It's been a little different year for Northern California, with plenty of rain and an extended period of colder-than-usual weather. This has delayed the bite on some fisheries, but APEX pro Luke Johns says that things are picking up just about everywhere right now.
The young pro is just two months removed from winning the APEX Championship on Lake Folsom in February and says that Folsom and many other lakes are fishing great this Spring and will continue to get better as the weather continues to warm.
"It seems like everywhere is a little behind this year, but Folsom, my home lake, is fishing great right now," he said. "The Delta has been a little tough, but Clear Lake has been awesome. It seems like they are biting on all of the lakes."
Folsom, Shasta, and Oroville
Johns spends most of his time on Folsom, but the rains have helped all three fisheries tremendously, filling them up quickly. This should only help the fishing this year and for years to come.
One thing that Johns has welcomed about Folsom's rising water levels is the largemouth bite. He says it has been improving in the past few years, but the higher water has put many of the trees and bushes along the shoreline into the water and he and others have been having great success with the largemouth lately.
"When the water rises, it pulls the largemouth to that shallow cover and they get easier to locate," he said. "It's cool to target largemouth on a place dominated by spotted bass, and I've been catching some big ones this Spring. On my last trip out, I had a seven and a four-pounder."
One of his top tactics is the tried-and-true Yamamoto Senko he fishes weightless around shallow trees.
"The banks are flooded and there are a ton of trees with leaves still on them," he said. "I like to throw a Senko around them because the fish are suspended and hanging around the trees and they want something falling slowly past them. Topwater baits are another good option and that bite will keep getting stronger."
Later into Spring and into Summer, Johns will be employing the new Yamamoto Baits Yamatanuki. It's a dense plastic and bite-sized profile that can be fished weightless but still sinks quickly.
"It's going to be great for summer fishing and targeting bridge pilings on all of these lakes," he said. "The pilings always hold fish waiting for bait to blow by them. Having a bait that is finessy but still falls quickly will be great. It will also be a good tool for casting to fish you see on your forward-facing sonar."
Wrapping up Spring on the Delta
Last month, Johns competed in the inaugural Western Bass Shootout on the Delta. He had a great showing, finishing in 4th place. The bite has improved since then, but he shared some tips about how he approaches the fishery this time of year.
"The Delta is always going to have your staples that work during the spring," he said. "It's always a mix of a ChatterBait, squarebill, spinnerbait, and flipping and punching. Plus, you have to have a Senko in there, too."
Johns likes the Yamamoto Cowboy and Flappin' Hog creature baits for punching.
"The Cowboy is my favorite, but the Flappin' Hog is a little more subtle," he shared. "The biggest thing on the Delta is finding places with a canopy to punch, but you also want to look for areas with grass growing from the bottom because this is where the bass will be hiding. Finding the right mats with what I'm looking for takes a while, but they are out there."
For his ChatterBait fishing, he likes a Yamamoto Zako as the trailer and said to look for any mixture of cover. "I always look for some variation of two things," he began. "It might be grass and rock or grass and tules, just something where it's two different things instead of vast expanses of one type of grass or cover."
For Senko fishing on the Delta, he keeps it simple by wacky-rigging a 5-inch version and Texas-rigging a 6-inch bait, all in some green pumpkin shade.
"I like all of the green pumpkin hues, but my favorite is light green pumpkin with small red flake," he said. "That's really my go-to everywhere in Northern California."
Luke Johns is one of the rising stars in the western tournament scene and seems to catch them everywhere he goes. He's already having a great start to the season and says fishing is getting better throughout the region. He believes it will continue to improve this summer with more water in the lakes.
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