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JerryInLodi
08-21-2006, 10:24 PM
Usually I'm up at five and on the water by six but this Sunday my wife went with me and Sunday is her only day to sleep in. Even so, we were at the boat by eight thirty but then I locked the ignition keys in the dock locker and had to drive home and get the spares. We finally left the dock at 9:30.

I tried top water for about a half hour with only one swirl so I switched to sinking lines and woolly buggers. Jeanette was bored having been spoiled by Baja, ( at least a grab every cast when fishing the rocks) and decided she'd play captain and run the trolling motor.

She got the fingering down quickly. In the next two hours I landed six bass and missed a couple more. The little three inchers were not feeding thank God. I worry that the mortality rate for those small fish is fairly high and hate catching them.

None of the fish were large but all were reasonable. We quit at one and headed back. Not because the bite had stopped but because I had to go shopping for school clothes and had waited till the last day.

The results are not red hot fishing but what I like about it is that the chances of finding a big fish are really good, kind of like striper fishing. Here's a couple of pictures of what the average fish for the day looked like.

http://www.deltastripers.com/images/lm2.jpg

http://www.deltastripers.com/images/lm3.jpg

Wingman
08-22-2006, 01:18 PM
Jerry,

Nice report and photos. Great finish for a day that didn't start we all want them to! Were you using a black woolly buggers? Or was another color working better?

Wingman

JerryInLodi
08-22-2006, 07:03 PM
Tried chartreuse and then went to olive. The olive worked so I didn't try anything else. The olive is about 3 1/2 inches long, flashabou in the tail, mylar olive chenile, barred olive hackle, no weight. Tied on a #2 3x long hook.

I think next tie I'll wind some lead on the hook but not at the front since I've found that the jigging action doesn't seem to help much.

Hairstacker
08-22-2006, 07:18 PM
Jerry, I'd be happy with 6 decent bass at hand in the time you had any day. Sounds like you had a good time, good for you!

JerryInLodi
08-22-2006, 09:20 PM
It worked out to a fish or a grab about once every 15 minutes. I'd really be happy with that if I was fishing for stripers but I think that when the bass are really hitting poppers, one hit every 15 minutes would actually be pretty slow.

I also compare it to a day like last Wednesday when I stuck and landed about 50 fish in five hours, or about ten an hour. Many of these fish were small though and when the number of larger fish is compared, it would work out to about one every 15 minutes so the average is the same.

The delta is truely an amazing fish factory when it comes to LMB. I think the addition of some sub surface fish producers will help those who have a longer drive and want to put in a full day. Some days it gets really tough to get strikes topwater mid day. The addition of subsurface stuff will make that portion of the day a much more viable event.

I'd love to hear what others are doing mid day when the sun is high in its arc, techniques, flies, etc.

Hairstacker
08-22-2006, 09:46 PM
Until pretty recently, I only carried 3 fly patterns on the Delta for largemouth bass:

Red/White Tap's Bug (deer hair topwater bass bug)
Chartreuse/White Flashtail Clouser
Olive Woolly Bugger

I pretty much stuck with the Tap's Bug unless I just couldn't get a hit for the life of me or I recognized a circumstance where the other flies might be superior. For example, I saw bass busting baitfish one time next to a pipe that was bringing in water. After futilely casting the Tap's Bug a few times, I switched to the Clouser and immediately starting hooking up. (Then the inflow of water stopped and so did the action. :cry: )

Another time, I noticed fish busting baitfish near water flowing over a rock wall. After not getting hit on the Tap's Bug, I again switched to the Clouser and again starting immediately getting into fish.

Another time, I couldn't get hit on either the Tap's Bug or the Clouser but noticed a bunch of dragon flies and damsel flies getting popped on the surface. I switched to an olive woolly bugger and then just started slaying them (figuratively speaking).

Just recently, I've added various Dahlberg Diver variations to my selection and have been having so much fun with those that I've mostly fished them, although I've also had some decent action on the Tap's Bug as well. This year, for some reason, I've been pretty stubborn about sticking with topwater whether it's been slow or not.

To be honest, I've never adjusted my fly selection for the time of day or the location of the sun. But I should note that 5 1/2 lber I caught recently was sitting in the only tree-shaded area within a hundred yards in either direction. :idea: