The Dallas Morning News Ray Sasser Column: Bass Fishing, Muy Caliente
By Ray Sasser, The Dallas Morning News
Feb. 11–COSALA, Mexico — Like all fishermen, the osprey perched atop a lofty saguaro cactus did not appreciate being crowded. Ron Speed’s fishing boat interrupted the fish eagle’s breakfast. With its catch of the day in tow, the regal osprey flew circles around the boat, protesting loudly until we moved out of the bird’s fishing hole.
Lake Comedero is a 25,000-acre paradise for osprey, which seem to prefer tilapia, and American sport fishermen, who lean toward largemouth bass. The irrigation lake was created by damming a river canyon of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in the state of Sinaloa, north of Mazatlan.
Three hundred feet deep at the dam, the lake level fluctuates a hundred feet or more annually, refilling in the rainy season to create a new-lake affect each year. Rising water covers a forest of live, thorny brush that snags lures and saws like broken glass against the toughest fishing lines.
There were four fishing boats sharing the 25,000 acres with at least 100 osprey. A rustling sound on a steep, brushy hillside caught my attention and I looked, half expecting to see Humphrey Bogart leading a string of pack mules.
Instead, the noise was made by a foraging coati, a raccoon-like omnivore with a pointy snout. A chachalaca, a drab, pheasant-sized bird, was scolding the coati, as was a raucous white-throated magpie jay, a brilliantly-colored blue bird with a tail as long as a kite.
On a nearby brushy point, I cast a green plastic lizard that my Mexican fishing guide called “iguana verde” and let it settle into a thorny underwater brushpile. The solid “thump” of a bass eating the lure was transmitted through my rod and I set the hook on my own catch of the day, an acrobatic 7-pounder.
Speed, 67, grinned at the fishing action. The smile was mischievous and gave his pleasant demeanor an elf-like quality. His affable personality is misleading, however. In 1971, Speed walked away from a successful high school football coaching career, which had stops at Hereford, Bandera, Malakoff, Goliad and Hemphill. He rolled the dice on an outfitting business that evolved into the aptly-named Ron Speed’s Adventures.
Those adventures have taken Speed throughout Mexico, Canada, Central and South America. He’s the fishing equivalent of Indiana Jones, always on the lookout for the Holy Grail of bass fishing. Lake Comedero is Speed’s favorite bass lake, and it’s the most stunningly beautiful place that I’ve ever fished for largemouth bass.
We left Dallas in an ice storm that delayed our flight while the plane was de-iced, and landed on Mexico’s west coast in balmy temperatures. It takes three hours to drive from Mazatlan to Comedero, the last half of the journey covering about 40 miles on a switchback mountain road that turns from potholed asphalt to potholed gravel about six miles from the lake.
You have to drive right past Lake El Salto and travel another 90 minutes to reach Comedero. Eight out of 10 Americans prefer to stop at El Salto, a 10,000-acre lake that’s also known for great bass fishing.
“Comedero is a unique situation because there’s almost no sport fishing pressure,” Speed said. “We’ll have about 150 fishermen on the lake this season, no more than 12 boats at a time. Because of these mountains, there are only two places where you can gain access to the lake. I doubt we’ll ever see another outfitter up here.”
Fishing on the February full moon, Speed fully expected us to catch a lot of big bass, but it didn’t work out that way. A cool front had just blown through, and the weather had been unusually cool for the region. Perfect weather for humans, the early February temperature ranged from 50 degrees at daylight to 85 in the heat of the day. The cloudless blue skies looked good to the fishermen, but the bright sun slowed the fishing.
“This is the slowest I’ve ever seen this lake,” lamented Speed. “Even in Mexico, it’s still bass fishing, and it’s hard to predict what fish will do.”
Slow by Mexico standards would be great in Texas public waters. The six members of our party averaged about 25 bass daily. There weren’t many big bass but somebody landed an 8-pounder every day.
Since 1973, I’ve visited most of the great Mexico lakes. When the fishing is hot, it’s so good that anyone who can hit the water with a lure catches lots of fish. Fishing in Mexico doesn’t magically transform a mediocre angler into a tournament pro, however.
In the glory days of Lake Guerrero, B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott started his own fishing operation. Scott soon gave it up. In Guerrero’s early years, it was known as a lake where you could catch 100 fish a day. When fishermen complained to Scott that they’d caught only 90 fish a day, he wisely decided he was in the wrong business.
Speed has the right idea in calling his Malakoff, Texas-based company Ron Speed’s Adventures. Fishing in a foreign country should be an adventure. Fishing is a good excuse for traveling south of the border, but you’re missing the point if you don’t slow down a notch, bask in the sunshine, marvel at your surroundings, enjoy the wildlife and learn something about the culture of remote Mexico.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Dallas Morning News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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