September 26-28, 2009 California Delta
Launched at Big Break Marina
Saturday morning before the sun came up at 6 am. I was with two other anglers. Both were experienced bass fisherman but neither have targeted striped bass out on the
California Delta. Just as the sun
was coming up the tide turned and started rising. We exited the marina and immediately started seeing smaller
sized stripers busting smelt on the surface. Throwing topwater lures by the boils, we each caught a few
3-7 pounders. Poppers, Vixens, and
Lunker Punkers all were working.
The tide was moving along pretty well, and so were the fish. We would get a double hook up and next
thing you know, the school of fish was 200 yards away. The area we fished had a huge flat with
a deeper little ditch running through the middle of it. During the early morning the fish were
quite scattered because of the low light conditions. The water was super clear (5-6 ft), the light morning breeze
dyed and the sun got higher in the sky, most of the fish pulled out to the
deeper ditch. Before leaving that
spot at 9am, we were already at 10 stripers and 3 largemouth. Our next stop was Sherman Island. The tide was middle incoming and the
water was a little more stained (2-3 ft.). Because of the hot calm conditions, I stayed off the flats,
and concentrated on the openings near the main channel. Areas with hard bottom and current were
key. We caught another 8 schoolie
size stripers on hair jigs and fish trap swimbaits. By noon the tide peaked and it was close to 100 degrees
out. The outgoing tide was moving
extremely slow, so we decided to switch gears and bring out the flipping rods
for largemouth bass. Flipping
Brush Hogs, Beavers, and Senkos, we each caught one two pounder flippin tules
by Eddo’s Marina. Nothing going at
Fishermans Cut, so our next stop was Taylor Slough. We were surprised to see how much bait, baby bass/bluegill,
and healthy hydrilla was in here.
We only caught one fish, but it was a nice 4 pound largemouth that hit a
Lunker Punker. Right at dusk, we
fish the flooded weed beds out in the middle of Big Break, but only catch a few
dinky ones. Next day was a half
day trip with two other fisherman.
We fish pretty much the same stuff as Saturday (Big Break, and Sherman),
but struggled a little. I don’t
know if our timing was just a little off, or the fish just had a lockjaw. We missed a few decent ones on
topwater, and caught a few on hair jigs.
All were in the 3-7 pound range.
On Monday, a client and I launched out of Russo’s Marina at Franks
Tract. We got out on the water at
first light and still had about 2 hours until the tide bottomed out. We started of good with a 4 pound
striper on the first cast. We were
fishing a weed flat that was right next to an opening on the north side of
Franks. The bite got tough pretty
quick. The next 7 or so hours we
bounced around between Franks, False River, and Big Break. A couple 10 pound plus stripers chased
ripbaits back to the boat, but no takers.
Around 2pm we decided to give up on the stripers and target
largemouth. I pulled out two flipping
sticks set up for punching heavy mats.
Both with 1.5 ounce tungsten weights. I waited for first push of the outgoing tide and worked with
the tide, moving south east toward Connection Sl., Mildred Is. and Wiskey
Sl. I catch a 4.5 and then Eric
catches a 7.5 pound toad. Mats on
tule berms with current, deep water, and healthy hydrilla were holding the
bass. The pennywort weeds were
also holding bass better than the hyasins. We caught a few more 2-3 pounders and then decided to get
back to Franks to try the evening topwater bite for stripers. No luck for a while, but right before
it got dark a 20 pounder hit a Lunker Punker right at the boat. It cartwheeled around a few feet from
us, but came unbuttoned pretty quick.
Oh well, the fun is just beginning for these big fish. It’s safe to say we still have a few
more months to catch a giant.
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In : California Delta
Tags: "lunker punker" stripers jigs "brush hogs" "sweet beavers" senkos swimbaits poppers vixens "hair jigs"