The Cristo Roto Bass Record

Research and Field Contributions: Fidel Vidal, Camilo Vidal

This article is part of an ongoing Nomonday editorial investigation into the largest largemouth bass ever recorded in Mexican reservoirs.

The Official Record and the Record Documented on Video

In the most iconic bass lake of Mexico’s Bajío region, two catches from 2021 help explain why Cristo Roto remains a key reference for big bass in central Mexico.

Cristo Roto, officially known as Presa Plutarco Elías Calles, holds a very particular place in Mexican bass fishing. For many people outside the bass scene, it may still feel like a relatively unknown lake. For serious bass anglers, though, it is a clear reference point in central Mexico: a lake with tournaments, fish with real weight, highly fishable structure, and a reputation built on results.

Located in San José de Gracia, Aguascalientes, Cristo Roto gradually became the most iconic bass lake in the Bajío region. Part of its appeal comes from its visual identity — the island with the monumental statue that gives the lake its name, Cristo Roto, or “Broken Christ,” a figure more than 25 meters tall depicting Christ with a missing arm and leg as a symbol of suffering and resilience — but its real prestige comes from the water: quality fish, steady angling pressure, frequent tournaments, and constant talk around its larger bass.

That is exactly why talking about the Cristo Roto record cannot be reduced to a single catch.

Two different references coexist in this lake: an official institutional record, registered inside a federation-backed competition, and a record documented on video, heavier in weight but outside a formal competitive framework.

The first belongs to Jorge Antonio Cano Félix with 5.65 kg (12.46 lb), caught during the 2021 National Boat Bass Championship.
The second belongs to Richie González with 5.79 kg (12.76 lb), a bass publicly weighed on video that same year.

That duality makes Cristo Roto one of the most interesting cases in the historical record of largemouth bass in Mexico.

Over the years, Cristo Roto has become the most iconic bass lake in Mexico’s Bajío region.

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The Official Institutional Record: Jorge Antonio Cano Félix (2021)

Official institutional record: Jorge Antonio Cano Félix — 5.65 kg (12.46 lb) — 2021
Status: official record in a sanctioned competition
Importance: record registered in an event backed by the Mexican National Sport Fishing Federation and CONADE

Within the record categories we are using in this investigation, Jorge Antonio Cano Félix’s catch is the strongest case from an institutional standpoint.

During the National Boat Bass Championship, held in 2021 at Presa Plutarco Elías Calles, the Sinaloa angler brought a 5.65 kg (12.46 lb) largemouth to the official scale, immediately becoming the central figure of the event.

Visual sequence of Jorge Antonio Cano Félix’s official record catch at Cristo Roto during the 2021 National Boat Bass Championship. The carousel includes the record fish, the weigh-in context, and the immediate post-catch moment.

According to the tournament coverage, that bass broke four national marks:

official tournament mark in the state of Aguascalientes
heaviest bass registered at Presa Plutarco Elías Calles in official competition
heaviest bass in a National Championship
heaviest bass in a qualifying event for the Pan American Championship

The weight of this record does not come only from the size of the fish, but from the context around it: this was a catch made in a formal championship, with an official scale, federation judges, and a competitive framework also backed by CONADE.

That makes Cano’s bass the clearest official institutional record we found for Cristo Roto.

Jorge Antonio Cano Félix’s record bass is shown and released alive after its official registration in competition.

This catch was not accidental, either. According to the post-tournament coverage, Cano and his partner arrived several days early to pre-fish the lake and fine-tune their strategy. During the event, they worked a SwinRig with a swimbait, crawling it slowly along the bottom in 15 to 25 feet of water, a technical decision that ended up producing the most important fish of the championship.

Later, Cano would describe that bass as the fish of his life. The phrase helps explain the emotional size of the moment: he was not only holding the biggest fish of the tournament, but a catch that ended up marking his own story as an angler.

The Record Documented on Video: Richie González (2021)

Record documented on video: Richie González — 5.79 kg (12.76 lb) — April 2021
Status: publicly documented record
Support: weigh-in shown on video published on YouTube

If Cano’s catch represents the official competition record, Richie González’s fish adds another layer to the story.

In April 2021, Richie — champion of the Toyota Series Championship International Division and four-time MLF Mexico national champion — published a fishing session on his channel in which he catches a largemouth that his scale reads at 5.79 kg (12.76 lb).

The weigh-in appears on video and, from the standpoint of this investigation, it stands as the strongest public reference we found of an individual fish heavier than the official tournament record from that same year.

Short clip of Richie González’s catch, publicly documenting a 5.79 kg (12.76 lb) largemouth at Cristo Roto.

The bass was caught in a very specific part of the lake: the rocks at the main point, right where the structure drops into what used to be the deepest part of the river channel before the dam was built. Richie caught it throwing a jig designed by Edgar Romero in the “Cristo Roto Special” color, paired with a craw-style trailer and adjusted to work cleanly through the rocks.

During that same session he also landed another bass weighing 4.20 kg (9.26 lb), along with several more in that same class, reinforcing an important idea: that fish did not appear in isolation, but inside a productive pattern that confirms the structural potential of the lake.

Unlike Cano’s catch, this bass was not registered in a federation-backed event or presented under championship protocol. But it was publicly documented on video, with a visible weigh-in and enough context to be taken seriously inside this historical record.

Full Richie González session at Cristo Roto, where the documented record appears alongside several other quality bass.

Two Records, Two Categories

Cristo Roto presents one of the clearest cases in this series.

On one side is the official institutional competition record, belonging to Jorge Antonio Cano Félix with 5.65 kg (12.46 lb).
On the other is the record publicly documented on video, belonging to Richie González with 5.79 kg (12.76 lb).

The difference between them is just 140 grams.

From a purely competitive standpoint, Cano’s fish carries the weight of the institution: a national tournament, official scale, judges, and federation backing. From a documentary standpoint, Richie’s fish carries the weight of the video: visible weigh-in, public catch, and a heavier fish.

Both are now part of the lake’s recent history.

And together they explain why Cristo Roto occupies such an attractive place in the map of Mexican bass fishing: because it combines real competitive structure with the very real possibility of running into a heavyweight largemouth on any well-worked day.

Cristo Roto and the Weight of Central Mexico

When people talk about the great bass lakes of Mexico, much of the conversation tends to stay concentrated in Sinaloa, Nuevo León, or Tamaulipas. Cristo Roto is a reminder that central Mexico also holds water capable of producing memorable fish.

Its importance does not come from a single isolated catch. It comes from something deeper: constant tournaments, quality bass, a lake well known among central Mexico anglers, and a reputation that keeps growing among those who fish it seriously.

In that sense, Cristo Roto represents something that is not always said clearly enough: the Bajío region also has a lake capable of holding its own in any real conversation about big bass in Mexico.

What Can Be Clearly Stated Today

At this point in the investigation, four things can be stated clearly.

First, Jorge Antonio Cano Félix’s 5.65 kg (12.46 lb) catch in 2021 stands as the strongest official institutional record we located for Lake Cristo Roto.

Second, that mark carries the backing of a competition sanctioned by the Mexican National Sport Fishing Federation and CONADE, giving it clear formal weight in the Mexican context.

Third, Richie González’s 5.79 kg (12.76 lb) catch, published on video in April 2021, stands as the strongest publicly documented record we located for this lake.

Fourth, both catches, recorded in the same year, show that Cristo Roto is living through a particularly strong moment in the conversation around big bass in central Mexico.

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A Lake Where the Official Circuit and Public Evidence Meet

There are lakes where the record lives only in the conversation. There are others where everything depends on the tournament.

Cristo Roto has a bit of both.

Here, there is one catch with clear institutional backing and another, heavier bass that was opened to the public through video. That combination makes the lake especially interesting to document, because it forces a clear distinction between official record and documented record.

That does not divide Cristo Roto’s story. It enriches it.

It also helps explain why this lake — so well known among anglers and still underestimated by many people outside the bass scene — keeps gaining ground as one of the most important places in central Mexico for anyone chasing a bass with real weight.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Cristo Roto Record

What is the bass record at Cristo Roto?

Cristo Roto holds two important references. The first is the official institutional record of Jorge Antonio Cano Félix with 5.65 kg (12.46 lb), caught in a sanctioned competition in 2021. The second is the publicly documented record on video of Richie González with 5.79 kg (12.76 lb), published that same year.

Which of the two fish weighs more?

Richie González’s catch is heavier by 140 grams, although it belongs to the independent realm and not to the institutional framework of the championship

Why is Cristo Roto important in Mexican bass fishing?

Because it is the most iconic bass lake in the Bajío region and one of the few lakes in central Mexico that has sustained tournaments, quality fish, and constant conversation among serious bass anglers.