Stan Fagerstrom
09-28-2005, 08:56 AM
Melton’s Mexican Miracle
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part 1
This sort of thing just doesn’t happen---but it did!
Pull up a stool because I’m about to share the story of how a soft-spoken gentleman from West Virginia had a week of bass fishing that very likely is the best ever recorded anytime and anywhere.
The angler I’m writing about is Les Melton, of Charleston. The place is Mexico’s fabled El Salto Lake. Odds are if you follow bass fishing as close as the rest of us plug-pitching nuts, you probably already know a bit about both. El Salto, of course, is thought by most to be the best bass lake that’s ever existed. Melton, the vice president of the Charleston Medical Center, is a recognized bass fishing expert. He’s been at it all his life.
http://www.ifish.net/sfles1.jpg
Most bass fishermen will never catch a 10-pound bass. Les Melton nailed 27 of that size or larger at Mexico's Lake El Salto in May.
If you’ve read material I’ve already provided for the Anglers Inn web site you may recall stories I’ve written before about Melton’s angling success. The last time I did a column about him, I thought probably his fish-catching experience I was detailing at the time might never be topped. I was wrong. I guess it’s fair to say that when it’s El Salto bass fishing you’re talking about---darn near anything is possible!
But not even veteran guides at Anglers Inn, and they’re among the best anywhere, were prepared for what Melton did on that beautiful Mexican Lake the last week in May. Statistics are usually on the boring side. I guarantee the statistics that follow won’t bore experienced bass fishermen. What follows, my friends, are the carefully recorded records of what the West Virginia big bass specialist accomplished in just seven days on his last visit to El Salto Lake:
Total number of bass caught……………………………….. 607
Number of fish of 10-pounds or more………………………27
Number of fish of 8-pounds or more………………………..60
Estimated number of fish of 7-pounds or more……………..100
Total weight of 10 largest fish for seven days………………134.1-pounds
Total weight of 5 largest fish for seven days……………… .71.5-pounds
Total weight of 10 largest fish for one day………………….118-pounds
Total weight of five largest fish for one day………………...66.8-pounds
Countless anglers spend a lifetime fishing bass and never do manage to boat a 10-pounder. But Les Melton nailed 27 of them at El Salto in just six days. Here’s a run down of the size of those 27 slab sided brutes that topped 10-pounds: 15; 15; 14.07; 14; 13.08; 13.04; 12.12; 12.12; 11.14; 11.08; 11.08; 11.02; 11; 10.10; 10.08; 10.08; 10.08; 10.08; 10.06; 10.06; 10.05; 10.04; 10.02; 10.02; 10; 10 and 10.
Before some skeptic questions these weights, let me point out that every one of the fish listed above was weighed on Boga Grip scales. Melton is as meticulous in his record keeping as he is in his actual fishing. He doesn’t trust digital scales. I don’t either. I have my own Boga Grips scales and they don’t, as my digitals sometimes do, tell me one thing now and something else 15 minutes later.
http://www.ifish.net/sfwebless.jpg
Two of the 27 trophy bass Les Melton took out of Lake El Salto weighed 15-pounds. He's pictured here holding one of them.
When I last talked to Les a couple of years ago he’d already caught some 70 bass of 10-pounds or more, most of them at El Salto Lake. At that time his best day ever on El Salto had come in 1999 when his 10 largest bass weighed 104.4-pounds. But great as he knows El Salto is Melton never expected to reach what has to be the very pinnacle of bass fishing success this last time around.
“I couldn’t believe it was happening,” he says. “I must have felt like players do when they win the Super Bowl. It was the epitome of what bass fishermen hope to do.”
So just how did all of this come about? Were there secret lures, scents, techniques or anything else not readily available to the rest of us? Not really. I know what I’m talking about because I’ve spent a good bit of time discussing those things with this likeable West Virginia gentleman.
I’ll detail just how the West Virginian went about catching all those trophy bass in my next column. Watch for it beginning Nov. 1.
