Drew Benton wasn’t sure what to expect when he agreed to represent Bagley, his title sponsor, on a trip to Mexico earlier this month. He’d never been out of the U.S. before and, honestly, he wasn’t sure what kind of reception he’d get.
Now, he can’t wait to go back.
“It was definitely eye-opening,” Benton said. “I was expecting to go fish for a few days and maybe talk to 20 or 30 people that like to fish. I didn’t expect it to be what it was.”
Benton was blown away by the experience. The fishing at Lake Cuchillo (Presa El Cuchillo) was good when the weather cooperated, but the passion for bass fishing he witnessed was unlike anything he could’ve imagined.
He was the featured speaker at an evening event and organizers had to cap attendance at 150 people. Others had to be turned away at the door due to overcrowding concerns.
“People flew in and drove up to 8 hours just to hear me speak,” Benton said. “I couldn’t believe it. I got there at 7 and from 7 to 11:30 that night, I did nothing but talk fishing and answer questions. It was crazy. I never would’ve expected that. They really idolize fishing over there. It’s real humbling to know they follow it that closely.”
He said the questions, which he answered with the help of an interpreter, were insightful and touched on a range of topics from why lure color matters to the mental aspects of fishing.
“I went through about a case of water talking to everybody,” he said. “I’d never talked so much in my life.”
Benton, who’s preparing for his first season on the Bassmaster Elite Series, saw some similarities in how Mexicans view bass fishing to what he remembers it being like in the U.S. when he was younger.
“It reminds me of us in the early 2000s,” he said. “Everybody’s real green and they all fish the bank. They’re not really into offshore fishing. I told them that if somebody could figure out how to fish (Lake Cuchillo) offshore, they could dominate there.”
He said most of the people he met either fish from shore or have small boats and they were very intrigued by some of the baits he brought along to show them.
He spent some time at Lake Cuchillo with the Bass Brothers Fishing Team (shown in picture), a group that handles tackle distribution in that region of Mexico.
“It’s about an hour from Falcon and it’s a really good fishery,” he said. “There’s a lot of standing timber and submerged brush. It’s basically a bass factory. It’s a great place for Bagley stuff and any kind of product that’s good for that type of cover. There’s not a lot of vegetation so you need a balsa bait to get through the trees real good. Any soft plastics are good there, too.”
The experience gave Benton a newfound appreciation for what he does for a living, knowing there’s so much interest in it in other parts of the world.
“Everything from boat storage and getting tackle, they have to go to great lengths to do what we sometimes take for granted,” he said.
