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California Delta and Reports

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Tuesday, December 1st, 2020

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    Report: by floater » Tue Dec 01, 2020 3:09 am

    We caught over 20 stripers recently by boat. About 1/3 shakers & the rest keepers. Topwater in the mornin and 15 to 25ft when the sun is overhead. Mainly on north side of False River above Franks, False River near Big Break, Santa Clara shoal, and San Andreas shoal on the SJ River. Except for fishing over the shoals, we were always looking for steep sloping shores (bluff walls) with deep water nearby during the day. Unlike bass fishing, stripers are always on the move. Meaning you gotta keep moving to different locations all day. We probably hit 25 spots besides those above. We got most of our bites wherever there was moving current. Hope that helps.

Monday, November 2nd, 2020

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    Water Temp: Morning 58% Afternoon 60%

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Found fish starting to pull off the banks and into deeper water-six to eight feet deep. Jerk baits still working well for lots of small fish. Bigger fish comming on 6in. Sinkos-not great fishing but slow and steady-average 6 hour day has been producing 25 fish. 15 dinks-5 just keepers-5 fish between 2 and 3 lbs. Seeing lots of big fish cruising but they have not been takers for me. P.S. Docks have been productive-Punch bite OK-no top water action for me-good luck.

    Tips: Water clarity is close to 10 feet so make long cast and pay attention to boat position. The river is full of bait both shad and split tail so I'm going to start trying to match the hatch a little more.

Wednesday, October 21st, 2020

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    Water Temp: 67-68%

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the central Delta. Slow but steady. Short bite windows that are productive between lots of looking. Punching and dock fishing drop shots and wacky sinkos has been my go to. You must wade through small fish but a good supply of 2 to 3 lb. fish will follow.-no toads but I have missed a couple of punch bites that may have tured my day around. No top water bite for me-stayed out till dark and tried to force the top water bite-no go.

    Tips: The fishing has been productive but not on fire-Best period has been incomming high tide-slows for me when tide starts moving out. Bite windows are short so keep grinding and good things will happen

Friday, October 9th, 2020

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    Report: by Fryle » Fri Oct 09, 2020 1:10 pm

    I was out yesterday as well 7-12pm and caught them on walking baits and senkos. Tried chatter, spinner, flipping the grass on low tide, and frogging but nothing on that. Walking bait seemed to be the only thing working, the smaller baits as well as 3lb on the larger strike king mega dawg.

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    Report: by Dan Dunsford » Fri Oct 09, 2020 8:16 am

    We fished the Delta yesterday (10/8). The reaction baits didn't work for us except for a couple small ones. We did our best on 6" senkos. However it was still a tough bite. Water temp was 71 degrees, still warm for a fall bite. Just my two cents.

Saturday, September 26th, 2020

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    Report: Here's a Delta report... after a couple tough weeks on the Motherlode lakes, my son and I decided to take a trip down to the Delta.
    We put in at Paradise point on Friday and noticed the surface temperature was 71° and the water was slightly stained. I started throwing a topwater bait with no luck, but my son, Brian immediately started catching a lot of small fish. He was throwing a Yamamoto Senko on a Frenzy Baits Wack-a-Sack.
    We made our way to the middle Delta and we figured out the bigger fish came on current points with water pushing on them, when I say bigger I mean 2lb + fish, so we decided to fish the River Rat tournament out of B&W on  Saturday.
    On Saturday, we stayed in the middle Delta concentrating on any kind of points that had current pushing on them... weed  points ,tule points, rock points ,etc. We caught fish on all of them. It just had to have moving water on them.
    On Saturday we cought 9 keepers on 5” green pumpkin Senkos with the wack-a-sack and 3 fish pitching a 1/2 oz Bass Union heavy cover flipping Jig with a craw trailer. For both techniques we used Gamma braid with a Gamma fluorocarbon leader.
    We finished in 4th place and I had a great time fishing with my son.
    I hope this helps.
    Good luck fishing.
    Stan L

Thursday, September 10th, 2020

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    Water Temp: *74

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The Delta has been fair but steady if you'te willing to work. Been fishing the central Delta-worms and punch bite is fair to good on the high out going tide-first 2 hours after ebb high has been my best action-T/rig worms and punching beavers has been the ticket. Top water has been tough with mostly small fish responding. No takers on Chatterbaits or other reaction baits. If you need action take out the spinning rod and tie on a white fluke for lots of dinks.

