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View Full Version : Monday evening action on the delta!



JerryInLodi
09-26-2006, 12:25 AM
I left the marina at Korth's at four and was fishing by four thirty. I had planned to toss a clouser for stripers but when the boat settled down all I could hear was the splashes of bass along the shoreline and carp just outside the weedbeds. I couldn't help myself. I put away the striper rod and took out the trusty 7 weight, floating line with a greased #2 3x long olive flashtail woolly bugger.

The water temperature was still a cool 67. I had thought that it would be warmer after the sun shining all day. A slight breeze put the faintest ripple on the water. I set up about forty feet from the rip wrap with the trolling motor on number one and crept along.

The greased woolly bugger floats when first cast and then, once the retrieve starts, drops just below the surface, with a noticeable bulge of water as it is pulled back in. I caught a 15 inch bass on the first cast.

The next two hours were incredible. Ten bass over two pounds, the largest a four pounder pictured. Another ten to twelve bass from just under two pounds to about six inches. The takes were of every imaginable type. Some sideswiped the fly as it was being retrieved and the line darted off sideways. Others followed with a noticeable wake before hitting. Some smashed the fly as soon as it landed and was floating on the surface. Others came up from the bottom and busted water, taking the fly with them. The four pounder took it porpoising, hitting it on the way down, an unusual bass take.

Suddenly, about six thirty, the water became very quiet, absolutely smooth, as smooth as glass. Not a sound of a fish could be heard. No carp jumping. No bass swirling next to the shore. Not a ripple.

I continued casting for the next half hour, catching two more fish after having switched over to a foam diver but these were small fish. It was over but man, it was awesome while it was going on!

http://ww1.pureupload.com/stfiles//309/92506.JPG

Equally amazing. I was in a major traffic area but in three hours, only one boat passed, a small trawler style yacht. The delta can get very private in the fall.

Note: With the recent information about killing larger fish with a lip lift, I've taken to landing any bigger fish with a net. The net shown is my striper net, pretty good sized!

09-26-2006, 09:39 AM
Hey Jerry,

Dang, what a great evening of fishing :) ! Heck you did much better than we did together a month or so back which I thought was fantastic. With the other reports from Hairstacker and others, sounds like it is defintely still pretty good fishing for those bass. I definitely need to get back out there soon.

Hey if you are up for me coming down for some evening to fish like we did last time I can give you a sneak preview listen to the "Northern California Fly Fishing Blues" :) . My son and I finished the mixing and it will be sent to Greg this week for uploading to the NCFFB site. This week it would have to be either Thursday or Friday for me. Next week is pretty open. Let me know if one of those days works for you.

Bill

JerryInLodi
09-26-2006, 07:03 PM
Bill, sorry I'm busy Thursday and my brother-in-law already grabbed Friday. Tomorrow's (Wednesday) open but that's probably pretty short notice!

If Bill posts that he can't make it, there's an open spot if anyone wants it. I leave the dock at 3pm.

jbird
09-26-2006, 07:55 PM
Great report Jerry! Sounds like a hoot! I bet the bass around here are stirring as well...just cant get steelhead off my brain tho. :D

J

09-26-2006, 09:25 PM
Hey Jerry,

Wish I could make it tomorrow but unfortunately I have a meeting I have to be at in Petaluma at 1:00 pm so no early exit from work for me :( . No problem, sounds like fishing will be good for a while so maybe next week we can figure out a day. Keep those good reports coming!

One of the rest of you guys should definitely take Jerry up on his offer to join him tomorrow! I would guarantee you will have a good time.

Bill

Hairstacker
09-28-2006, 04:10 AM
Jerry, congratulations, you slayed 'em! Nice 4 lber but even without it, getting 10 over 2 in just a couple hours is fantastic! I love it when the bite breaks wide open like that. 8) I'm always looking out for it to happen when I'm out there.

Size 2 olive fllashtail bugger, eh? What do you use for the flash? Pearl Flashabou perhaps?

Regarding the water temperature, check out my last post under the "Delta 9-24-06" thread -- apparently, the water temps out there are far more influenced by the state of the tide than time of day.

SullyTM
09-28-2006, 10:15 AM
Jerry...Sounds like a good day. Can you direct me towards a website or the printed word regarding water temperatures? Sounds like I need to bone up on that aspect of fishing :wink:

Later...thom

JerryInLodi
09-28-2006, 09:43 PM
Hairstacker, the woolly buggers are tied Blanton style, the flashabou is allowed to trail behind the marabou tail by about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. The chenille I use is the mylar type. I don't use a wire wrap around the palmered hackles since I don't find them breaking that ofter with the neck I'm using. If the neck hackles were more fragile I'd probably use some thin brass or copper wire. I don't weight the fly either since I want it to float when cast. The only thing that sinks it is the #15 six to eight feet of Maxima connecting it to the fly line when the retrieve starts. I use the same fly on a type II and work it three to four feet down. It produces when cast and just allowed to sink slowly with a shorter leader on the type II.

SullyTM, the library's full of bass tactic books, I can't recommend one in particular. The accepted threshold for topwater action is posted as 70 degrees in some books, 68 and others and obviously needs to be modified to local conditions. I fished yesterday and got action with the water at 66.5 but not much.

Part of my winter homework is to take a hard look at some of the books written by the level wind guys that REALLY have focused on bass. Most flyfishers, with a few exceptions like KD have taken on LMB as a sort of past time to fill in periods between trout and other species. I think we can go way beyond that and we have one of the absolute best bass fisheries in the world to develop for the fly guy, the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.

Ten years ago, LMB were just incidental catch while fishing for stripers for most of us. The environmental changes in the delta have produced an explosion in LMB and they're still GROWING both in size and numbers. I have no doubt that the future world record bass will be produced in the delta.

It's my goal in the next few years to come up with successful stratagies to fish for these wonderful game fish using the entire water column, top to bottom and all year long. That means I have a very long way to go in my understanding of the delta bass but wow, what a challange!

Hairstacker
09-29-2006, 12:13 AM
Jerry, thank you for the tying and fishing tips for those magnum buggers, very much appreciated.

Trout and those other species are for when water temps just aren't conducive to topwater bass bugging. :wink: