Tidal Water Trophies at the Wild West’s Duel on the Delta Presented by General Tire

Richard Dobys of Yuba City, Calif. wins the WWBT Duel on the Delta with 44.40 and lands the Yamamoto Toad of the day at 9.54.

 

OAKLEY, Calif. – The Wild West Bass Trail's (WWBT) dual Duel on the Delta at Big Break Marina presented by General Tire hosted 90 boats for the June 4 – 5 Pro/Am event and 94 boats for the May 14 Teams event.

Topping the pro side in the final two-day event of the 2016 California Pro/Am division was Richard Dobyns of Yuba City, Calif. Dobyns claimed the victory with a tournament total of 44.40, bolstered by the 9.54 big bass of the event, earning a total payout of $25,500.

Dobyns credited reaction baits and some luck for his win. “I didn’t do anything special by any means,” he said. “I fished aggressive and targeted post-spawners coming out of spawning areas (flats and pockets). I think I just got lucky and got the bigger bites.”

His better bite came on Saturday with 15 keepers. Sunday his keepers narrowed to 10.

“I thought the wind on Day 2 would help; but I didn’t end up catching more,” recalled Dobyns. “The first day, I ran a lot of spots (felt like about 45); but on the last day, I zeroed in on seven or eight. They just weren’t replenishing the way that I thought they would.”

Key features on his target locations included heavy current pushing weed flats and tule islands.

He modified his reaction presentation with the water depth and found no real lull in the bite on any specific tide. “In higher water, I threw crankbaits and ChatterBaits and when the water went out, I went more to topwater with basically anything that I could get over the weeds,” he explained.

Dobyns credited a mixed bag of lures each day, with his weigh fish falling to a white Whopper Plopper and buzzbait, a red Speed Trap and a bluegill-patterned ChatterBait. The Trap was responsible for the majority of his fish, including the nine.

“On the second day, I did knuckle-down and use a dropshot and a Senko to grab a quick limit,” he said. “But, I ended up culling all of those out, except for one nice one that I got on the dropshot.”

His varied presentation paid off, earning him the top pro payout of $13,500, plus contingency dollars from Evinrude, P-Line, Yamamoto and “Toad of the Day” and Ranger Cup for another $12,000.

 

FULL PRO RESULTS

 

2nd Nick Nourot

Beating out third place by little over a half pound, Nick Nourot of Benicia, Calif. took the runner-up position with 39.64. His big fish went 7.40.

Nourot attributed his success to Delta experience and persistence.

“Using my history on the Delta, I was sticking to areas where I had caught big ones before,” he said. “Most important, I made a change around mid-day on Day 2. I had a limit of about 21-lbs; but after that change, I was able to cull up to about 22 ½ and that moved me into 2nd from 5th or 6th.”

Nourot's strategy kept him in two areas on each of the competition days. He noted he caught fish in as little as one-foot and as deep as eight. He found abetter bite on the high outgo.

“The key was topwater over grass,” he said. “The first day, I caught 35 or 40 fish; but it was a lot of 1 ½ to 2-lbr’s. The bigger ones were harder to come by. I caught much less on the last day, but got two big bites.”

Both days a black/yellow Snag Proof Poppin’ Phattie added to his bag. On Day 1, he also used a punch rig with a variety of plastics and on Day 2, he added in a black/yellow Whopper Plopper and white spinnerbait.

“I caught my big fish on Day 1 on the punch rig and then on the second day, I only got the small ones with it,” said Nourot. “I moved probably 35-miles to catch my last two fish on the spinnerbait.”

Nourot banked $7,740 for his finish, including Lowrance contingency dollars.

 

READ RELATED: Over $138,000 paid at the WWBT Shasta Pro/AM presented by Super Clean

 

3rd Sean Minderman

Sean Minderman of Spokane traveled from Washington to the Delta for his first-ever WWBT Pro/AM. Weighing in 39.07, anchored by the second biggest bass of the weekend a 9.11, Minderman locked in a 3rd place finish. 

“I think my experience played a key part this weekend,” he said. “I’ve been coming down here to fish, every year for the past 25 years and I have my Ranger boat perfectly equipped for the shallow, weedy rough conditions of the Delta  my Lowrance to guide me through the many twists and turns and my Power-Poles to fight the wind.”

