By Richard “Cassman Castaneda
JAN. 10 TO 14,2020
Wow what a trip!!! This was our fourth large mouth bass fishing trip to Bill Chapman Sr.’s Lake El Salto Lodge and what a trip it was, the lake is located about 80 miles north of Mazatlan. We had 14 fun and great anglers in the group, coming from the San Diego area were Kit Kantner, Joe Balestari, Cory Sanden, Steve 
Jellison, John Epler, Duane Bernard, Mike Seewald and Dan Kirby; Joe Harris from Long Beach; from Orange County were Dr. Bob Blum, Mike Gruhn and Mark Foster; and Jim Tobin from Santa Barbara. Hosting the trip with me was Cory Sanden who is a co-host on the Let’s Talk Hook Up radio show with Pete Gray and Rock Cod Maxa airing on 97.3fm “The Fan” every Saturday and Sunday from 7:00am to 9:00am. I might add that Cory is the owner of MC Swim Baits which manufactures soft plastic lures for both fresh and saltwater. Cory handed out a handful of swim baits to everyone in our group which I found worked great and produced lots of bass for me.
I had the pleasure of fishing for 3 1/2 days with Cory an accomplished bass fisherman, he took me unde
r his wing and gave some great bass fishing tips which surely made me a better bass fisherman, thanks amigo! The man is a fishing machine, on one stretch of shore about two blocks long he hooked and released an estimated 40+ bass all on his 4” swim bait. Amazing to watch!
I want to thank Carmen who is Bill Chapman Sr’s daughter and her husband Carlos (the managers at the lodge) for being great hosts and the staff for the great service and food th
ey once ag
ain provided us. Talking about the food it was again delicious with good portions, our last night they served T-bone steaks, I swear mine must have weighed close to 2 pounds, yikes! I’m sure everyone came home with a bigger waistline. Jesus the assistant manager made sure the margarita glass stayed full and beer ice cold. Salud!
The lake was in
great shape and the weather near perfect, over the three and one half days of fishing everyone was scoring great numbers of bass with some boats having 100+ fish days. This year the quality was also better than past years with lots of 4 to 7 pound fish caught along with a few 8lb, 9lb and one 10lb caught by Joe Balestari w
ho fishes for Loomis Edge Rods and one 11.85lb jumbo bass caught by Kit Kantner who fishes for Okuma. Great trip boys!
