On our recently completed trip to El Salto I kept my lure selections remarkably simple. I’d bet that 80% of my casts and an equal percentage of my fish came on just 5-6 baits in a handful of colors. That’s because I’ve calmed down a little bit and don’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel, and also because the bass were somewhat picky.

For some reason I frequently forget about the Rapala DT series of crankbaits when we go to Mexico, even though we’ve had some great days with them. Here are five colors you should consider for your next trip South of the Border.

I am convinced that while a 10XD isn’t always the best crankbait choice El Salto, there are times when it will produce more and bigger fish than any other. It gets deep in a hurry, has a larger profile, and seems to trigger bites consistently. Here are my 5 confidence colors.

Fishing on our May/June 2023 trip to El Salto was very good, with solid numbers and a higher percentage of 5-pound and larger fish than just about any prior visit. That doesn’t mean the fishing was wide open, though. I’d say that of the hundreds of bass our group caught, 40% were on crankbaits, 40% were on some form of soft plastics, and 20% came on something else.

Prior to just about every trip to Mexico, friends ask us about packing the right tackle and enough of it. I wish there was a proven formula for every given day of the year – as in “Bring exactly five X, 10 Y and 12 Z and you’ll be completely covered,” but there’s not. It’s fishing, and the only rule is that you have to expect the unlikely.