Anglers Inn El Salto Bass Fishing Report for August 24, 2004

Report:

· Air Temp: 80-85 °F (Early Morning and late evenings) 94-100 °F (Siesta time)
· Water Temp: 84-87 °F
· Average number of bass per boat per day: 50-70
· Largest bass caught: 14.1 lbs
Popular lures used this week:

1. 8 Lizards and 10 Berkley Powerworms- Watermelon, Black with Blue tail, Blue flake, Red Shad, Motor oil.
2. Excalibur Fat Free Shad & Rapala - Deep divers - Citrus Shad, Parrot, White.
3. Spinner bait 3/4 oz. to 1 oz.  White, White / Chartreuse, Chartreuse, Shad.
4. Storm Wild Eye Swim Shads 5 -6  White, White w/ chartreuse top, Mullet, Pinfish & Shad.
5. Rico Pop R  White, White with sparkles, Silver / Black.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
While Lake El Salto only lacks a few more feet to fill up, the fishing has been red hot -especially on deep diving crankbaits. The Bill Dance Fat Free Shad in the Citrus color and the Rapala DT 16 has been producing numbers of quality and giant bass. On the first weekend of August, a group consisting of Herbie Ziegenhorn, Don Wuest and John McKay landed 30 bass in the 4-6 pound range on cranks. They fished for approximately 3 hours in the afternoon and the time went fast they said. While fishing mainly underwater islands, they would crank down on the bait and then let it pause once the bait hit the island. Then after a few more cranks  the bass would hammer it! After a while, they decided to move on to look for bigger bass (spoiled huh?). And did they find them. Throwing old faithful Storm swimbaits, they hit an underwater point that produced 6 fish over 7 pounds with the biggest weighing 9 pounds that day. The best technique to fishing the swimbait was to let it sink to the bottom and retrieve it very slow. The bigger fish would hit it hard once  and then the fight was on.
The next morning they said the topwater bite was great. Due to the rise of the lake, the bass moved close to the bank early in the morning and late in the evenings to feed on the tilapia. Herbie landed one of the biggest fish of his lifetime  an 11 pound bucket mouth on a Rico Pop R. Fishing an underwater shallow point, the group landed an estimated 25 fish on Pop rs and Chug Bugs in the early morning. Don decided to throw a 7 (Clear with silver sparkles) Senko and was glad he did. He came in with the biggest of the group topping the scales at 14.1 pounds! The bottom line is that the fishing on El Salto is a good as its always been. There have been more 10 pound plus bass caught on this lake then any other lake we are aware of. Pound for Pound  El Salto is still the champion lake. With opening date just around the corner (Oct. 1) and the bass not have seen many lures due to very few fisherman, October is going to open up with a bang for topwater fishing.