Mexico's Spectacular Fly Rod Bass Action
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| Mexico's Spectacular Fly Rod Bass Action |
No, I wasn't fishing at a reservoir somewhere in the American West.
Instead, I was south of the border in Mexico fishing on a writer's trip to Lake Huites, one of the most stunningly beautiful bass waters in the world.
With several companies like Yum, XCalibur, Booyah Baits, Bomber Baits, Shakespeare Fishing, All-Star rods and Pflueger reels sponsoring the trip, I had cautiously asked Jeff Samsel (then the PR director for Pradco Fishing, now one of the nation's best overall fishing writers) if he minded me bringing along my fly gear.
As it turns out, Samsel said he didn't mind at all.
Leading me to pack an Orvis fly reel and a couple of Temple Fork fly rods along with my conventional gear. A combination that drew a strange look or two when I landed at the Los Mochis airport, loaded up into the Trophy Bass Lodge van and took my seat as we prepared to start our adventurous trek.
A couple of hours into our journey, the dry and dusty – not to mention surprisingly vertical – terrain not far from Mexico's famed Copper Canyon led me to make an observation.
“This looks like the greatest snipe hunt in history,” I said to no one in particular.
That off-hand comment caused a chuckle or two and broke the silence in the van as our group of traveling Don Quixote anglers continued to climb up a road that would do any mountain biker proud.
Venturing into the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in the Mexican state of Sinaloa near the town of Choix, our view eventually gave way to occasional glimpses of the sparkling 30,000-acre oasis below, one of the big bass capitols of Mexico.
As we traveled through ample Etcho cactus stands and brushy tropical and deciduous forest that blanketed the slopes of these steep desert mountains (approaching and exceeding 8,000 feet in places), my hopes began to change as I saw the lake.
Eventually we reached the summit of our mountainous journey and began to wind down towards the end of the 17-mile-long road into the lodge.
After arriving and stowing our gear – and being warmly greeted by our host David Fields (www.fishinexpeditions.com) – I ventured to the water’s edge with an eight-weight fly rod in hand to see what Huites looked like up close and personal.
While I could coax no bass to strike my popper that evening, I went to sleep hopeful that the lake would live up to its reputation.
The next morning, it did.
After a chilly late March boat ride up one of Huites' lengthy canyon arms with our guide and Mike Rice, then a senior product manager for Shakespeare Fishing, it took only five casts before a bass decided to smash my popper.
Within short order, as parrots flew overhead and rain drops dotted the surface while far away thunder rumbled off steep desert canyon walls, I had landed five more largemouth in the 2- to 3-pound range while Rice landed similar numbers on a Zara Spook.
None were the pescado grandes that we had come seeking – the lake record back then was a 15.12-pound brute caught by the late Wild Bill Skinner – but on a lake as magical as Huites, you keep casting because you never know when a double-digit bass is lurking below.
Later that afternoon, heeding Field’s lunchtime advice that a Texas-rigged 10-inch Yum Ribbontail plastic worm in watermelon seed was the current ticket on the lake, I switched to conventional gear and made a cast from the back deck of the Carolina skiff.
When that T-Rig landed in less than a foot of water off a small rocky point, what looked like a diminutive version of Orca – a pound and a half largemouth – arched over the ripples marking the resting spot of my plastic worm.
As I sat there trying to figure out what had just happened, a tell-tale “tap-tap” vibrated up my All-Star graphite rod, tripping my synaptic responses and causing me to set the hook.
When the bass broke the surface, Rice and I instantly thought it was an 8-pound or better fish.
After a solid, fierce struggle, I finally wrestled the big bass into the net. With Huites' bass a month or two ahead of their U.S. counterparts, this spawned-out, lengthy native-strain female tipped the scales at around 6 pounds, leaving me to wonder if my guessing or the scale’s weighing abilities were off.
 (Lynn Burkhead photo) |
The rest of the afternoon, Rice schooled me in the art of fishing an XCalibur lipless crankbait, boating several quality fish in the 4- to 6-pound range and losing a couple more that appeared even bigger.
After dinner at the lodge and a good night of sleep, the next couple of mornings I found myself in a skiff with Samsel.
During those two days time, he would throw a combination of baits including a 1-ounce Booyah double-willow leaf spinnerbait, a Booyah Boogee bait and a 3-inch Bomber Long A jerkbait in colors imitating the lake’s abundant threadfin shad, sunfish and tilapia forage base.
Like Rice had done, it wasn't long before Samsel was educating me on how to slow roll a big spinnerbait over deep main lake points, picking up several 4-pound plus bass in the process.
As we moved down the lake and began fishing tighter to visible cover along the rocky shoreline, Jeff used the Long A to coax bass after bass out of their post-spawn funk.
While a great majority of Samsel’s fish on the jerkbait were in the 2- to 3-pound range, a venture up one gnarly creek produced not one, but two 5-plus-pound fish.
Meanwhile, I kept at it with my eight-weight fly rod, tossing poppers, big Clouser Minnows and sizable Lefty's Deceiver patterns early and late. In between, as the sun rose high into the blue sky, I would trade for conventional gear and follow the lead of Samsel.
During one of those days, a highlight of the trip occurred when we were treated to a traditional Mexican style shore lunch where we passed around freshly baked tortillas while trading big fish tales.
Dan Hernandez, the Los Angeles-based host of the Sportfishing with Dan Hernandez television show had a tale of a 7-pound largemouth that had smashed a shad patterned Bill Dance Fat Free Shad deep-diving crankbait.
What’s more, Hernandez had the video to prove his fish tale.
Meanwhile, Mark Davis – now an Outdoor Channel television show host and then the marketing director for Shakespeare Fishing – was teaming up with Texas-based television show host Keith Warren to tame the big bass suspending on Huites’ considerable deep-water structure.
Using sizable swimbaits, deep-diving Fat Free Shad and hefty Booyah spinnerbaits, Davis and Warren landed some 50 or so bass in the 5- to 9-pound range.
Again, with the video evidence – enough for two television shows – to prove it.
They also had the footage to back up claims of a 10-pound giant lost at the boat and a double-digit behemoth that struck Warren’s swimbait, turned the Carolina skiff around and then stripped out much of the Pflueger reel's line supply. It was last seen heading for Mexico City when the connection broke deep into the fight.
On the fourth and final morning – with a brief window of early fishing opportunity before traveling to Los Mochis for a plane ride back to the States – I got in the boat with Rice and Brett Graham, a seasoned tournament bass angler from Sherman, Texas.
I’m not sure what I enjoyed more – the spectacular sunrise over God’s rugged creation, the laugh-a-minute antics of the comedic Graham or the 8.1-pound bass that was the subject of numerous early morning photos.
 (Lynn Burkhead photo) |
Those thoughts included my own fishing success that produced some 45 bass on the fly rod in three and a half days of fishing, not to mention many more on conventional tackle.
Having seen numerous fish over 5 pounds caught, more than I might see in a year's worth of fishing north of the border, I realized that the stories I had heard for years about Mexico's incredible bass fisheries were no Chamber of Commerce hype.
Even with a fly rod in hand.
Leading me to a final conclusion: This might have been my first time to fish Mexico's fabled bass waters, but I left hoping that it would not be my last, snipe hunt or not.