Don Iovino's
El Salto Bass Fishing Adventure!

April 2004 Update!

The fish you are about to see were caught in April, 2004 during a 20 day period of guiding at El Salto. The gentleman in the pictures are Russ Malmsbury of California and Charles Itzig of Arkansas. They were good guys as well as good fisherman. While the weather was hot at this time of year, the fishing proved to be even hotter!

These fish were caught using 20# test Sensation line, 5/8 oz Weapon Swimming Jigs in Chartreuse / Brown, Yamamoto 5 inch Chartreuse Doubletail Trailers, 1/2 oz Tilapia color spinnerbaits from Nichols Lures, and 5" Pearl Storm Swim Baits.

The fish were suspended in the channel and around isolated trees in 35 to 100 feet of water. Using Lowrance Electronics I was able to determine the thermalcline where there was a concentration of 5" - 6" shad at about 24' which proved to be the attack depth on the suspended Bass. They were suspended about 24 feet over the 35' to 100' foot depth range when we found them casting the swimming Weapon jigs in the 5/8 oz size, 1/2 oz Nichols Tilapia Spinnerbait and 5" Storm Swim Bait. We did a countdown of 20 and started the retrieve and they hit like a bull going in the opposite direction!

This trip proved to be some of the finest fishing I have ever experienced in my 30 years plus of bass fishing! To be able to catch suspended fish of this size and quantity was an experience of a lifetime not only for me, but for Russ Malmsbury and Charles Itzig as well. Russ's five fish limit was over 53 pounds! This was ligitimate weight, not guides weight! The catch was weighed on a Berkley Digital Scale.

** Update **

I stayed one extra day and took a gentleman named Kip Brees from Prescott Valley, AZ on the lake. He wanted me to help him better understand his electronics. Fortunately for me he had a Lowrance 104 LCD up front. These pictures that you are about to see shows the biggest school of Largemouth Bass that I ever witnessed on a sonar unit! This proves once and for all the fish are still there. They're just smarter, and have learned to migrate and feed on the shad instead of the tilapia. Due to the vast amount of netting on the lake, the tilapia are almost extinct forcing the bass to adapt to foraging on the migrating shad away from the nets in open water. Without electronics or knowing how to interprit them these fish would be very difficult to catch.

You would not believe the amount of 8lb to 10lb fish we caught that day if I told you. The only people that know are the ones that were there. And when it was over and the sun was setting in the bueatiful Mexican sky, we could only conclude that it was a dream of a lifetime.

Tight Lines,
Don Iovino







Here are the pictures of Kip Brees and two beautiful bass caught with a Nichols 1/2 oz Tilapia Spinner Bait while the fish were suspended. These pictures are of Kip's Lowrance 104 Sonar Unit just before taking the fish. This is the biggest school of big bass and shad suspended over 35' to 102' of water. As I stated before, El Salto is not dead! The fish are just smarter and can be taken if you learn to interprit your sonar electronics and proper presentation of the baits in the attack area. Kip went out the next day and fished the suspended fish and weighed in a 44.5 lb limit! P.S. Pictures do not lie, what you see is what you get!





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