El Salto Special by Leo Gutterres
During our past trips to Mexico for Bass, there is always a staple of top-water flies that prove to be consistent producers. Without a doubt, one of my favorite patterns is Leo Gutterres' "El Salto Special" - a slider with a serious case of delirium! This fly produces well when the Bass are busting the shad in Lake Mateos or El Salto. The relatively short body and tail, along with a flat, narrow profile produces an irresistible erratic movement. Often when larger patterns don't seem to produce well, this pattern reinforces that "matching-the-hatch" works for Bass too.
Next, I had the pleasure of meeting Neal Pultz (Fresno, CA) this past spring. Neal is an innovative popper designer and popper producing machine! He ties commercially for many shops throughout NorCal and makes some of the most well thought out poppers. He has a unique weed-guard design that is very effective. If you want a popper that produces maximum a "POP!" sound, then Neal's poppers are IT! On this past trip, it produced well in areas with deeper water where the Bass needed to be "called-up" to feed on the surface.
New for this trip was a new creation by Leo Gutterres - a prism sided crease fly. The highly reflective sides with a nice weed-guard really produced well when the Bass were shredding the Tilapia around the buck brush and other structure. This fly had incredible lateral movement with each strip - this action really mimics that of a wounded Tilapia. One of my largest top-water Bass (around 7 
pounds) on this trip was landed on this fly. Leo is always pushing the envelope on new fly designs and improving those that already exist. Leo's prism sided crease fly is a fine example of this.These flies are a pure example of why I feel that fly fishing for Bass is so visually appealing and, most of all, fun... big bugs for big Bass!
An El Salto Special that got worked-over by multiple trophy Bass!
