 Air Temp: 53°/59°F early morning & late evening. Siesta Time 79°/87°F.
Water Temp: 69°/74°F.
Average number of bass per boat per day: 60 - 80.
Largest bass caught: 11 pounds.
Popular lures past two weeks:
Topwater Baits:
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Lobina Lures Rio Rico poppers: white, white with sparkles and bleeding shad.
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Heddon Zara Spook and Lucky Craft Sammy: shad, chrome with black top and white.
Swimbaits:
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Storm WildEye 4 -inch Swim Shads: shad, white with chartreuse top and pearl and bunker (Hot Colors).
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Yum Money Minnows or Basstrix: 5-inch in bluegill, hologram shad and herring with 5/0 or 6/0, 1/8-ounce weighted hook. Also with blade runner ½ Paddle Head jig and Blade Runner Spintrix jig head spinner.
Plastics:
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Eight-inch Zoom Lizards: watermelon red flake and watermelon (Hot Colors!!!!).
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Berkley Power Worms: 10-inch, black with blue tail and green pumpkin.
● Yamamoto Senkos, Yum Dingers or Bass Pro Shops 5-, 6- and 7-inch Stinkos: watermelon red flake, watermelon and black with blue flake. A small bullet weight goes very well with these baits in 1/8- and 1/16-ounce.
● Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper in Penetration and Dirty Sanchez.
● Zoom Super Flukes: pearl white.
Crankbaits:
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Bomber Fat Free Shad: deep diver in citrus shad and Dance’s Tennessee Shad.
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Lucky Craft CB D20 in Green Apple and Aurora Black.
● Rat-L-Traps: ½ & ¾-ounce in silver with blue back and silver with black back.
● Rapala DT series in 10 and16: Hot Mustard and Parrot.
Spinnerbaits:
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Booyah double willow blade: ½ and ¾ -ounce in white/chartreuse and white.
Phil Pasley and Dave Kretz said their recent visit was the best ever. “The fish were really biting and not just the normal 3- to 7-pounders you always catch at El Salto,” they told us. “The big girls were really putting on a show! On Tuesday, February 24, our five largest fish were 10 pounds, 9-8, 9-3, 9-3 and 9.0, for a five-fish total of 47 pounds. Our goal was to have five fish in one day that broke the 50-pound barrier, but we couldn't get rid of those 9-pounders regardless of how hard we tried. We followed that up on Friday, February 26, with a catch of 9-8, 9-3, 9-3, and two 7s. (Don't you hate it when you can't get rid of those puny 7-pounders?) We suggest anyone fishing El Salto in the near future bring PLENTY of crankbaits as most of our large fish were caught on 3/4-ounce Fat Free Shads and DD 22s. The primary colors were Chartruese Blue Back and Dance's Tennessee Shad. We also had good success on Senkos and lizards.
Mike Cage was down with several friends for a three-day visit, and his group also enjoyed great fishing. “Five of the six people in our group caught at least one fish over 8 pounds,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to catch one that weighed 11.2! This is by far the biggest fish that I have ever caught, and I can’t wait to get the replica back from the taxidermist. Most of our fish were caught on Texas-rigged lizards and Money Minnows. I have fished other places, but no other Lake delivers such exceptional fishing, Kim Owens caught her biggest bass ever, a 9-pounder that had already spawned. “It was a big fish with a huge head but no belly,” Mark said. “We guessed it to be 27 inches long. She also caught an 8-8, 8-0, 7-6, and a lot of 5- to 6-pounders. We pulled up on a point one afternoon and in 30 minutes we both caught 6s, 7s, and 8s. We had double hook-ups twice. All those bass were caught on Carolina-rigged 7-inch watermelon red flake and black and blue lizards. One morning in an hour and a half or less, fishing 7-inch black and blue Senkos, I alone caught 68 pounds of bass, with the largest being an 8-8, and the smallest a 4-pounder! That's WIDE OPEN bass fishing! The numbers were down slightly this year, but the average fish were all big, 4 pounds plus. Kim averaged about 30 fish per day, and I averaged about 70, with at least 60-plus 5-pounders. I lost 10 big bass, including six that broke 15-pound line and two on 20-pound. El Salto bass are hands down the strongest bass out there! Thank you so much for another trip of a lifetime!” Tom Rada and Terry Connolly came down with a group that has visited El Salto for 12 connective years. “Each year, the fishing has been outstanding,” Tom reported, “and the food and service keep getting better. The only thing that never changed was the weather. Each day was a repeat of the day before—sunny and warm.” Terry said their party had never fished El Salto this late in the year and noted, “We did not catch 50 or 60 fish a day, but we did get some large fish. On Saturday morning, in three hours, I caught four 6-pound-plus fish, a 4-10, a 5-8 and a 7-13. I don’t think I can go anywhere and do that, and I have fished about every lake in Texas, Florida and Georgia over the last 30 years. The food and service were great as usual. This is beyond what you would anticipate in fishing
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