Lake Huites, Mexico - Nov 4-5

View Entry's Photo Album

Back to Journal Index

After the beach, we went down the coastal highway toward Lake Huites for some Mexican bass fishing in the state of Sinoloa.

Lago Huites is a relatively new bass lake, impounded in the early 1990s. The lake is more known for numbers fishing – meaning you can catch 100 fish a day – but there are certainly trophy bass as well.

On the way down, we stopped at a Wal-mart for some gear and noticed a bunch of bass boats in the parking lot.

They were Mexican bass fisherman heading from Sonora to meet their buddies from Chihauhua at Lago Huites for a big fishing party, told us to find them in town, and wished us luck.

That night we pushed on and spent the night in Hermosillo, in a cheap place on the right just as you enter town.

In the morning, made tracks for the town of Choix, stopping along the roadside for cheap tacos in Fuertes. I believe it was 5 pesos per taco, so that’s $2.10 for three yummy tacos and grilled sides. Cheap!

Finding the lake was more difficult than imagined. Signs aren’t exactly everywhere. At each crossroads we’d stick our heads out the windows and ask a local which way.

Finding a guard station below the dam with soldiers who looked like heavy dudes, we asked for more directions. “Mas alla, a la derecha, mas alla!” And so guys Latin directions. (“Farther, to the right, farther!).

The road became dirt. Then it got rough. Then there were 4x4 parts to the road. Surely we were off track and this wasn’t the road our Mexican friends had taken their beautiful new Skeeters and Rangers over. No way could they even pass this road!

Yet finally, we rounded the last corner and found the lake. And what was that down there? Five trucks and trailers!

We didn't catch too many the first day as we got down there pretty late. Pulling out we helped out a guy get out of the "boat ramp" that was only a sand road.

We sat around and BS’d with our new friends, and were invited to a big party at the restaurant that they were all going to.

Looking back on this, we should’ve picked up more about Central American (or rather, non-American) culture. They were just all hanging out, messing around, waiting on filleting, etc. Not wasting time, necessarily, because there was nothing to do in town that was being waited on, but just taking time slowly.

A couple of times we were going to leave, and Ramon or Luis would say, “Oh, we’re almost ready… Don’t worry…” etc. Basically, “just chill” is what he was saying.

I suppose the point here is that if you’re vacationing, slow down and enjoy it. Slow down and enjoy the moment of what you’re doing. Not jump back in the truck just because there’s “nothing left to do here.” and speeding off to the next thing – in our case there was nothing else to do but take a shower and find some food, and therefore their advice should’ve been more heeded.

Over the trip, we got better at just chilling. It was the hardest for Kyle – who is a go-go-go type of person.

We ended up leaving a little before them, and this was actually a very good idea. Those guys drove like lunatics! We’d ease over the rocks, and those dudes came blasting around corners and zooming through the trail.

They told us later that they keep two spares per truck, but swear that they never need them. I didn’t believe it for a second.

We met for dinner at the restaurant, and had two large, long tables for us, and I don’t think anyone else was there. After dinner, one of the guys broke open his special bottle of tequila, some excellent vintage.

And though we all know better than to start doing tequila shots with a bunch of seasoned Mexican fellows, we did. The tequila was quite good – and besides, we couldn’t insult our new friends! The other table got up to leave, and left our table of us and Ramon, Luis, and a few others. Turns out the other table paid for our whole table, too!

And that’s the essence of these men. They get together a few times a year for a few days or a week or two, fish, bond, and have fun together. They trade stories, they show each other up, they buy the best bottle of tequila they can find so they can share it. And they all want to have the best bottle of tequila, because in the sharing is the bonding.

It was a great end to the night.

That next day we caught over 100 bass, and many of five pounds plus size. They hit everything. Sluggos killed them. I pulled a seven plus pounder out of the shallows with a buzz bait. All three of us caught US trophy size.

The water was beautiful, and the surrounds were breathtaking. There are giant rock faces, narrow canyons, little back waters, open grass flats, sticks, humps, drops… This lake has structure.

That day we didn’t bring any beers with us, and we saw our friends late in the day and buzzed over to say hello.

“Nessitan cervezas they called?” Heck yeah!

We'd been invited to party again with our friends, and we met them in front of their hotel. One of the things that they brought was a load of excellent steak that they'd brought from Sonora. I can't remember the exact circumstances, but Luis works in the cheese business and so does Herman, so someone got a great meat...

We cooked out front of the hotel and made fajitas all night, drinking and having a great time talking of fishing, women, fishing, Mexico, fishing... It really was spectacular.

The next day we left for Mazatlan, and were sad to see our friends go. We'll certainly meet them again at Lake Huites.