[Editor: this article first appeared on www.ronsfishingblog and may only be used by permission of Ron Speed]

EL SALTO REPORT

The past 10 days have been outstanding at lake El Salto in Mexico. I truly wish every bass fisherman in the USA could enjoy this great fishing at least once in their lifetime. The JW Peterson group from Texas boated over 3,000 bass during their stay. Top fisherman was the group leader who had an 11.2 lb & a 13.4 lb monster caught on white spinnerbait in 4 ft of water. Rod Anthony had an 11.7, Dan Henson had a 10.1 and a 11.4 on the 26th and Tony Cox had a 12.4lb monster. Best baits for the week were watermelon jigs, and watermelon red senkos. — Great week! Read a first-hand report from one of JW’s group: Joe Earney Testimonial.

Ing. Jesus Pinedo Ortiz, The Great Man Behind Mexico’s Great Fishing (see collage of pictures below)

This week I am going to tell you all about one of the finest men I have ever known in my life. Ing. Pinedo spent 37 years working for the Corps of Engineers in Mexico building lake dams etc. He and his wonderful wife Dona Conchita lived in Los Mochis Sinaloa.

I met Pinedo through one of my closest friends and our partner in Mexico over the last 20 years; Roberto Balderrama. In 1986 I was out of the fishing business in Mexico and was having a great time running field trial bird dogs and raising cattle in East Texas. One night I got a call from Roberto who I hadn’t talked to in several years. He wanted me to come down and visit him and at the same time he wanted me to put in a business on Lake Comedero.

I explained to Roberto that my partner in Lake Guerrero had died and I was finished with the fishing business. He then told me I owed him a 20 year favor and no doubt I did and hadn’t forgotten. He said, “I am calling in that favor now. The governor of the State has made me the Director of tourism and he wants to promote the Cosala & Lake Comedero area.”

To shorten this story I went to Mexico and went fishing with Roberto and fell in love with the lake and the people in the area. In maybe 3 months Roberto told me he had a great friend who would register the business in his name and help with all the government red tape. He said to me, “THIS MAN IS SO HONEST I WOULD PUT MY HAND IN THE FIRE FOR HIM.” That person was Ing. Pinedo and that was 20 years ago.

Pinedo was involved in ALL of the wonderful things that have happened at Comedero, El Salto, and Huites. He personally stocked the F1 Florida bass in El Salto that so many Americans have enjoyed fishing these past years.

Pinedo and I spent one summer together in Choix getting the original trailers up and over the mountain to their location in Techobampo. We spent a week together in a lake called Agua Milpa farther South from Mazatlan. Pinedo went to Mexico City and stayed over 1 month trying to obtain a fishing permit for the El Salto cooperative which we were using as guides.

Day or night Pinedo was always ready to help in any way he could and the one thing you could always count on was his word. It was as good as gold. He was very well known and liked by all the people that met him. He was famous for his honesty and respected by all who knew him. He also was very much a nationalist and knew the history of Mexico better than anyone I have ever known. He had no use for the people who cheated, lied, or did things that gave Mexico a bad name. I remember one time — maybe in 1995 — he and Conchita went to the border and visited friends or family and Pinedo bought a television to bring back to Los Mochis. When they reached the first checkpoint in Mexico on their way back, Pinedo wanted to pay the legal tax on the television. The customs guys wanted him to give them some GRAVY and go on his way. Pinedo refused to pay the bribe and so he and Conchita sat there all day. A real standoff! Eventually Pinedo won the battle and paid the legal tax. TOTALLY 100% HONEST TO THE CORE!!!!!!!!!!!

Day before yesterday I lost my great friend Ing. Jesus Pinedo as he passed away in his sleep. Of course I am so sad that it hurts me to the core but at the same time I feel so lucky to have known this great man. I can only say that I hope each one of you has the opportunity to have such a great friend in your life. If you don’t have such a friend then you have truly missed out on one of the great joys of life.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FISHING AND WEAR THAT LIFEJACKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Editor: this article first appeared on www.ronsfishingblog and may only be used by permission of Ron Speed]

THIS WEEK’S REPORT

This week’s report is from El Salto: Lake level is low which is concentrating the bass, making them easier to locate. Most boats averaging 70 to 100 bass per day. Top bass was 11lb caught by Kirk Olsen from Nebraska on a watermelon zoom lizard in 6 feet of water fishing with guide Armondo Jr.

PAST MISTAKES WITH FISHING LIMITS ON BASS

When I was a very young boy the limit of black bass was 15 bass per day per person here in Texas. At one time we even had a closed season on bass. In those days it was very unusual to go to a lake or pond and fish from the bank and not catch your limit of 15 bass.

There were not that many people bass fishing and of course most fishermen did not have a boat. Those were the great days for us bass fishermen. Lots of fish, not many fishermen and very few boats. This all began to change in the 1960s, especially with the opening of Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn lakes.

These lake were fantastic and the limit was still 15 bass per day. I was guiding on Toledo Bend out of Six Mile Marina and I and two clients would easily catch 15 bass in the morning, come to the dock, filet the bass with a wood handle Rapala filet knife, and go back out and catch another limit. That’s 45 bass in the morning and 45 bass in the afternoon or 90 bass per day. Our crazy reasoning was that the lake was so big we could never catch enough bass to hurt the lake. WRONG!!!!

When I began to take groups to Mexico in 1970 we continued to catch tons of bass and filet them so our clients could take lots of filets home to freezer burn in the deep freeze. When I moved my operation from Lake Dominguez to Lake Guerrero in 1973 we continued to kill thousands of bass and send filets home with the clients. We had no idea that we were killing a great lake and putting ourselves out of business in the long term. We continued that practice until the early 1980s.

Finally, after so many years of stupidity, we learned that we were ruining and destroying our favorite hobby. We began a policy of catch and release just in time to save our business and save the sport of bass fishing. Today, we know so much more than back in the early days. We have done a pretty good job with our guides in helping to protect the bass, at least in Lake El Salto. Thank goodness we saved our most beloved hobby just in time.

HAVE FUN WITH YOUR FISHING & WEAR THAT LIFEJACKET!!!!!!