Welcome to the New Year’s edition of the Anglers Inn International fishing report!

We are pleased to report that all of our fisheries are in historically excellent condition. Whether you’re looking to catch your personal best largemouth or the peacock of a lifetime, please don’t delay in booking your dream trip. With the economy strong and fishing on fire, prime dates even for next year are already filling up.

After several seasons of tricky weather, we’re having an exceptional season in the Amazon. Billy Chapman Jr. led trips to Anglers Inn Amazon destinations during the months of November and December.  Michael Whitlow joined Billy on one of those trips along with other anglers from California, New Hampshire and Texas, and all of them were treated to perfect conditions, and of course world-class peacock action. Pete Jameson led the big fish brigade with a 24-pound behemoth, followed closely by Whitlow who had a 22, 20 and a 19. The group as a whole caught crazy numbers of double-digit peacocks among the over 1,800 fish caught by the six anglers.

“Our best lures were the Rebel Jumpin’ Minnow and a hair jig,” Whitlow reported. “We also caught quite a few on miscellaneous topwaters, and we probably hooked and lost as many as we hooked.” Another lure that produced consistently was the X-Rap Minnow. Their catch consisted of a mixture of multiple different peacock species but most of the big ones were of the three bar variety.

They focused on current breaks, sand bars and the backs of lagoons. Our guides chainsawed them into the back of one hard-to-access lagoon that was flat loaded with teen class fish, and the St. Croix rods, Abu Garcia reels and 65 and 80 lb. test Spiderwire braid handled admirably.

That lead group was followed into the jungle by several more that experienced comparable success, and we’ll have a few more this month. Stay tuned for exciting news about the 2018-19 season in Brazil. We have some new ideas up our sleeves that will allow us to remain at the forefront of this incredible watershed.

Of course Lake El Salto remains our most popular destination, and with good reason – it continues to pump out both numbers and big fish to beginners and pro anglers alike. Dave Shatto had been to Anglers Inn El Salto multiple times previously, but in December he brought his 10 year old son Evan for the first time. They fished hard, and in the course of the three and a half days on the water managed to land 425 bass per their guide’s counter.

“Evan fished green Senkos everywhere and he hammered the fish all day long, every day,” Dave said. His two best fish were 7-06 and 6-04, and in pictures they look almost as big as him. While Evan was happy to stick with Senkos, he borrowed one of the lodge’s new St. Croix 7’11” glass crankbait rods and quickly became enamored of catching big bass on 6XDs and 10XDs.

They also experienced solid action early with white flukes and with Swim Senkos Texas-rigged behind a ¼ ounce bullet weights, as well as by Carolina rigging blue Skinny Dippers.

“I’d Carolina Rig and he’s throw a Texas Rig and we’d each catch about the same number,” Dave reported. “We also used swimbaits on ½ and ¾ ounce swimbait heads, bouncing them through the rocks like a Carolina Rig.”

It was Dave’s fifth trip to Anglers Inn El Salto and Evan’s first, but we’re a little doubtful that Dave will ever get to go solo again. Asked to rate the trip on a scale of one to ten, Evan gave it an emphatic “10.” The fishing was excellent, the company was better and he was certainly happy to leave the sub-freezing temperatures of Chicago behind.

Ty Russell has been to the lake at least a dozen times, but this trip he brought a new guest – his wife – and made her a convert, too. She’s fished before, but she’s not quite as ardent as him, so he put a Carolina Rig in her hands and she went to work, catching multiple quality fish, including a 7 ½ pound beast.

“We only weight four of my fish that I thought needed weighing,” Ty said. “They were all over 8 on Pepe’s scales. I caught a lot of other fish anywhere from 4 pounds to 7 pounds all on a ¾ ounce black and blue football jig, mostly on points and bluffs.” They didn’t experience much of a cranking bite, but they did have some excellent sessions on topwater and swim jigs. Ty reported that they caught approximately 150 fish over three and a half days, and he said that another group of four in camp had 607 fish over the duration of their stay.

Michael Lupo made his third trip. Like Ty, he didn’t need to escape the frigid cold of Chicago, and he also did best dragging a jig – in his case a 5/8 ounce black one with a purple twin tail grub on the back. He averaged 80 to 100 fish a day, and had four over 7 pounds. His main piece of advice to first timers is to convey to your guide whether you’re in pursuit of size or numbers, and adjust your presentations accordingly.

Mike Chen said that his group had a 10 ½ and multiple eights and sevens. “We got bit on Rio Ricos in shad every morning and evening. We mixed in dark Chatterbaits with Swim Senko trailers in the morning as the bass were missing the poppers when it was still dark. Later in the day we did a variety of stuff, lizards and 10” Berkley Power worms mostly.” He also advised that anglers bring plenty of Swimbaits. His group didn’t have many and “went through those fast, so we tried to salvage them but alas, they didn’t last a day.” They also found one pocket loaded with spooky tilapia where a chartreuse sexy shad 2.5 square bill produced bass “on every other cast.”

Remember, our goal is to make your trip as hassle-free as possible, and one step in that direction is that we now have loaner rods for everyone to use at no cost. Thanks to our newly-developed partnership, our lodges now have a varied supply of St. Croix rods. “They made fishing pure pleasure,” said one recent guest. These technique-specific rods are the real deal, folks, and we are committed to giving you the best possible tools to land that fish of a lifetime. You don’t need to travel with a heavy and burdensome rod tube anymore if you don’t want to.

Because El Salto has been on such a tear the past few years, some of our guests may have overlooked the burgeoning fishery at Picachos. That might be a mistake, because while everyone knows it as the “numbers” lake, it’s now coming into its own as a trophy fishery. We’re seeing more and more big fish every week. It’s just 1 hour from the Golden Zone of Mazatlan, so it’s even perfect for day trips, but for you hard-core guys, if you can’t decide which lake to visit, a combo trip is the way to go.

If you haven’t seen it already, be sure to click on our new website at www.anglersinn.com at your earliest convenience. We’ve had it up for most of 2017, and so far the feedback has been tremendous – especially from guests who’ve found pictures of themselves with big fish gracing the site. Our theme is “Making Every Angler’s Dream Come True,” and while our web presence is no substitute for a trip to Mexico or Brazil, it’s the next best thing and a valuable tool for planning your next trip.

Just as we set the standard for international fishing trips, we want to set the standard online, too. The new site includes information about all of our properties, pricing and bios of our staff. We also update it regularly with new videos on our “Anglers Inn TV” channel, and provide detailed monthly reports like this one.

Whether it’s your first trip to an Anglers Inn property or your 20th, we hope that this site will provide all of the information that you need, but if it doesn’t we’re always just a phone call or email away.

While we often provide a generalized list of lures that work throughout the year, there are times when specific bites are ongoing and we don’t ever want you to arrive under gunned. Monitor the website and social media for updated info, and if you’re ever in doubt about what you need to bring, please call us at 1-800-GOTA FISH (1-800-468-2347) or email us at info@anglersinn.com . We want to make sure that you’re outfitted properly to make the most of your vacation.

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