    Tips: Keep your baits in the shade and be persistent. 6in. kut tail worms in standard colors should do the trick.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 78-79

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched at Paradise about 6am (high tide) and waited for the sun to rise. Worked the inside rockwall that parallels Disappointment heading toward King's... picked up a lot of dinks and almost-keepers working plastics (Ned, Neko, dropshot, wacky senko). Was curious about the crank bite so threw a chrome/blue floating rat-l-trap and immediately was bit by a 1.5lber. Wondered if this was just a fluke so kept throwing it and caught 2 more along the rip rap wall. Then it stopped. Decided to go back to plastics and decided to try some Yamamoto Mermaids I thought I'd take a chance on. I got bit on every cast but was a mixture of 8-10"ers and a couple of 1lbers, but they were likin' the mermaid (I was using Okeechobee Craw and Wtrmln/Lt Wtrmln Blk Red Lami) ... they like em both. But I gotta say they are fragile baits and as with most Yamamoto baits, 'spensive as heck!! The bait stealers would hack off the claws and even chomp em in half. I didn't care at the time because I just wanted fish on the hook and they were working. Made a run to White Slough and continued with the neds and t-rigged mermaids, catching better keepers but nothing over 2.5lbs. Decent day but can't wait for the lipless crank bite. Maybe Oct/Nov? I don't actually know but that's what most of the tourney guys tell me.

    Tips: Not qualified to give tips but I'll tell you what put fish on the hook for us this day... I looked for pockets in the weed and veggie mats and also threw to the tules and worked em outward into the weed mats. Depth was 3-12 feet. Neds worked early on using Junebug, PB&J, and MMIII then I switched to the mermaids. Started with the Wtrmln/Lt Wtrmln Blk Red Lami color and ran out after catching and bait stealers tearing em up. Switched to Okeechobee Craw color and the bite frequency increased...maybe just got lucky in the area we tried on White Slough. Anyways, they're fish catchers but not sure i wanna spend Yamamoto $$$s ... gonna try the Cowboy next and will have another bag of Mermaids, but likely will stick with SK Rage and Menace.... they work too! Maybe concentrate on punching next time out.

Friday, July 3rd, 2020

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    Report: by HappyDogBassFishing » Fri Jul 03, 2020 7:37 pm

    Here is my last week of June fishing report. Overall the fishing was fun even though I did not find tournament winning sized fish. I was able to put a few limits around 15 or 16 pounds throwing the usual stuff: walking baits, buzzbaits, bladed jigs, punching, etc. Once in a while I found them school up and could pick off a few in the same spot. So fishing fast until the bites came and then staying on them paid off.

Thursday, July 2nd, 2020

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    Water Temp: 72 to 76

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished the Central Delta area yesterday and caught 36 bass. Our best five might have gone 7 pounds. Yes! Out of 36 bass, plus the 24 my partner caught, about 90 percent were under 12 inches. We fished rip-rap as well as tullie islands and points, and whatever. No hits on the frog but I did catch one on a wopper plopper, nothing on a swim jig, and two or three on a chatterbait, and a few on a drop shot. Everything else was on the good old senko. My best fish was 3.68 pounds and there were maybe five more that were between 12 and 13 inches. It seemed a little unusual with that many dinks but we still had a good time because of all the action.

Friday, June 26th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 74-76

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Launched Paradise @545am, first time back on the delta since the "stay home" thing. Decided to just start fishing the tules along Disappointment... picked up a few almost keepers to 1 pounders on dropshot, senko-type, ned, and a couple blow-ups but no hookup on buzzbait...nothing on the squarebills til we ran into lots of stripers (shakers) boiling every couple hundred yards. Fun gettin' bit on the cranks with a lot of 17"ers but no keeper stripers. Headed down to the San Joaquin / Tinsley, picked up a few more stripers and a few 1 and 2 lbers on squarebill, senko-type sticks, and neds. Moved out to the main river and fished the banks of the San Joaquin picking up a few more 1 lbers on same variety of baits. Since it was Friday, wanted to beat the traffic so moved back up and fished Disappointment in various spots leading back to Paradise. Lost a nice one, don't have a clue on size/weight, but it bit my white jackhammer chatterbait and then the #$%^&ing FG knot came undone...same leader I had caught several on the cranks. Found the jackhammer in about 5ft on a tule point so was able to get it back. I'm done with FG... going back to Alberto, Albright, and Double Uni knots for joining my leaders but to perfectly honest, gonna do away with fluoro leaders as I never had problems using straight braid prior to trying leaders...only reason I went to leaders is because everyone kept saying I ought to. Well I found no difference except losing a few fish and if it was my joining knot on the FG, then fine, I admit it so I'll just eliminate that single point of failure by not using an FG anymore...never had failure on double-uni, albright, or alberto.

