ADDITIONAL INFO:

The bigger fish are still being caught deep especially off deep points, humps and cliffs. The best productive places that our guides have found have been fishing the edges of the channels where the water level goes from 14 feet to 25 feet. The best bait has been the Storm Wild Eye Swim Shad in the colors mentioned above. We are also catching some nice bass on spinners, crankbaits and plastic worm. When one goes for big fish the number of fish that you catch goes down but the quality goes up. We have had customers catching 80+ bass a day on the bank and trowing Senkos, Bass Asasins or plastic jerkworms. Most of these bass are in the 1-3 pound range but an occasional big one will come in close to the surface. Texas and Carolina rigging a 8”-10” worm or 6”-8” lizard has been doing well in deep water. One customer came in with the best fishing day he experienced in his life ending up with a 9, 10, 11 and 13 pounder. All of these bass were caught in the same area and all on a 5” Swimbait in the white and chartreuse color. Rattletraps have been producing both quality and quantity of bass. When the bass are busting on the shad and tilapia, have your Trap ready to throw into the boiling fish. Topwater fishing is good early in the morning and late in the evenings. The late morning and early evenings has been mostly swimsbaits, plastic worms & lizards and crankbaits. ]

ADDITIONAL INFO:

We are starting to catch some nice bass on top water – especially on Zara Spooks and Pop’r s. Early in the mornings and late in the evenings the bass are starting to move up due to the change of weather. There is also some good soft plastic jerk worm bites during the same times. After sunrise, most of our fishing is done down deeper on Storm Wild Eye Swim Shads. The 5” and 6” have been producing the biggest fish. Most customers who decide to throw the Swim Shad come in with less bass but the ones that they catch are in the 6-12 pound range. The 4” Swim Shad is the one for catching numbers. We are working the Storm bait the same as always, slow rolling it on the bottom. Spinnerbaits can be worked the same way for best productivity. Sivler / Black Rattletraps have been producing both numbers of bass and quality. The ¾ ounce has been the best so far especially when one finds the shad busting the surface. The bass are spooking the shad to the surface and some nice bass are being caught. The Bill Dance Excalibur Fat Free Shad is still is a great bait to bring down. Citrus Shad is the best color and has been working great off windy points. Most of the big fish are coming in 12-20 feet of water off deep points. The wind is starting to pick up in the afternoons. Some wives enjoying their stay with us on our new “Couple Package” are also taking advantage of great bass fishing along with pedicures, manicures, massages and other activities.

ADDITIONAL INFO:

The fishing has really turned up the last week. All of the the big fish are coming on Storm’s Wild Eye Swim bait in the 5 inch and 6 inch size. The most productive colors have been Mullet and Golden Mullet. Some of the other colors that have been doing well are White, Pinfish (resembles a Tilipia), and Shad. The most successful technique has been working the swimbait on the bottom in about 12-20 feet of water. We are slow rolling the bait and one bairly feels the big fish bite. It is a real soft bite. John Felsher and myself caught 30 fish over 7 pounds on this very bait and Tony, the lake manager, landed two – 11 pounders and a 10. John also had a 10-1/2 pounder. Carlton Viers and son, from the Bill Dance Magazine, and Taylor Wilson caught 10 fish over 10 pounds in their 3 days of fishing with a 12 pounder being the biggest.  Most of these fish came on Swim baits. The amount of quality / big fish that came in these two weeks have been mind-boggling. There are some smaller fish up close ot the banks on Senkos or soft plastic jerkbaits. With the lake being 100% full, the level of the lake is up in the mountains. Most of the smaller ones are in the trees where it is difficult to cast to. We expect when the water level starts to drop, the topwater fishing should pick up dramatically. There has also been some nice bass caught on the Fat Free Shad in the Citrus color as well. Be sure to bring down these baits!

