Six Highlights From Our June 2024 El Salto Trip
After 20 trips to Anglers Inn Lake El Salto, I know that they all have subtle differences. The fishing, service and scenery are always great, but as you’ll see below there were six things in particular that made this trip unforgettable.
The OJ Simpson Run
Each of us wait all year long for this trip. We pack our suitcase with clothes only after making sure we have enough tackle, line and reels. We realize that laundry is done daily, so there’s room to throw in those 25 year-old discontinued worms, you’ll never use at home to see if they will work on those hungry El Salto bass.
Passport, two pairs of sunglasses, sunblock, hat, tip money and Uber to the airport reserved.
That’s wat our friend Brad Petrie did, and all was well until he got the message: DELAYED FLIGHT. His heart sank, but there was still a chance as he listened to the pilot over the loud speaker.
The plane landed with plenty of time to get to our connecting flight but there wasn’t a gate for the plane to park and time was a ticking.
The text I received from Brad was heartbreaking. “Sure glad I looked forward to this all year. Really bummed out that I’m gonna miss out on fishing.”
Great news, as it landed in Dallas, our plane hit a bird (sorry bird) and maintenance needed to clean it up.
Now Brad had some extra time. I texted him to run like OJ circa 1978 and make this flight!
As you’ll see from the pic above, he made it – it’s one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Everyone got to El Salto as planned.
I’m A People Person
One of the best part of our business is talking to all of the clients who have become friends and in some cases family.
This trip we had two new couples, the Niswanders and the DeMeos, who instantly felt like old friends. Conversations flowed, we laughed, we joked, we broke bread, the girls did girl talk and the boys talked fishing. I even dragged them up the mountain just to take a picture. We haven’t stopped messaging since we’ve been home and I have a feeling we will all be forever friends.
Our other Half Past First Cast members were all repeat clients who we now call family, Marc, Brad, Jennifer (my fishing sister), her dad Roy, Randy May, Joshua and his (now our) friend, Zack, the McMillins and our diehard bigfoot-hunting fishing friend Ray K.
You all made this trip one of the more special and we appreciate your friendship.
It’s Not Just A Tank Top
I truly believe it is better to give than receive. Gifts allow me to express my appreciation for others. Seeing the reaction of happiness and surprise on others’ faces, showing they feel appreciated, is so incredibly rewarding to me.
We try to provide something on each of our hosted trips to either help commemorate the trip, help with forgotten or unknown items you didn’t know you needed, or you may even get a special HPFC clothing item.
This trip I was presented with a gift. My fishing sister Jennifer Combs had her friend make us matching tank tops saluting our favorite place. I was so touched, it was such a special gesture.
I know it was only a tank top but to me it was so much more.
Thanks again, Jennifer. I love it.
What Else Do You Bring To Mexico But Burritos and Nachos?
Right before we left for Anglers Inn I made a video about my first ever tackle purchase. I hoped and prayed that what worked last year would work again this year – maybe even better.
Well hot dog, I mean hot tamale, what do you know? Mexican bass like them some Mexican baits.
I brought out the Burrito and our guide was again excited like last year. We tied it on and it only took a few casts to get some bites. The Burrito is 6 inches long, made with premium silicone plastic and comes with a pre-rigged single hook. The hook stayed intact cast after cast until I had my rod to far in the water trying not to have the fish jump, reeled the line to close to the bait and the large, and I mean large, fish jumped at the boat and took his/my dinner with her. Fortunately I had the foresight to purchase several.
A few things to mention; the bait is heavy, the fish continued to want to jump and spit the lure (lost some fish, unfortunately) and the hook needed to be sharpened after I banged it off some rocks and trees.
Later I tested out the Bull Shad Nacho, which is a little smaller and not as heavy, to see if it would improve my landing ratio.
Genius, what a difference. If the fish bit, I set the hook and got every fish to the boat. For the rest of the trip, the final four days, I used the one and only Nacho I purchased. I retied religiously and never lost it, but I’ll be buying more in this week’s Tackle Warehouse sale.
Gee whiz, I sound like a fisher person. It’s taken years but I think I’ve finally caught on.
Fishing in the Rain
A million times I have written and told you that I hate being wet and fishing in the cold is not my thing.
We feared that the final day of our Disneyland trip, I mean Anglers Inn stay, was going to get rained out. The heavy rain, thunder and lightning at 4:30 in the morning had the entire lodge in tears. And then it started to slow down and we thought, “Let’s get out there before we don’t get to go at all.”
It was good that we did, because Pete and I had the best topwater bite we have ever experienced at El Salto or in any bass fishing scenario.
Pete’s brother, Michael, was recently in Japan and brough back some crazy looking topwater crawler lures that Pete brought with to Mexico. If you can’t throw them in Mexico where are you going to throw them?
We hadn’t yet used either the Deps NZ Crawler or the Megabass I-Wing 135. Pete encouraged me to do some testing, so I immediately tied them both on different rods and started casting.
The Deps crawler was easy to cast, is light and makes a funny, funny appearance in the water. The wings go back and forth and there is a little blade on the tail that works like a propeller. Holding the rod tip higher made the bait walk its walk and the fish loved it. Strike after strike, kind of like those you get on a popper, just more violent.
If they liked the smaller crawler how would the fish like the larger crawler? They liked it a lot and the blow ups were even more amazing, even better than the ones you get on a Whopper Plopper. With the Megabass I-Wing, I found that it was easy to cast, literally flew through the air, and for this bait I found that keeping the rod tip down made the bait flap its wings and present itself correctly.
After the lure got abused by a bunch of big bass I realized that it wasn’t running correctly. The bar behind the wings was bent, but with a good pair of pliers it bends back to proper position. After that it ran properly and I caught so many more fish.
With the good Gill rain jacket (thank goodness we always bring it with) and the amazing spot we found with so many biting fish I didn’t even realize it was still raining.
Every Good Thing Must Come to an End
Historically, I’ve left Pete to deal with the tackle, rods, reels and inventory at the end of our trips and I spend the last hours conversing with our friends.
I think Pete really enjoyed our group so he asked for my help in organizing and inventorying the tackle so that we could get back to the “party” and still be ready for the next trip.
He asked my opinion on what we needed to order for next time, then we rolled our rods per his article on packing a fishing rod tube properly for airline travel. We made sure our reels were packed in our checked luggage so we didn’t have to take the line off and/or perhaps get them confiscated from Mexican security.
I felt wanted, needed and heard, that’s a good thing in a partnership.