    Tips: Not qualified to offer tips but plastics on dropshot, wacky, ned, and neko, squarebills using stop and go retrieve (lots of hits on the pause), and a few on swim senkos worked for us in 5-12 ft water.

Wednesday, June 17th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 69 to 71

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Buddy Doug and I planned a trip to the Delta today. He was at my house about 5:15 AM and we discussed "go or not go" because of the wind but we decided to go. Glad we did. Wind was a bitch and I lost my shade giving large-brim hat, but Doug got his personal best at 6 1/2 lbs and 22 inches, while I got two that were right at 4 lbs. There were just a few other fish but our best five would have been near 16 lbs. I threw a lot of different baits but Senkos saved the day for us. I know the heading shows Almaden Lake but I did not see the Delta listed at all.

    Tips: Most bites came from tule clumps and under irregation pipes. Plain rip-rap produced very few bites.

Saturday, May 30th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My son and I fished out of Russo's Marina while the wind had dropped off for a few hours. We did get caught in the rain but that just fired up the bite. We headed to the back of Franks track, found an area out of the wind and started tossing a Green Shaky Head with a watermelon or Green Pumpkin 6 inch senko with a tail. We caught 22 decent sized fish with the biggest just under 3lbs. So much fun and so happy to be back on the water.

Friday, May 15th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 69

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went out to fish incoming tide got on about 8am, wind was steady most of day 8-10 mp, water was clear but wind helped provide cover. Not the best day but found a solid spinnerbait bite around noon fishing over tall grass an cover. Had a couple bites on the senko fishing tooley edges. Frog but should be picking up

    Tips: Launches are busy almost everyday, plan accordingly

Thursday, May 7th, 2020

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    Report: by StanL » Thu May 07, 2020 9:03 pm

    My wife Kelly and I got out on the Delta last week and did some looking around.
    I’m starting to get ready for the WWBT tournament in June hopefully. The fishing in general was pretty tough. The Surface temperature wasaround 70degrees and most of the Delta is as clear as a swimming pool. It was not what I was expecting.

    We saw a lot of fish on beds but we weren't looking to target those fish. We were trying to figure out a pattern. After a lot of different baits, the Senko seemed to be the only thing that we could get bit on with any consistency. Every fish we caught was on a Senko and it was at the end of fairly long cast after we just let it set there. Most of the fish came on flats with sparse tules.

    I hope this helps good luck fishing and most of all be safe!!

    One more thing I’m seeing a few tackle stores like Fisherman‘s Warehouse and Hook'd in Ione are reopening and being a small business owner myself, please do what you can to support local business.
    Thanks!!
    Stan

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    Report: by StanL » Thu May 07, 2020 9:03 pm

    Fishing the California Delta

    My wife Kelly and I got out on the Delta last week and did some looking around.
    I’m starting to get ready for the WWBT tournament in June “hopefully”. The fishing in general was pretty tough. The Surface temperature wasaround 70 degrees and most of the Delta is as clear as a swimming pool. It was not what I was expecting.

    We saw a lot of fish on beds but we weren't looking to target those fish. We were trying to figure out a pattern. After a lot of different baits, the Senko seemed to be the only thing that we could get bit on with any consistency. Every fish we caught was on a Senko and it was at the end of fairly long cast after we just let it set there. Most of the fish came on flats with sparse tules.

    I hope this helps good luck fishing and most of all be safe!!

