Delta Bass Reports?

[TPO]

I've been hoping to see some Delta bass reports on the Forum but its been pretty quiet, so I decided to post my own report, weak as it may be.... I'm hoping some others with more luck/skill than I do might chime in with some advice?

I fished for a few hours yesterday morning, my first time out since May. Try as I may, after a coffee pit stop, construction traffic on eastbound 580, and time inflating my pontoon/rigging gear, I wasn't on the water in Whiskey Slough until 7 AM. It was dead calm out there, and throwing top water bugs tight to the rock banks brought no grabs. I switched to my other rig and tried subsurface, a black/yellow rubber leg wooly pattern on a sink tip line, for nothing either (didn't give it a lot of time). A slight breeze picked up around 8:00 and created a surface ripple; I switched back to my popper rig and continue to pound the bank. Nothing near the bank, but about 15-20' off the rocks, in water I think is roughly 8' deep I started to get into some blowups. Hooked a nice fish that pulled hard/deep and went airborne a few time, the last jump next to my pontoon sent the barbless popper flying. Ugh.... Getting a good look, I think that fish was pushing 4 lbs. I'm guessing the rippled surface helped (certainly does on trout lakes) and I expect the fish were in deeper water even while it was still relatively cool in the early morning. I had more luck popping that bug pretty hard, I imagine the commotion brought the fish up from the deeper water. The ripple died down and so did the bite. At the end of the day, I only had one smallish fish to hand in about 2.5 hours on the water, lost several, but I nonetheless enjoyed being out there. The nice fish willing to come to my fly has me motivated to get back out there again sometime soon. If I was successful in uploading these pics, here are some of the flies I was throwing, my own ties:

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Tom

[Darian]

If you check out my prior thread "Smallie Trip", my fishing partner and I had a great trip with Captain Maury Hatch. We fished the north delta for Smallmouth Bass and caught all our fish on top using balsa poppers.

Sounds like you had a good morning on the water in spite of not catching a lot of fish, tho. One thing to remember in Delta Bass fishing is that it's dependent on tidal current. Dead water seems to turn off the bite. If the tide is still relatively high the fish are close to the bank/rock walls. As the tide drops, the fish move away to the outer edges of cat tails/weed beds.

BTW, your bugs/leeches look great.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think you can catch SMB in the cooler moving water of the Sacramento River all summer as it snakes down through the Delta.

Top Delta skiff guides Bryce Tedford, Maury Hatch and Andy Guibord can get you into Smallies.




LMB are feeding spring, summer and fall scattered all through the Delta.


This time of year most would go out extremely early to beat the heat.




Stripers seem to be in the Bays, along the beaches and way up some Valley rivers now.

[Jeannie W.]

I agree with Darian and Bill Kiene. Fish for the smallies with tidal current. They like water movement. Look for good moving water near the rocks and use those poppers! we will be targeting smallies in the Fall in between fishing for King salmon and stripers in the delta. Tight lines and good luck! Nice looking bugs by the way!

[Mr T]

You got me wanting to get out there for sure.

Great looking ties for sure!

[KD]

If you are having poor topwater action out there it may not be you but more on where you are at. They have been and will continue to do vegetation eradication into Nov. They have been dropping pellets(subsurface erradication) routinely in certain areas on a weekly basis. It definately has an impact on the fish. They did this a number of years ago in Franks and it really messed up the fishing(they are doing it again btw). We were seeing many dead fish of all species floating around for months after they wiped out Franks weeds with these pellets.Anyone that was on the water almost everyday like any guides etc. would tell you the same. They say it doesn't impact the fish..I say What?...From what i have read, studies are from static(closed)environments for their data, not a dynamic,tidal environment like the Delta. Anyway, Whiskey Sl. has been pounded with pellets as well as many areas on the east side. You can find maps of where these erradication areas are. Id stay clear of them. Surface erradication(spraying)takes a couple of weeks for the fishing to pick up again in that specific area. Subsurface pellet drops are more sinister imo...really makes one wonder what they are up to...many of these areas are significant spawning areas....sinister?...maybe!

[Spicytuna1]

I was able to get out last night after close to 2 months (toooooooo many) of house work and family stuff. I did have a hard time finding and locating the type of vegetation and water elevation I like to fish and had minimal success at my first few spots.

I made a lucky right turn at the end of the night and found a very dense population of fish that turned into one of the most wide open bites I have ever seen. The sun was setting and the light was low to the point I could not make out the bottom structure or vegetation I was fishing over were. All I know is they were concentrated on the rocks next to sparse tule patches. Water temp was just below 80 and the tide was starting to top out. There are fish out there but you either have to get lucky or work really hard to find where those fish are holding and feeding. One fish left a swirl the size of a manhole cover as he missed my fly

[Spicytuna1]

Here is what I ran into last week:

[TPO]

I went back out again yesterday morning and fished for a few hours, from about 6:30-9:30 AM (I'd love to fish in the evening, but the traffic on 580 from the East Bay makes it pretty tough). I covered more ground in my pontoon this time, and the bite was better. I caught a bunch of fish, but most were pretty small. I threw my favorite rabbit tail slider for awhile (looks like a small snake) but got no interest. They wanted poppers again, all fish were taken on deer hair or foam poppers cast tight to the rock banks. Pic below of the best fish of the day.

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[Spicytuna1]

Great job out there!

Love the dedication of getting it done in the pontoon as well, glad you found a good bite.