Grilled lunch at Anglers Inn.

In 1985, Billy Jr. stocked 200,000 Florida-strain largemouth fry from a fish hatchery in Houston into the newly formed Lake El Salto. He opened a mobile lodge at El Salto in 1990 and has been on the lake for most of the 15 years since. He briefly moved his lodge to Lake Comedero in 1993 and 1994 and to Lake Huites in 1997 and 1998, but he didn’t have the success he had hoped for, so he returned to El Salto each time.

Formed by the damming of the Elota River, Lago El Salto has 45 miles of shoreline and numerous rocky islands to fish around. There are plenty of submerged mesquite tree forests and hilltops, creek channels and a couple of flooded cemeteries. Forage sources include tilapia, as well as threadfin and gizzard shad and crawfish. The lake varies from about 24,000 surface acres at full pool to 16,000 at the end of the dry season in May or June. Day-to-day water levels are fairly consistent, as the lake is not connected to another lake and the only water leaving is for irrigation of the fields around the area. On a chain of lakes, such as Lake Dominguez at the bottom, then Lake Hidalgo and finally Lake Huites above, water can be released quickly from one of the upper “holding-type” reservoirs to fill a lower one.

“That can affect the levels greatly,” says Chappy. “I’ve seen the water fluctuate 30 feet overnight on Huites when Hidalgo needed water and got it.”

Agua Milpa is the newest Mexican lake, and Chapman has property there, but the government is building another lake above it called El Cajon. It may be 4 to 6 years away from completion, and that lake will be a holding lake for Agua Milpa, according to Chappy. Consequently, it will fluctuate a lot more than the lower lake, and the Chapmans decided not to operate at Agua Milpa for the time being.

“We always ended up coming back to El Salto,” says Billy Jr., “and until there is a better Mexican lake to fish, I’m not moving anywhere.”

FS