught mostly in 3 to 5 feet of water. Bagley Bs and fliptail worms were the best. Everyone was very happy and definitely wanted to come back even though the houses were considered primitive by today’s standards.

The houses were up on this high hill with the lake down below maybe 200 yards. It simply was too steep to walk up and down to the boats and back up to the houses. So I bought 5 burros and saddles for our clients to ride. We built drags out of tree limbs that we attached to the burros and we put all our gear & fish on the drags and let the burros drag them up the hill. The trail we made was what I called a switchback as the hill was too steep to go up in a straight line so we went right and then left then right and so on until we reached the top.

Several clients really didn’t want to get on the burros but unfortunately they had no choice. Then later they said they enjoyed the ride and all the photos of everyone riding the burros.

Next week we will talk about group #2 plus peppers on the airport runway.

GOOD LUCK 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 we will talk about an old lake in Mexico in the state of Durango named Palmito. This old lake was built during World War II and stocked with Northern black bass.

The story starts with a group of clients and myself going to Lake Guerrero maybe in 1976. We were still catching lots of bass at Guerrero but they were mostly small. I had made many checkout trips to other lakes in Mexico but found none that were suitable for my operations. Upon returning from Guerrero in a charter plane from Rio Airways we stopped in McAllen to clear US customs.

Everyone went to the men’s room and while I was in a stall I overheard 2 men say that they hoped Ron Speed never finds Palmito. These 2 guys were from Dallas and were in the printing business. They had been pulling their boats to this mystery lake for many years and they didn’t want me to bring hundreds of American fisherman to their secret lake.

Upon returning to Dallas and my home in Forney, Texas I began the search for this mystery lake. I had no idea where it was or anything about it. I made many calls all over the US & Mexico and nobody had ever heard of it. I can’t remember how I finally found it but in less than 2 weeks I was dragging a boat and motor from Guerrero west to the city of Torreon. I found out in Torreon that we still had 5 more hours of traveling west to reach the lake. The last 14 miles were non-paved and the roughest road in Mexico.

Upon arriving in the small village of Palmito we discovered 2 flats from the rough road. I visited the mayor’s office and he gave me a history of the lake and advised me to contact a local merchant named Javier Boca Negro. Javier was an avid bass fisherman but he sold groceries to the local commercial fishermen on credit so he had lots of stroke in that small village.

I went to meet Javier and liked him from the very start as he was quite a character and prankster. He took me over to the only hotel in the village and helped me and my driver (Chagueoy) get rooms. I believe the cost was $3.00 per night and they were over-priced. I had never seen that bad of a room in my life. The sheets were almost black and sewer water was running through one corner of the room. I still get the shivers from thinking about that room.

Javier made arrangments for one of the best fishermen to go with me the next morning early. I went to bed early but couldn’t sleep as I kept thinking about the dirty sheets. Maybe around 11 pm I finally dropped off to sleep only to be awakened by loud pistol shots outside my room. I jumped up and looked out the window to see a very drunk mayor staggering down main street and shooting at the moon. If you saw the movie Tombstone you can recall Curlie Bill Brochas getting high on opium and shooting at the moon. Well this was almost the same to a tee except nobody tried to get him out of the street. I thought WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN INTO THIS TIME?!

I got very little sleep that night due to the dirty room, drunk mayor, and the excitement of fishing a new lake. The next morning Javier came and took me for coffee at his store and I got to meet my guide for the day. His name was Baltarsar Bustamente. He was and still is–if living–the best bass fisherman I ever met.

It was May and the bass were right up on the bank spawning and easy to catch. The local fishermen did not use nets or outboard motors. Most used a coke can for a reel and they caught their bass by casting their baits by hand. Baltasar did have an old reel that I feel was given him by the American printers from Dallas.

That first day we caught over 200 bass with many fish in the 4 to 6 pound range. It was fantastic and I was on cloud 9 as I had found that mystery lake we needed so badly for our clients. I fished 2 more days and caught over 200 bass each day up to 7 pounds. Now remember… these were the days before Florida bass and a 7 pound bass was considered a real trophy.

My driver and I left with a really good feeling about this secret lake that was not to be a secret very much longer (to be continued next week)….

I wish you good fishing and please wear that lifejacket!