Largemouth Bass
How good must your casting be on both Mateos and El Salto? You should be able to cast relatively bulky flies at least 60 feet to within 2 inches of cover. Fishing is from stable Bass Tracker johnboats (equipped with 48-horsepower Yamaha outboards) to rocky, brushy shorelines, drowned trees, and flotillas of weedmats.
The longer your cast, the longer your retrieve. The longer your retrieve, the more water you cover—and the more time you give largemouth to hear, follow, and suddenly ambush your fly, often near your rod tip. Short, inaccurate casts do poorly on these largemouth waters.
The fishing involves casting your fly onto the bank, then hopping it offshore onto calm water; letting it sit; chugging it hard; letting it sit again; twitching it slightly; then chugging it hard again, always waiting for the explosive splash/strike. The fishing demands concentrated, enervating, high-energy work. By evening, warm and pleasant exhaustion makes the lodge lights beckon.
Why Florida Strain?
Mexican-strain largemouth have different markings and their fights are bullish, but they do not grow as fast as Florida-strain fish (2- to 3-pound growths per year for Florida; 1 to 2 pounds per year for Mexican bass). Florida-strain bass are the hardest-fighting, highest-jumping largemouth, and landing 8-pound-plus fish on these structure-rich lakes requires strong rods, sharp hook-sets, tough fighting skills, strong wide-gap hooks, and luck. Largemouths do not take you into your backing: They jump and make fast brute charges into cover. Break-offs in submerged brush and timber are the norm.
Guides
The guides at both lakes are experienced professionals. Lake Mateos currently has one experienced fly-fishing guide (with more in training to service the new lodge) and El Salto has seven. The guides speak enough English, and they are excellent boat handlers and understand fly fishing, where the fish are, and how to position the boat in the wind for both right- and left-hand casters. The guides express appreciation when casts are accurate, and grab a boat net immediately when you hook a large fish. Their judgments on estimated fish sizes are unerring.
The best period for surface fishing at both lodges is from January through March, during prespawn when fish are at their heaviest, although there is excellent topwater fishing from October through April 30.
Tackle & Gear
For surface fishing we used Sage’s 81/2-foot Largemouth Bass rods matched with 330-grain Bass Taper floating fly lines, Rio Striped Bass 7-foot leaders (22-pound-test), or Gutterres’s twisted leaders (20-pound-test) tippet.
For subsurface fishing, we used Sage’s saltwater 9-foot 8-weight Xi2 or Z-Axis with Rio Outbound (type 3) or Rio Tropical Saltwater with Rio Fluoroflex 15-pound-test tippet. Comparable stiff-butt 81/2- or 9-foot (4-piece) rods, lines, and leaders serve equally well.
Packages
Anglers Inn fly-fishing operations on both lakes are booked exclusively through Angling on the Fly (anglingonthefly.com). A four-day three-night package to El Salto or Mateos is $2,015 per angler. A six-day, five-night package to both El Salto and Mateos is $3,195. Rates do not include airfare or gratuities. Saltwater fishing is also available at Mazatlán, along with shopping and other attractions for nonfishers.
West Coast anglers should book flights direct to Culiacán to fish Mateos and direct to Mazatlán for fishing El Salto (this avoids flying to Mexico City, then by regional airline to Mazatlán or Culiacán). East Coast anglers must fly to Mexico City then short-hop to Culiacán or Mazatlán depending on the lake. The lodges provide pick-up and return to local airports in comfortable air-conditioned vans.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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