We ended the season with a bang!   Our 5 fish limit was broken by Joe Bullock who came in with an amazing 66.6 pounds of fish. All of the fish came on black and blue jigs either in the trees or off bluffs underwater. Joe fished for 6 days and had a 10 fish limit of 118 pounds. His top 5 bass weighed 14.7, 14.3, 13.3, 13.0 & 11.3 pounds. Joe’s fishing partner, Jim Tonkin landed 3-10+ pound bass and 2-8+ pounders for a total limit of 48.5 pounds. The fishing has been back to normal Salto fishing. In June, most of the fishing was done in 12-20 feet of water either working jigs, plastics worms & lizards or cranks. Fishing with green pumpkin or watermelon lizards off the bluffs was producing a lot of numbers. We had some customers coming in with 80+ days fishing this way. Senkos started to make a comeback up tight to the banks early in the mornings. One has to be patient while fishing these to give the bait time to sink and working it very slow. The crankbait bite was there during certain hours of the day as well as the swimbait bite. Rattletraps and Ambush Stealth’s have been producing some quality fish as well as numbers. El Salto’s season ended extremely well. Although we had our slow days we have also experienced some world class fishing days. One of the main problems this season was the amount of bait fish in the lake. Talipia and threadfin shad were busting everywhere. This is just allowing the big bass to get even bigger. With nobody fishing during these summer months, the bass will not see a lure in months. We should be back to 80+ days in October. The level of the lake was another major issue. The lake has never dropped down so quickly which freaked the fish out. The mismanagement of the water level led to more offshore suspended bass than ever before, which made fishing challenging at times. Still, a large portion of our customers managed to catch their largest bass of their lives and went home satisfied. New for next season is Anglers Inn University. This is a one-in-a-kind learning experience. Check out our website for more information.

The fishing during of this report for most people has been excellent. Most of the big fish are coming on Fat Free Shads in the Citrus color in the deep diver and the medium diver. There have been some fish stories of customers landing up to 100+ bass a day in one whole. The fish stack up in spots and when you hit them you really hit them. Most of the customers are finding these fish in about 15-20 foot of water and catching them on the Fat Free Shad. The Storm swimbait is doing its job as well with many big and quality fish coming in on it. The secret is still fishing the bait very slow on the bottom like slow rolling a spinnerbait. It seems like the smaller swimbaits are doing a little better this month than the bigger ones. The best sizes are the 4” and 5” and the best colors to bring are the ones mentioned above. There are also some other good colors, which resemble a tilapia (or bluegill).  Another bait to bring down and plenty of is the 8” Zoom lizards. The best color so far is black with blue tail and watermelon with red flake. Both Texas and Carolina rigs have been producing. In some cases there have been fish busting the surface feeding on shad. When this happens be sure to throw a ½ ounce to 1 ounce Rattletrap in the silver and black back color. This is where one can rack up some numbers. Matt Lipscomb came down with us with a party of 14 and here are some of the numbers that they caught. There top fish was 12 pounds and they had a total of 30 fish over 8 pounds including 7 over 10. That’s not bad for a group of 14 guys fishing 3 days on the lake. Matt kept intense records for us and had a total of 141 bass over 4 pounds and 111 over 5. One of the best stories of the season has to be that of Todd Watson. Todd and his father,Tom, one morning hit the right spot by landing 96 bass out of one whole. The biggest that they had was 12 pounds and Todd’s top 10 fish weighed 93-3/4 pounds. They caught all of there fish on a Fat Free Shad in the citrus color. Here is Todd’s quote “ I fished on May 21 with my father and we caught 6 bass over 10 pounds before lunch. Unbelievable”. Granted not everybody is going to have the same success as these two lucky fisherman but you have you best chance at Lake El Salto. The lake is at a low point now, which is why the fish are stacking up. We are expecting a good rainy season this summer, which will let us start out with a full lake in October like the past 13 seasons.

The fishing is really turning on! There has been a lot of big fish caught shallow and deep mostly on 6” Storm Swimbaits in the Mullet and Golden Mullet color. Be sure to bring them!! Fishing this bait is easy but one needs patience. The fisherman are fishing it on the bottom and very slow. So slow that you can barley feel the tail wiggling. The bite is as soft on the swimbait as is on plastics and spinners. The number one bait this report is swimbaits but crankbaits are right behind it. The Rapala and Fat Free Shad are producing some nice bass. Fishing these cranks very slow is the key. Crank the bait down fast and then a slow retrieve. The same deal on the spinnerbaits. These are fished just like the swimbait. Soft plastic jerkbaits are doing well in the morning and late in the evening. There is some topwater bite during the same period but not much. Still bring down you topwater gear because you never know. The biggest fish of the report was caught by Rob Grill on a swimbait. It was a whopping 13 pound bucket mouth. There were many 10-12 pound bass caught during this period.  I think that one of the reasons is that the lake is at a low level and the fish are stacking up. I have heard stories of a customer catching 20 bass over 8 pounds in one hole in one fishing session, so I went out with him in the afternoon and we caught (or had on the line) about 8 very quality fish. One loses a lot of fish on the swimbait so if you hook one you better get your rod deep in the water to help to prevent from losing it. We landed about 6 fish in the afternoon from 6-9 pounds out of that same whole. El Salto is definitely picking up for the amount of big fish being caught. Not everyone is going to land a lunker bass but you have you best chance with us here at El Salto. 

ANGLER'S INN
FISHING REPORT UPDATE
April 15th-30th, 2003