Date: November 12th, 2009
Name: Lake Baccarac
Hottest Baits: Senkos wacky style, crankbaits ... not much topwater yet
Hottest Colors: Watermelon
Date Fished: Nov 8th - Nov. 12th
Comments: This was my sixth trip to Mexico, my second trip to Lake Baccarac, the first trip being in 2005. This experience was the best I have ever had. Forget about the lodge being beautiful and the food being great. The first two days on the lake, fishing by myself with one of the local guides, I was amazed at the numbers of bass that could be caught. I could have easily caught 100 largemouth on day one and day two, although most were in the 1 to 3 1/2 lb. range. I did manage to eek out a couple of 8 lb. bass. But it seemed like every point, you could have mined for fish for hours. We fished mostly the first two days 6 inch watermelon lizards, throwing close to the bank and working out to 14 feet of water. Very few casts did not produce a bass.
The third day, however, was an unbelievable day on the water. I heard the prodding and joking around the camp from Narlin Salazar directed at his brother Manuel that the recent story being written about Manuel about him being anointed as the king of big bass in Mexico So I asked Manuel if he would be my fishing partner on day three. Lucky for me, he chose to forego his obligations to the lodge and insisted that his brother Narlin go as a guide and from that point forward, brotherly joking and ribbing never stopped. After trying some early topwater with no success and Manuel joking and telling his brother that it was time for a different guide, Manuel directed the boat towards a little cove up the river.
We made several casts and caught several fish and before anybody realized it, we might have had 40 fish in the boat with the biggest bass being 4 1/2 lbs. So with my limited Spanish, I requested that Manuel find me a big fish. He responded back, I have already found the bass; I'm just waiting for you to catch them! And I explained to him, well, so far, they have only been small. Manuel said, okay, I will catch one big one for you. He made a long cast over the point out in just a little bit deeper water and I would not have believed this if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes; he brings in a 9.8 lb. bass.
From that point forward, I was amazed at the number of big fish that Manuel caught almost on demand. That day's total in our boat, myself fishing out of the front, Manuel fishing out of the back and Narlin guiding us, we caught in excess of 160 fish - 14 bass over 8 lbs., three fish over 9 lbs. and two bass over 10 lbs. Manuel Salazar is the king of big bass.
