Delta 12-03-06

[Hairstacker]

Hit the Delta today in my inflatable kayak with a plan to focus on stripers and largemouths. Since the rest of you fellas have been experimenting with alternatives to fishing with Clousers, I was inspired to play around at the vise and I came up with this:



It takes on the profile and translucense of a baitfish when wet, and I really thought it would be the ticket for some stripers and largemouths. It is 3-inches long and I tied it on a size 2/0 wide-gapped hook. Thus, I was really shocked when I got into a string of these with it:





Yep, I seem to have stumbled on a GREAT crappie fly. (For crappies, though, I would definitely recommend a smaller hook. ) After pestering a number of crappie and getting no other species, I decided to switch to my trusty size 1/0 chartreuse/white flashtail Clouser. I didn't see any striper activity at all today and didn't hook any either. But I did get into largemouths by tossing up against rock levee walls:





These are two photos of the same fish, which at 15" was the biggest one I caught today. He was a pretty blocky fish and put up a GREAT fight, bending my 7 wt. over and dunking its tip into the water. He hit the Clouser while it was paused. The ticket today for largemouths seemed to be to give the fly a couple of hard strips, then let it pause for at least 3 or 4 seconds, then repeating. The rest I caught were around 12" or less.

It was a beautiful, warm day today on the Delta with no wind to speak of. A great fishing day even if there was no signs of stripers. I think it's pretty cool that we can still catch largemouths on the fly even though we're now in December. Just gotta love the Delta!

[Katz]

Great report. You just never know what is going to be coming after that fly in the Delta. Thanks for all the great details.

Kraig

[jbird]

Mike
I really enjoyed those photos. I like the 1st bass pic. I cant quite put my finger on why, but its a really special shot! Great Job!!

J

[Hairstacker]

Thanks guys!

Yeah Jay, I must admit I was also struck by how that 1st bass photo came out. You should see what it looks like full screen. It must be the extreme contrast between the bright light reflections and the dark areas of the photo, like the rocks, and the fact my shirt sleeve is in color while the rest of the photo almost looks black and white. Pretty cool how it turned out although I was really just trying to get an interesting photo of the fish.

[David Lee]

Good stuff there , Mike !!

As you know .... I'll drop everything when I can thump a bunch of Crappies . We should do a Sunfish trip in the spring

Is that a SINKING LINE I see ??!??

David

[Hairstacker]

David, no, it's a sink-tip -- Orvis Wonderline Bass Bug Taper WF-8-F.