    One more thing I’m seeing a few tackle stores like Fisherman‘s Warehouse and Hook'd in Ione are reopening and being a small business owner myself, please do what you can to support local business.
    Thanks!!
    Stan

Thursday, April 2nd, 2020

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    Water Temp: 59-61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: The Delta has had some really good fishing for a lot of people so far this year. some believe it's showing its former glory again, I personally haven't been blessed to have fished the delta my whole life like a lot of others, but if the delta is beginning to rebound to it's true self again, then we are in for some superb fishing the rest of 2020. On this Day my Buddy Mark Vis took me out on his boat for an afternoon session. keeping our 6 ft social distancing We launched out of B&W at around 1130 and fished till sun down. we started the day making a run to the Mandeville Island area. the wind was blowing strong out of the North West at 10-15 mph, and the tide was still rising so I started throwing a spinnerbait and he started with a chatterbait. I got the first fish a healthy 2.55 pound fish. Mark got a few short strikes on a chatterbait but nothing to speak of. As the tide slacked out we moved into the flooded pond and started fan casting the northern bank with senkos, Drop shots, and flukes. The water temp was 59-61 degrees so we expected to see fish on beds but the wind made it nearly impossible. Mark was able to pick up a 5.31 and a couple more dinks on the outside edge of the penny warp as we worked down the bank. We continued to fish Mandeville for a while longer with very little action so we made a move towards false river, where the tide was beginning to move again. we started flipping a pretty well known swift current bank and were able to get a lot of small bites, and when I say small I mean this years spawn small, LOL. So we made a move to go look for some bigger bites. We moved into Owl Harbor where I've seen some big ones move in and spawn this time of year, and it paid off. I was able to get 7.03 and 4.18 in there fan casting a drop shot with a watermelon red flake dream shot. we got a few more bites in there but just couldn't keep them pinned. we moved to some marina's to finish out the day where vis completed our limit with a 2.33 pound fish on once again the drop shot. We ended the day with a 5 fish limit of 21.42, if we could of culled out our 2 pounders we would of had a way better bag, but sometimes that's the way it goes. We didn't get a lot of bites but the quality was there. we just needed to execute a little better. This time of year gets tough. the fish are mostly in spawn mode so a lot people struggle to get bit, me included. That is why I start downsizing or up sizing to get bit. For me what I've noticed is its really only a two week period where the fish just get finicky. they either only want to eat something small and subtle or they go to the whole other side of the spectrum and go crazy for a fast moving swim bait, like a Glide bait or a Osprey of some sort. at least that is how it goes for the first few weeks of the spawn until fish start transitioning to the post spawn. This is just a theory of course and not an absolute but I feel like its because bass are mostly territorial this time of year, they don't have food on the mind, all they want to do is make babies. They bite the things that piss them off and interrupt there ritual and that is why one of my favorite pre spawn/spawn techniques is a drop shot. I can fan cast spawning areas and work it really slow leaving it directly in front of a bass or within its territory for a longer period of time. which for me really helps with getting those bigger bites. I think things are going to be changing soon. Some bass are already starting to transition into some post spawn habits. I will hopefully get back out there soon and break down for y'all what exactly that is but I have feeling its going to have something to do with swim baits and frogs. Until next time stay safe, from the Covid19, and keep on Livin Fast and Catchin Bass.
    Website: https://www.livefastmovementoutdoors.com/
    Instagram/Facebook: @livefastmovement

Wednesday, March 11th, 2020

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    Water Temp: 62-64

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I was lucky enough to get out on the water this week while we had some nice weather, the fish were definitely up and moving around shallow, trying to get things done before more bad weather rolls in this weekend. I went to the same area as my last report and started sight fishing with a senko. I saw a lot of bucks and a few bigger fish cruising the shallows, nothing giant but some good 5-6 pound fish. I was able to pick off a few 2-3 pound fish on the senko but the big ones weren't having it, at least until I switched to a fluke. that subtle change made the big ones willing to eat. I was able to pick up 2 fish over 5 on the fluke, but just as I was starting to figure them out. slack tide hit and the cruisers disappeared and the ones I did see were not interested in anything but spawning. I found a couple of smaller fish on beds and was stoked to catch my first bed fish of 2020. I started punching the submerged hydrilla and it didn't take long for me to get bit. I was able to sack up a pretty decent bag over the next couple hours punching the inside grass line as the tide was rising. I ended the day with a little over 22 pounds for 5 fish. My big fish of the evening came punching weighing in at 5.98. I definitely saw some bigger fish cruising around but unfortunately they kicked my butt and wouldn't bite anything I was throwing at them. in conclusion, the first wave of fish are doing there thing right now. Water temps where I was fishing were between 62-64 degrees. the water is clear and makes it a lot easier for sight fishing but unfortunately if you can see them they can probably see you. your best bet is to back off and fan cast these spawning areas with something weightless and subtle to get those big bites. you may need to weed through the bucks but eventually you will get the bite your looking for. you can also come back to these areas at low light and try to pick off the bigger ones with top water frogs, wake baits, or swim baits. I hope everyone finds these beneficial, I really enjoy writing these reports and if anyone wants some more information feel free to hit me up on Instagram @livefastmovement or check out my website www.livefastmovementoutdoors.com Unfortunately my boat is still down due to some motor issues and i'm unable to book any trips till it is up and running. But if your looking for a guide in the mean time go check out by buddy Austin Barker at https://www.austinbarkkfishing.com/ he's a stick and will definitely get you on some fish. Till next time make today a good day, take someone new fishing and don't forget to live fast and catch bass.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2020

