Hit the Delta with my 5 wt. rod in the inflatable kayak for a few hours again today. Got there just before high slack tide and noticed some activity, with fish breaking baitfish on top. Beautiful day, pretty calm for the most part. Tied on a size 2 red/white Tap's Bug and immediately picked up 2, including a small striper, by rapidly stripping (i.e., ripping) the bug across the surface. Hooked 4 others as well, including what seemed like a couple of really good fish, but they all got unbuttoned during the fight. Got 3 of those others by ripping, got one of 'em using a pause and twitch retrieve -- this latter one was a fun fish, as he left the water about a foot away from my fly and came down on top of it. I also had one suck the bug under like a vacuum cleaner, creating a big boil but no hookup. Missed a number of other good hits as well.
Continued to fish through the slack tide but the action pretty much died. Later on, activity picked up again somewhat and I ended up bringing 3 more largemouths to hand -- a 12" and a couple of 13". The latter two were good strong, hard-fighting fish, especially the last 13"er that just stayed down and bulldogged my 5 wt. The first of the two 13"ers went airborne to get at my ripping bug, sailing through the air a good 2 feet before crashing into it. I missed several other strikes as well. Alas, it was time to leave even though I was still seeing some sporadic activity.
After I packed the car, I again took a moment to look down at the water for a little bit. I saw a striper between 24" - 30" come straight up through a school of baitfish and come straight up out of the water all the way up to its tail like an Orca, and then slip back down without a splash. Awesome! I had never seen that before.
All in all, another GREAT day on the Delta -- 5 fish to hand, including a striper, all caught on the surface, and got to fight others as well. Fished the entire time with one Tap's Bug, the same one I fished with the last time. Still looks good enough to fish another day as well, gotta love those sturdy deerhair bass bugs.
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