“A Tale of the Tubes”

Buenos dias, amigos!

Forgive the Spanish, but I’m just back from another bass fishing trip to Mexico’s fabulous Lake El Salto. The memories from the recent trip, like those from the times I’ve been to that bass fishing paradise before, make it hard to let go.

My close friends knew that I was heading back to El Salto. So did Jeff Staggs and Tony Tantalo, the guys who oversee the production of those fish-catching Outlaw Baits plastic lures made here in my hometown of Florence, Oregon.

I talked to them both before I left. “Stan,” they said, “is there anything special you’d like to take along on your Mexican fishing trip? Let us know if there is. We’re interested in finding out how our baits work for those bass down there south of the border.”

I did take some of the locally produced lures with me. One that I especially wanted to try was an Outlaw Bait Gitzit-style tube lure. It grabbed my interest because its color was similar to that of the tilapias that are found in Mexican lakes. One of the keys to consistent bass fishing success is matching your lures to the color of the available forage fish.

The official name of the Outlaw Baits tubes I took along to Mexico is the “Slam-it Tube.” It’s a 4-inch bait in a smoky blue color with black, blue and hologram flakes. “Look,” I said, “I don’t care what you guys call these tubes, I’m gonna call ‘em my Tilapia Tubes. I’ll let those El Salto bass have a good look at them.”

The water level in El Salto was way down when I got there in early May. It was at the lowest levels this wondrous lake has experienced since it was created. There was a good bit of apprehension among the anglers at Anglers Inn Lodge where I always stay when I visit El Salto that the low water levels would make for difficult fishing. For some of the anglers who were present it did. It wasn’t that the fish weren’t still there. They were, but they were often more difficult to find than they had been on my previous trips. And like bass fishing anywhere, even when you did find them you had to determine the best means of getting them to hit.

I managed to take a 10-pound, 4-ounce beauty the evening of the first day I fished. That one came on a Stan’s Spin spinnerbait. Yes, that’s the spinnerbait the folks at Mack’s Lure hung my name on a couple of years back. I’ve been experimenting with a revised model of that lure. That’s what that big one smacked and I’ll have more about it in a later column.

That first day I also got a couple of fish on the blue Outlaw Baits tube. I showed the lure to some of the other fishermen at dinner that night. “You throwin’ a tube?” one guy snorted. “These Mexican bass want a mouthful. You can’t beat a 10-inch Power Worm. I’ve don’t even carry tube baits for my El Salto fishin’. Those things just won’t get the job done down here.”

I didn’t argue with that guy. As a matter of fact, big plastic worms and lizards are a good bet at El Salto. But I learned a long, long time ago it’s best to let the fish indicate what they want rather than listening to some dude who figures he has all the answers before making his first cast.

One of the keys on the recent trip was finding where fish were holding. El Salto is loaded with submerged timber. Those treetops poking above the surface all look the same. You could fish these trees for a couple of hours without a bump. Then you might find a spot where you could take 15 fish without moving the boat.

My companion on the latest El Salto adventure was Mike Pedersen, of Longview, WA. I introduced Mike to bass fishing when he still had lots of moisture behind his ears. He’s turned into a darn good bass fisherman. Now that he’s an accomplished angler there are few things he’d rather do than kick my butt any time we share a bass boat. Now and then he does. It didn’t happen this time around.

My pal, Mike, like that guy at dinner, figured he could catch El Salto bass on a 10-inch worm if he could catch them on anything. He did get some fish on one of those lures in a black with a blue tail. But it didn’t take Mike long to get weary of watching me boat more fish and larger fish on my Outlaw Baits tubes.

We both threw the blue tubes most of the time on our final day at El Salto. We put a total of 46 bass in the boat during the day. Forty of those fish were caught on the Outlaw Baits Tilapia Tube. Those fish weren’t dinks. The largest I caught on the tube weighed an even 8-pounds. There were a bunch of others from 3-pounds to 7-pounds. Every one of those fish went right back into the water as soon as we got them unhooked. We lost least one fish for every one we boated. Getting them to the boat was a real chore because they were holding 15 to 20-feet down in submerged timber. Those weights for those fish aren’t “guesstimates.” The larger fish were carefully weighed on Boga Grip scales. If you’ve used them, you’re aware they are one of the most accurate portable scales you can find.

I’ve had some great fishing in past trips to El Salto. Despite the low water, the last one ranks up there with the others. The tube lures produced by Outlaw Baits right here in my hometown had much to do with it. I rigged them with 3/0 to 5/0 Gamakatsu wide gap hooks and fished them behind a 7/16 th-ounce slip sinker. The heavy weight was required because of the depth at which the fish were holding.

While the El Salto water level may be low, the level of service at beautiful Anglers Inn Lodge is as high as ever. I’ve had the good fortune to visit fishing lodges over a sizeable chunk of the world during the past half century. Darn few match the operation Billy Chapman Jr. has put together smack on the shore of the best bass lake the world has ever known.

I’m still find myself with a self-satisfied grin when I recall my dinner companion’s negative comments about my Tilapia Tubes that first evening. I made sure to tell him about our results with it before we parted company. I’ve got reason to believe he’ll have a whole bag full of them himself next time he heads south of the border. So will me’n my pal, Mike.

In the meantime I’m fixin’ to let the bass in this area also get a look at ‘em!

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