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    Report: by nivanov30 » Wed Mar 04, 2020 6:37 pm

    Quick report on CA Delta. Launched at Orwood around 9:15am. Fished central/south delta. Didn't get bit until around 11am. Had a decent ~15lbs bag by 1:30pm by which time it slowed down again. Biggest was ~5. All fish came on squarebills (just look for 60F+ water temp + some clarity). Plenty of cruisers and many bucks on beds.

Monday, March 2nd, 2020

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    Water Temp: 59-62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: My boat is in the shop again, but that's not going to stop me from getting out there this time of year. So I dusted off the Kayak and dumped her in at one of my favorite spots. This area right next to highway 12 on the banks of the Sacramento river is where I first learned to fish the California Delta. I launched the kayak at the tail end of the falling tide around 1000-1030 am. I started out throwing a red craw colored lipless crank to see if I could get on a reaction bite with the last good hour of water movement. I had no luck except for one fish in the 3 pound range that followed it right up to the kayak. With the tide almost bottomed out and little to no current or wind I started punching. I caught my first fish on my second punch with a Cali Craw D bomb. a healthy 3 pound pre-spawn female. I let her go and preceded down the bank punching isolated grass patches. I got bit almost like clock work on the grass patches that had wood mixed in it, like a laydown, bush, or piece of drift wood. All my fish punching were decent quality, with the biggest weighing in at 4 pounds. As I worked the bank back to a spawning pocket. I began seeing multiple fish cruising the shallows looking for there best spawning locations and getting ready to do the deed. Seeing some fish in the 7-8 pound class swimming right by me and not wanting anything to do with my lure is extremely frustrating but I assure you these fish can be caught in a conventional way. I began throwing a weightless swimbait on the surface to see if I could draw a reaction bite from one of the big ones cruising the shallows, and that seemed to be the right move because I preceded to catch 20+ fish over the course of the next couple hours ranging from 1 pound to 3 pounds. Yes! Nothing giant but definitely a fun day of fishing. The tide began rising again around 230 pm which only seemed to help the bite. I ran out of swimbaits by 4 pm and had to switch to a rage toad which didn't really give me the same result. I fished until sun down cycling from top water to punching with some bites here and there but nothing big. I got off the water at 545 pm with a beautiful sunset and counted the day as a success. The last week we have had a 3 or 4 day warming trend which really helped the surface temps rise and get these fish to make a move for the shallows. The warmest water I found was 62 degrees in the back of a spawning pocket. The water has been much clearer this year compared to years past and it is definitely making it tougher to get a reaction bite on moving baits like a lipless crank and a squarebill. I am honestly a little surprised I was able to get so many bites on top, with the clear water and the water temps just barely getting over 60 degrees in most spots. We had a cold front move in this weekend bringing some wind and colder night time temps which should slow these fishes roll a little bit. One more thing before I finish up this report, I know this time of year can be tough for a lot of fisherman but please do not go around snagging fish in the shallows with treble hooks. First of all its illegal and will get you in big trouble with Fish and Game, but also its unsportsmanlike. Anyone can go around Mike Longin (aka snagging) fish and say they caught them using traditional methods but that would make you a liar and honestly an unethical person. Please do your best to take good care of the fish you catch. This means releasing the fish right away after you catch them. This helps the future bass populations and puts less stress on the fish. This time of year is notorious for poaching so keep an eye out and if you see any suspicious activity call California Fish and Games Tip line at 1800-541-4591. I hope everyone has the opportunity to get out this time of year and go bass fishing. It truly is one of the best times of the year to catch a lot of fish and your biggest fish ever. If you want to get in on the action feel free to contact me and book your trip. If you are a veteran, active military, or a first responder can enter the giveaway going on my Instagram page until Thursday March 5th. Until next time remember to Live Fast and Catch Bass!
    Website: livefastmovementoutdoors.com
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