We hosted 11 fine gentlemen from the great state of Louisiana this past week.  They came in on a 3 day fishing trip and of the 11, 6 of them in spite of windy weather and the moon in the wrong place and a fishing tournament taking place, caught the largest bass they have ever caught.  One gentleman has been bass fishing for 60+ years.  This says a lot about this lake.  Also, rumor has it that next season we’ll again be the only bass lodge on this beautiful 55,000 acre lake.  An almost private lake only one hour from the Culiacan International Airport.  Because of this make sure you book through an authorized booking agent.  All of our agents have signed a booking agreement with us and we know them to be reliable.  If you have any doubts, simply give us a call or an e-mail.  If your agent whom you like to use is not on our list we will contact them and see if they can be so you may continue to use your preferred agent of choice.

My last 10 days on Lake Mateos proved to be quite different from any of my past trips.  We had 17 people in camp including Colby Simms and his dad from Simms Outdoors, and Harry and Cathy Canterbury from ASO Magazine, and Pete & Hanna Robbins, Pete is a Travel Writer for publications such as BassZone, Wired2Fish.com, InsideLine.com to name a few.
 
Our first two days started off with overcast skies and moderate temperatures.  Although the passing front did slow the bite down some, there were still catches of 100 fish per day.  The weather then cleared and the pace picked up.  I love to try and determine what pattern the fish are on.  This proved to be quite a challenge this time around.  Why?  Because as I got the report from each boat daily, I had to ask myself this question:  Were these guys on the same lake, the same day or did they carry their boat over land to someplace else?  Allow me to explain.
 
One boat with two fishermen would come in ranting and raving that the topwater bite was fantastic and lasted all day on poppers and buzz baits.  They caught very little on anything else.  The second boat would come in and say the top water bite only lasted an hour and they used spinner baits and did great.  The third boat reports in and says the morning bite was nonexistent but at about 10:00 a.m. they started landing fish after fish using worms.  They couldn’t get the fish to hit on anything but worms.  The fourth boat comes in and reports they caught fish all day, not fast, but all day using spinner baits in shallow water.  The fifth boat comes in and claims the bait of the day was swim baits in 25 to 35 ft. of water.  These types of reports continued as the next boats came in all with completely different fishing reports.  Some boats would only catch 2 to 5 pounders, others nothing less than 4 to 8 pounders.  Some caught 20 fish all day some caught up to 120 fish per day.  Not one of the reports matched.
 
This was driving me absolutely crazy because how do you send a good fishing report to the website with such a conflict of information?  Finally, with help from a fisherman who was also a wildlife biologist, we nailed this thing.  You see Lake Mateos is a very large lake some 55,000 acres.  It is also a very diversified lake offering all kinds of fishing habitats.  These factors make for multiple fishing patterns that can go on all at the same time.  So, how do you fish this lake?
 
1.  Expect a fish with every cast.
2.  Use good gear especially the line.  We recommend Shakespeare’s Spiderwire Stealth Braid 40 to 55 pound.  This is a good durable line with great casting ability.  It does not backlash often and when it does the backlash comes out easily.
3.  Fish with lures you have confidence in.  I prefer Rat-L-Trap, Laserlure Poppers with feathers, Spinnerbaits in Chartreuse by Colby Simms, Bomber Model A Lures in white and black or orange and yellow, watermelon lizards and buzz baits.  These lures produce 95% of what I catch and out of this selection, I usually cannot only get bass but bass with a good average weight, say a 4 pound average and over 100 fish.
4.  Learn to pick and hit your target.  Placement of your lure is critical if you want a trophy bass.  Of the 17 fishermen and fisherwomen, 5 of them caught their biggest bass ever this week, and placement was critical.
5.  Change your presentation if fast is not working, go slow, and then go slower and finally slower.  These fish fight very hard because they are healthy, the water is clean (not polluted), and warm and food is plentiful.  Most of the time they like to check you out before they hit.  I do not know why, it is a Mexican thing.  I just know slow works better most of the time.
6.  Talk to the other fishermen at camp.  The more people in your group or at camp the quicker you can pick up on what the fish are doing.
7.  Be ready to change or move.  These fish move around in the lake so they may or may not be in the same place tomorrow.
8.  Come prepared, pack in advance, check your gear.
9.   Expect to have the best fishing trip you have ever had, great food and fantastic service.
10. Don’t forget your camp staff and guides.  A lot of people work behind the scenes to make your trip a success.  Your generosity only makes them work harder for you and the group that follows.
 
Hopefully, these tips will make your trip the very best it can be.  We cannot make the fish bite, the rain stop, the sun to be cooler, or the wind to slow down.  However, the snow is always on hold and our guides and camp staff will do their best to make your trip the best fishing trip you have ever taken.