Delta - 11/14/2020

Out on the San Joaquin again yesterday near the Moke. The morning was cloudy and blustery (makes me think of steelhead, not stripers...) The wind and current sure makes for challenging kayak fishing. Late afternoon was beautiful, just a hint of breeze. I paddled the kayak all over the place - down to buoy 42, back up to Old River going out of Frank's Tract. All the stripers came where there was current. Four stripers to hand the size in the picture. A couple dink largemouths. I never really "got into them". My fish story is that I lost a keeper just as I got it to the boat... still working on that strip set ;) I saw one other guy fly fishing out of a Bass Tracker. I bought a $10 blue recycling waste basket from HD to act as a stripping basket. It is not perfect, but less tangling.

Attachment 16295Attachment 16296

Buy a cheap plastic cutting board that you can cut to fit in the bottom of your basket. Get some plastic paver stakes to make some spikes to prevent the loops in there from pulling tight. Drill holes in the cutting board that the stakes will barely fit through. Use about 3.5 inches of the pointy end and space them out evenly so they're all about 4-5 inches apart. Glue them in with gorilla glue or something similar. Put a little water in your basket along with your insert and you'll really reduce tangles. Hope this makes sense. Kinda hard to explain in writing.

If it was a blue Tracker with half a windshield, that was me and my boy. The wind and tide were definitely working against each other on the SJ. It was my sons first time for the Fall season. I'm still trying to dial in the spinning rod for him. I figured a Rattle trap would be the go to, but he ended up getting all his fish on a 5" bass colored paddle tail on about a 1/4oz jig head. We boated around 20 fish between the two of us. The boy is 15 now it was a pleasure having him in the boat. He really got a kick out of watching all the geese, the mink, the sea lions and was amazed at the size of the cargo boats. It was definitely a day we will remember for a long time.

Hi Charlie,
Were you fishing the riprap on the south side of the SJ? Yes, I remember seeing you. I was watching a little bit seeing person on the bow fly casting and person on the stern with a gear rod - don't see a lot of fly rods on the delta... For sure the geese in formation have been crazy the last couple weeks. I saw otter family on that bank on the paddle back upriver. Lots of Fall wildlife out for sure. Did you fish any further out west? I've been contemplating Sherman Lake and Napa river but don't care for the salt getting all over my stuff...