Delta - 11/7/2020

Just started taking my 8wt out on the delta last couple trips - I mostly gear fish for bass out there. Fly fishing out of a pedal kayak certainly is a lesson in patience - so many tangles. Time for a stripping basket of some kind. With the wind and current, I found it much easier to throw out an anchor, work a section of bank, pull up and move, repeat. Also throwing a towel over the pedal drive makes for less tangles.

Caught a bunch of dinks and one nice striper. 1st "nice" striper on the fly. When it hit, I knew in a couple seconds that it wasn't a largemouth. I thought it could've been a large pike minnow. Took me a while to get up before I could see it and it made a couple short runs.

I may have to sell my conventional gear...

I like your flies.......

Congratulations.........

There was a guy on Tomales Bay in a Hobie kayak last week and I could not believe how fast he was going.


Fly fishing out of a boat with a bow mounted electric motor in the Delta for LMB and Stripers is very nice.

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Fly fishing from a kayak is more than I can handle. I tried it a few times and it was not fun for the same reasons you mentioned. Wind and tides kept moving me out the spot!

but the pull- so fun!

Trouter -

Nice job on the kayak fish and thanks for putting up some photos.

It does take some time to work out the boat and line management. It can beat you up if you try to fight the boat and the line at the same time. Sometimes it is too much and you have to give up, regroup and try another approach.

The best tip I have for line management is strip it into the water. That is the most tangle free place for your line. I am right handed so I always cast to the left side of the boat. I moved everything I could to the right side of the boat to avoid tangling and strip into the water as much as possible. I do use the wet towel trick sometimes.

For boat management while cruising the shoreline for bass, downwind and down current is the best. Upwind pretty much does not work because the bow catches the wind and spins the boat. Up current can be done. If you get it figured out you can cover a lot of shoreline which is what you need to do to find some bass. A little pedaling and rudder adjustments between casts and you are on it. For stripers I have stand up to cast so I am at the mercy of the wind and current.

For a right hand caster having the shoreline on the left and going down wind is the way to go. If you have no wind life is good and you can do whatever you want.

Good luck and keep posting.

This is general Delta LMB top water fly fishing info:


Fishing mostly out of a skiff, Captain Andy Guibord told me his best days in the Delta for top water LMB was with no wind, breathless.


Captain Kevin Doran told us that May was his favorite month for top water LMB in the Delta.


From talking with many top water Delta LMB fly fishers, April through October can all be good......they like to be warm.



I will be on the Delta next May in my new "old" skiff.......probably with Andy.


We are headed to Florida soon for the LMB winter fishing, Dec - April.