I'm going down for another Picachos/Salto combo trip next Thursday. I make about 3 trips a year to those lakes and I keep a bunch of crankbaits, jerkbaits, topwaters, various jigheads, tools, etc. down there. But I do bring about 150-200 Yum Dingers, 25 each EWG hooks in 3/0 4/0 and 5/0, about 50 or more flukes, craws, creatures, 50 swimbaits 3"-5" size (Keitech or Rage Swimmers), a few in 6" like MagDrafts (for El Salto). Also very important especially in Spring are several bags of 8" Zoom Magnum lizards (not 6").
I buy Yum Dingers in the bulk bags (30 for $11, 100 for $30); Senkos simply tear up too easily when these aggressive fish hit. You're lucky to get 2 or 3 bites out of a Senko. Dingers are $.30 each, Senkos $.80 each, and you could easily go through $100 worth of Senkos in 2 days at Picachos.
It sounds like a lot, but with average (for me) of 100 fish/day at Picachos and 50/day at El Salto, you could easily run out if not prepared. I stay at Angler's Inn and they do have limited tackle supplies at both facilities in case of emergencies.
A couple of suggestions from my experiences at these lakes:
1) When flying, separate your spools from the reels, keep the spools in checked baggage and the frames in carry-on. Full reels have been known to disappear in baggage, and US TSA does not like spools full of line in carry-on. You don't want to arrive and find you don't have any reels or line on them. I reassemble the reels when I get to the lakes.
2) Bring your own scale! The boats and guides don't have scales, so if you hook a giant at Salto, you'd want to get a real weight on her. I leave a scale down there with my gear. Just sayin'...
3) Angler's Inn feeds you like you're a high school varsity football player, 3 huge square meals each day. All you do there is fish, sleep, and eat and drink, so you might need a gentle stool softener if you overdo the food and get clogged up. Don't ask me how I know.
You WILL have a great time fishing Mexico!
