Hola Huites
By Larry Bozka
page 2

Bear in mind here, I spent the better part of the morning shooting photographs. No photographer in his right mind could come here and resist firing frame after frame of these bright blue waters accented by the magnificent mountain backdrop of Mexico's Sierra Madre mountain range. Caracaras-commonly known as "Mexican eagles"-soar above the rocky, cactus-studded shoreline while ospreys flying reconnaissance nearby, dive and snatch unsuspecting baitfish from the surface.

By any estimation this is a beautiful place. But if you're a bass fisherman, it's downright breathtaking.

Neves, who by his own admission is still a ways from turning pro bass angler, has caught so many fish that his hamburgered right thumb is beginning to bleed. By day two, in an effort to defuse the pain, he dons the Jim Bitter "Lip Grip'r" I brought along (see sidebar). Middleton, meanwhile, is fussing that the fishing isn't as good as it has been during the past few weeks. The lake level is dropping around a foot a day-a fact that, on just about any other impoundment I know of, would produce a case of largemouth lock-jaw that even Rick Clunn couldn't counter.

Yet, the fish keep right on hitting.

Better yet, they hit almost everything we throw at 'em. There's a new bait out called the "Mr. Wiggly." Middleton tosses the big soft plastic shad imitation into a rocky cove and connects-you guessed it-on his first cast. Neves ties on a Chug Bug; I go with a Zara Spook. Both topwaters get hammered, time and time again.

Worms? Heck, worm fishing on this lake is outright cheating.

Notice to lure designers: If your "hot new bait" won't catch fish on Lake Huites, give it up. Go back to the drawing board and start over. This lake reminds me of Guerrero in its heyday, with the notable exception that the average fish we're catching today weighs 3 pounds and is finger-thick at the base of its bright green tail. The lake record stands at 12 pounds-a native bass that was apparently already in residence in the Rio Fuerte River prior to the lake's construction in 1994. Several other bass in the 10-pound range have been taken in the past six months.

Lake Huites (pronounced "Wee-Tez") officially opened to the public on Oct. 1, 1997. Situated in the Sinaloa Province, near the ancient town of El Fuerte, it lies approximately 100 miles south of Copper Canyon in the Sierra Madre Occidentals. The surrounding mountain peaks pierce the sky at heights up to 6,500 feet and stare down at 28 miles and roughly 30,000 acres of fish-filled water.

Lake Huites is fed by five different small rivers, and spreads off into various directions for miles. The diversity of structure you find here is equivalent to the diversity of baits with which you can catch the resident bass.

The water clarity is outstanding, ranging from 3 to 8 feet, and anywhere you go you are faced with different structure scenarios-steep and rocky shoreline bluffs, heavily-wooded coves and deep-water rockpiles and humps. It's a lake for anglers of all skills and for lures of all sorts. And for the time being at least, it's the hottest piece of largemouth bass fishing terrain on the planet.