As you step out of the van at Anglers Inn El Salto, the next steps are to collect your first of many secret recipe margaritas, follow your bags to your room, and quickly rig up some rods. You only get one first cast, and one first fish so I asked the members of our June group what they used to break the ice.

Over the past several decades, PRADCO Outdoor Brands has purchased up quite a few iconic fishing tackle companies. You’ll find some selection of them at every tournament, in just about every angler’s boat. While I haven’t used a Jitterbug in decades, plenty of their offerings are still included on our frequent trips to Mexico.

The Crush City Mayor was winning tournaments for Rapala pros before it officially came to market. Several of the group members on our June 2024 trip to El Salto were tipped off that it was deadly in Mexico, too – not just for numbers of fish, but for true giants. When we got back,we made an order from Normark

While air travel with any rods these days is often a pain in the butt, serious surf anglers are particularly burdened. Their rods are often in the 10- to 11-foot range. There have also been a dearth of high-end travel surf rods. Daiwa aims to remedy that with their Ardito Series.

Rick Clunn’s true distinguishing characteristics are his explorations into seasonal patterns and his inquiries into the mental side of the game. Nevertheless, as I look back on his career there are a number of lures that I associate directly with him.

If you’d asked me a decade ago to assess the top price I’d spend on a spinning reel, I likely would’ve said $100-150. Maybe if I was feeling a little bit flush I would’ve pushed the ceiling to $200. Well, those days are over.

Ott DeFoe does just about everything well on the water, but his calling card is river fishing. He excels in knowing when to abandon the “lake portion” of an impoundment. On several occasions he’s used a tunnel hull boat to get up there, but when wise to do so he’ll also go upstream in his fiberglass Nitro.

We’ve used various kinds of leaders, but when we got to the tuna grounds it was a whole different deal. Forget your FG knots or swivels, they had a set-up that was foreign to us. We asked Elliott Stark to explain the purpose and the components of the wind on leader.

It’s rare that Hanna gets to use a particular lure class before I do. Even though I was the one who packed two crawler-style topwater baits for our most recent trip to El Salto, she was the one who tied them on first and got the insane bite going.  

Since being introduced to Bajío Sunglasses a few years ago, we’ve become huge fans of the brand, their products and everything they stand for. We’ve interviewed two of the women behind the brand – Marguerite Meyer and Melinda Mize – about their favorite shades. Now we’re going to co-founder Al Perkinson for his picks.

As the northland thaws, it’s a good reminder to pack bass lures that are meant to resemble gobies. These invasive species may have some deleterious impacts on other industries, but in the Great Lakes and elsewhere they’ve turned the smallmouths into footballs.

On our four trips to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge we’ve run the full gamut of weather (well, everything except cold). Shane Jarvis and his team are on the water 300 days a year, sometimes dealing with brutal sun and strong rain, and they’ve got to stay on the fish constantly. They depend on Grundéns gear.

The color pattern known as “Firetiger” means different things to different people. Check out 12 different companies’ versions and you might find one you like better than all the rest.

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.

I’m pretty sure that I bought my first bottle of Bass Boat Saver in 1998, and six boats later it’s still my preferred product. It removes grime and bugs and all sorts of debris with a minimum of elbow grease, smells good, and it’s affordable. Last year I started using their Black Label Ceramic Shield.

My favorite shorts of all time just keep on going and going and going — with no signs of wearing out or visible tuna blood stains. AFTCO makes good gear.

After using it to catch hundreds of Mexican largemouth bass, it was finally time to retire Hanna’s trusty cranking reel. Prior to leaving for El Salto, Mr. Romance here surprised her with a Lew's Super Duty 300 LFS Casting Reel.

Yesterday I provided a video demonstrating how Pete picked his clothing for our upcoming trip to Anglers Inn Lake El Salto trip. Great picks but I have no idea how he can take so little, even if they do daily laundry. I brought a few more items.

Pete has carefully selected every piece of apparel he needs for a week of fishing in Mexico – trying to minimize the quantity to maximize how much tackle he can pack. Surprisingly he has packed mix and match pieces that all go together, including antimicrobial underwear, comfortable shoes and a just-in-case rain jacket.

Normally I have Pete purchase all of our lures. I buy the groceries, he buys the tackle, those are our jobs. This time I wanted to make sure I had exactly what I wanted for our upcoming trip to Anglers Inn Lake El Salto, so I fired up my (our?) credit card and made my first Tackle Warehouse order.