Delta 5-18-08

[Hairstacker]

Fly fished the Delta this morning out of the inflatable kayak with my 7wt. rod. It was a beautiful day out there with almost no wind and the water was 74 degrees. Fished topwater exclusively with deerhair divers and got into a few. Here's the 1st one I caught that was just shy of 19":



Good, strong fish. I had tossed the fly in front of some dead tules laying in the water and didn't get anything after a few strips. It was such a fishy-looking spot, though, I cast a second time (which I don't often do) and got her after the first strip. Here's a picture of the tules I'm talking about:



Got a few others here and there, nothing of any size, until I picked up this one that went 17 1/2":



This was a really fun fish, as it fought harder than the 1st one, which fought plenty. All in all, a great day to be on the Delta. So glad it's ON again.

[David Lee]

NICE !!!!

David

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Now if people will just go a lot, especially for the next month or so.

Mike, what months do you fish top water in the Delta for LMB?

Have you caight any other species doing this?

[Hairstacker]

David, thanks, it was fun.

Bill, I usually start fishing topwater in April/May through October, with September probably being my favorite month, although the topwater fishing is great all summer. Once the air temperature gets up above the 90s, though, obviously early morning is the most pleasant time and there's often less wind as well.

Right now is a great time to get out there -- I don't see how you can miss.

As far as catching other species on topwater, I've caught stripers, as well as a couple of redear sunfish while tossing size 2 deer hair bugs for largemouths. I also briefly had a carp on once on a size 2 Tap's Bug. Speaking of carp, I saw and spooked a bunch of huge (and I mean huge) ones today - I have got to figure out a way to target those things. I can just imagine the mayhem after hooking one of those. . . .

[David Lee]

...... I also briefly had a carp on once on a size 2 Tap's Bug. Speaking of carp, I saw and spooked a bunch of huge (and I mean huge) ones today - I have got to figure out a way to target those things. I can just imagine the mayhem after hooking one of those. . . .

Dragonfly Nymphs .

Check your mail .... say , next Friday - you'll find some

David

[Tony P]

I had tossed the fly in front of some dead tules laying in the water and didn't get anything after a few strips. It was such a fishy-looking spot, though, I cast a second time (which I don't often do) and got her after the first strip.

What lesson did you learn from that fish

One of the biggest mistakes that the fisherman make when fishing for Bass or any other species is making only one cast to a good looking spot. If I think the spot should hold a fish I will make up to 15+ casts to that one spot. If you are just making one cast to a good looking spots you are passing by a lot of fish.

Tony P

P.S. If you just want to make just one cast to those area that's fine with me I'll just fish behind you & catch your leftovers

[mikenewman]

P.S. If you just want to make just one cast to those area that's fine with me I'll just fish behind you & catch your leftovers

Providing you are also flycasting topwater patterns from a plastic pool lounger, my money's on the Stacker

[Tony P]

Providing you are also flycasting topwater patterns from a plastic pool lounger, my money's on the Stacker

Plastic pool lounger, float tube, arm floaties, or state of the art bass boat you'll still miss out on a lot of catchable bass making just one cast. I fish out of a bass boat most of the time but I also fish out of a john boat & a float tube. When I'm fishing out of my bass boat I have the tendency to fish to fast & I have to make myself slow down & pick apart the area I'm fishing where as if I'm fishing out of my float tube or john boat I know I can't cover as much water & it forces me to slow down to make multiple casts in promising areas.

Tony P

[Hairstacker]

David -- thanks (!!!), I promise I'll give 'em a shot. The area represents a big, shallow flat chock-full of aquatic weeds, so it will be interesting. . . . The primary challenge, of course, will be to get a fly in front of them without spooking them, as they are awfully spooky critters.

Mike -- I sincerely appreciate your vote of confidence. Also, glad to see you're still hanging around -- hope you've been getting into some great fish, as you usually do.

Tony -- Perhaps some additional comments are in order in addition to the one-line you zeroed in on. . . . When I'm employing a dive-and-pause approach with deerhair divers (which appeared to be the pattern on that day), I am typically drifting with the current and taking shots at likely targets as I drift by. If it's a particularly inviting shot, like the one pictured, I won't hesitate to do what it takes to maintain my kayak position with the paddle and make a second cast. But, by and large, it is mostly single shots to individual targets. I can see maaaybe making a 3rd cast to a particularly inviting target but that's it -- I am convinced that anything more with a topwater deerhair diver (or popper, for that matter) where you're employing a pause-and-pop/dive retrieve is a waste of time.

I am well aware that you can often pull up a fish on a second cast, as I've done it many times. As an aside, I believe it was a 2nd cast that enabled Kevin Doran to pull a 10 lb'er up to a deer hair diver two summers ago. But I will continue to be selective in where I make those 2nd casts in order to maximize my overall probabilities of success during a session.

As far as speed of fishing, with the inflatable kayak, for me, it's just the opposite -- I feel the urge to limit the time I spend at any one spot so that I can get to at least some of the productive cover I'm aware of during a session, given my limited mobility and range. Or, to put it another way, in the area I usually frequent, I specifically know of a number of good holding areas, and I never have enough time to get to all of them. Just a different strategy and approach perhaps.

Of course, as you noted, to each their own -- while you're spending the 20 minutes (which for me is a lunch break) paddling the kayak around in circles in order to maintain your position and pull off those 15 casts to a single spot, I'll be exploiting many other, higher percentage targets in the mean time.

P.S. It just occurred to me that, hopefully, we're talking about the same thing -- when I say "2nd cast to the same spot," I mean getting the bug to land within a foot of where it landed on the previous cast. . . . not that I can always pull that off.

[Tony P]

Mike,

Everybody has there own way of doing things & there are no right or wrong ways of doing things when it comes to catching fish, I have seen fish caught on some of the craziest creations imaginable. I wasn't trying to correct the way you fish or tell you what to do I was just trying to give everyone some input on what works for me. I believe every fish you catch no matter what species tells you a little something about that day’s pattern. I have fished the Delta for many years & have had many times where all you need to do is make one cast to a piece of cover to generate a strike but more times than not it has taken more than one cast to that object to get the fish to commit to my offering. Another thing a lot of anglers miss out on is that many times you can get several fish of the same piece of cover. These are just my observations & if I offended anyone like "mikenewman" I apologize since he seems to think I was either correcting the way you fish or criticizing you.

Tony P

P.S. Kayaks are a blast to fish out of & I to fish out of a kayak quite a bit just ask Ken Hanley.