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part 1
This sort of thing just doesn’t happen---but it did!
Pull up a stool because I’m about to share the story of how a soft-spoken gentleman from West Virginia had a week of bass fishing that very likely is the best ever recorded anytime and anywhere.
The angler I’m writing about is Les Melton, of Charleston. The place is Mexico’s fabled El Salto Lake. Odds are if you follow bass fishing as close as the rest of us plug-pitching nuts, you probably already know a bit about both. El Salto, of course, is thought by most to be the best bass lake that’s ever existed. Melton, the vice president of the Charleston Medical Center, is a recognized bass fishing expert. He’s been at it all his life.
http://www.ifish.net/sfles1.jpg
Most bass fishermen will never catch a 10-pound bass. Les Melton nailed 27 of that size or larger at Mexico's Lake El Salto in May.
If you’ve read material I’ve already provided for the Anglers Inn web site you may recall stories I’ve written before about Melton’s angling success. The last time I did a column about him, I thought probably his fish-catching experience I was detailing at the time might never be topped. I was wrong. I guess it’s fair to say that when it’s El Salto bass fishing you’re talking about---darn near anything is possible!
But not even veteran guides at Anglers Inn, and they’re among the best anywhere, were prepared for what Melton did on that beautiful Mexican Lake the last week in May. Statistics are usually on the boring side. I guarantee the statistics that follow won’t bore experienced bass fishermen. What follows, my friends, are the carefully recorded records of what the West Virginia big bass specialist accomplished in just seven days on his last visit to El Salto Lake:
Total number of bass caught……………………………….. 607
Number of fish of 10-pounds or more………………………27
Number of fish of 8-pounds or more………………………..60
Estimated number of fish of 7-pounds or more……………..100
Total weight of 10 largest fish for seven days………………134.1-pounds
Total weight of 5 largest fish for seven days……………… .71.5-pounds
Total weight of 10 largest fish for one day………………….118-pounds
Total weight of five largest fish for one day………………...66.8-pounds
Countless anglers spend a lifetime fishing bass and never do manage to boat a 10-pounder. But Les Melton nailed 27 of them at El Salto in just six days. Here’s a run down of the size of those 27 slab sided brutes that topped 10-pounds: 15; 15; 14.07; 14; 13.08; 13.04; 12.12; 12.12; 11.14; 11.08; 11.08; 11.02; 11; 10.10; 10.08; 10.08; 10.08; 10.08; 10.06; 10.06; 10.05; 10.04; 10.02; 10.02; 10; 10 and 10.
Before some skeptic questions these weights, let me point out that every one of the fish listed above was weighed on Boga Grip scales. Melton is as meticulous in his record keeping as he is in his actual fishing. He doesn’t trust digital scales. I don’t either. I have my own Boga Grips scales and they don’t, as my digitals sometimes do, tell me one thing now and something else 15 minutes later.
http://www.ifish.net/sfwebless.jpg
Two of the 27 trophy bass Les Melton took out of Lake El Salto weighed 15-pounds. He's pictured here holding one of them.
When I last talked to Les a couple of years ago he’d already caught some 70 bass of 10-pounds or more, most of them at El Salto Lake. At that time his best day ever on El Salto had come in 1999 when his 10 largest bass weighed 104.4-pounds. But great as he knows El Salto is Melton never expected to reach what has to be the very pinnacle of bass fishing success this last time around.
“I couldn’t believe it was happening,” he says. “I must have felt like players do when they win the Super Bowl. It was the epitome of what bass fishermen hope to do.”
So just how did all of this come about? Were there secret lures, scents, techniques or anything else not readily available to the rest of us? Not really. I know what I’m talking about because I’ve spent a good bit of time discussing those things with this likeable West Virginia gentleman.
I’ll detail just how the West Virginian went about catching all those trophy bass in my next column. Watch for it beginning Nov. 1.