Slow fishing, and lost lunker will be expensive.

king fisher · April 5, 2022

After what seemed like forever, I was finally able to go to my favorite lake by Tepic for two days. I got there at daylight only to see the rumors were true. A lodge at a lake close by had two guide boats taking anglers out. Oh well I guess I couldn't have my own private pond for ever. Two years was more than I expected.

I started off looking for fish on a point I like. I found some nice marks at twelve feet, and started casting a crankbait. On the third cast I hooked what I hoped was a decent bass. I horsed it to much and the hook pulled. On the next cast I hooked a bigger fish. I played it easy not wanting to loose another one. I ended up landing a huge Tilapia that was snagged in the side. It looked to be over 6 pounds easy, I didn't even know they could get that big but I realized the fish I marked were not bass.

The guide boats gave up and left around 10:30 with only a couple one pound bass. I was glad to have the place to myself, and went offshore to mark some spots with buoys, now that no one would be able to see where I fish. After fishing off shore a couple hours I realized there were no post spawn fish on the spots I caught them last year at this time.

The afternoon winds started blowing 30 kts. Most of the time when the wind blows I fish the points with crankbaits and spinnerbaits, but since I had determined most of the bass must still be in spawn mode I chose to fish some shallow protected bays.. As usual I found plenty of small bass willing to hit a chaterbait in 2-3 feet of water. Most of the bass were baby's, but some were a pound and a half giving me a little action while hid from the wind. As the wind died down I started throwing weightless 7 inch Senkos and caught a couple bass in the 2.5 pound range along with many more one pound fish. Along with the 1 to 2 pound fish, the baby 8 t0 12 inch bass were tearing up my expensive Senkos at an alarming rate, but I bought them to fish with so I forced myself to not think about the cost.

When the evening came and the wind subsided some, I put a chaterbait on and started working another stretch of shoreline on the other side of the lake. I had never caught a big bass on my only Jack Hammer, and always thought I paid way to much for a bait that only caught small bass for me. Of course on about my third cast I hooked what was easily my PB. The bass jumped once giving me a good look at her, trying to make me panic, giving her an advantage in the fight. I was able to back away from the shore and get her out in the open, where I was confident with a little time I would soon be holing my first bass in the teens. When I got her about 10 feet from the kayak she decided to jump clear out of the water, shake her monster head, and give me back my Jack Hammer. After 12 hours of hard fishing in the wind, all I had to show for my time was another big one that got away story. What was worse, For some stupid reason I decided a Jackhammer was my favorite lure and couldn't wait to order a dozen more. Now instead of giving up on a $15 lure, I am trying to decide how many colors I want to try, and which trailers I want to use on them. I didn't even land the fish and I have a new favorite big bass bait.

The next day I hooked and lost one in the 8 pound range on a 7 inch Senko fished in 2 feet of water first thing in the morning. The rest of the day I landed one to two pound bass on the Senkos while baby bass robbed me of all the ones I had. When the wind picked up, I went back to the Jackhammer and baby bass.

Two days of fishing with no big bass and an expensive Tackle Warehouse order. It just goes to show even in Mexico the fishing can be slow and the big ones get away, but I can always use more tackle.