Ready for anything the Delta would throw his way, the first day Minderman concentrated on shallow banks that he had located in practice. “Day two was a lot different,” he said. “The fish weren’t as active and I wasn’t able to get them on any type of reaction baits. They had moved off of the banks and were out five or 10-ft from the tules.”

Minderman’s weigh fish came on a brown Strike King frog, Texas-rigged Yamamoto Senkos and Reaction Innovation Beavers and a dropshot with a 6-inch, Margarita Mutilator Roboworm. He chose a dark black/red flake color for his plastics in the morning and switched to a lighter pattern of Baby Bass or Oxblood in the afternoon.

“I changed to only plastics on Day 2,” he said.

The tide was an important factor for Minderman. “It was best in tthe morning; so I wanted to be on my best spots by 10 .am.,” he recalled. “Also the lower part of the tide (from 1-ft to dead-low) was a good bite for me. I wanted to stay away from the high slack.”

Minderman pocketed $5,500 for his efforts.

Follow the WWBT California Pro/Am season:

SHASTA RESULTS

OROVILLE RESULTS

1st Co – Josh Kaneko

Josh Kaneko of Berkeley, Calif. put together his second WWBT co-angler win of the season with a final weight of 30.79 and an 8.47 big fish. He will add the Delta crown to his early season trophy from Oroville.

Although he ended Day 1 with nearly a five-pound lead, Kaneko revealed he found it a tough day on the water. “I got six keepers with four baits,” he shared. “I got the 8-lb’r shortly after 10 a.m. The 'No Net' rule made it a very exciting fight and boating experience.”

His big bass ate a black-on-black double buzzer. It came out of 2-ft of water and hit at during the last part of the outgo. His other three baits were a bluegill ChatterBait, a watermelon/red flake Zoom Swamp Crawler on a dropshot and a punch rig with a Sprayed Grass Beav.

“I felt confident going in to Day 2; but that final day had a different set of challenges,” he added. The bluebird skies and windy conditions significantly impacted the day and I struggled to catch five – we really struggled to find a concentration of fish until the end of the day. For me, the second half of the day produced more bites on both days.

Kaneko only used two lures for his final day's fish. One ate a TNT Wadda Jig in Bobby Trap and the balance of his limit came dropshotting. He caught fish in depths from 6-inches to 12-ft.

Kaneko collected $6,500 for the co-angler victory. The payout included P-Line, Yamamoto and “Toad of the Day” contingency dollars.

 

FULL CO RESULTS

 

TEAMS 

1st Jones/Bitker

The WWBT CA Teams tidal water trophy went to Douglas Jones, of Nevada City, Calif. and Joe Bitker of Grass Valley, Calif. The partners eanred their victory with a seven-fish limit that went 32.13.

According to Jones, their slow, methodical approach was the key to their win. “We really picked our areas apart as opposed to running and gunning through a lot of spots,” he said. “We only had two main areas, with one of our best spots being in the marina. We picked up quite a few of them there and then we had another key spot off of the main channel. It was just a little stretch of bank that gave us our last two fish.”

Jones noted that rip-rap and weeds, adjacent to deep water were all features of the team’s productive locations.

The team boated about 20 fish for the day and noted they were equal parts pre and post spawners.

Mixing up their presentation was another decision for success. “The dropshot definitely was the key in catching fish; but we also used a spinnerbait (which was most productive later in the day), plastic worms and caught one on a topwater Spro rat in the morning,” revealed Jones. “We tried topwater and a glide bait until about 9:00 a.m., but only got that one.”

The team’s spinner was a ½-oz, white-on-white War Eagle with willow leaf blades. There were two worms credited for the bag, a green pumpkin Yamamoto Senko, rigged weightless and an unknown brand of a discontinued worm. “Luckily, we had a few packs,” said Jones. “It was long and skinny (like a Trick worm) and it was a milky green color with red flakes.”

This is the 6th year that Jones and Bitker have competed together. It is their first Delta win. They banked a total of $6,550, which included contingency dollars of $250 Yamamoto, $250 Lowrance and $250 P-Line.

2nd Durling/Durling

Hailing from Santa Rosa, cousins Wade and Joseph Durling came in a close 2nd. Trailing by less than a pound, the Durling team weighed seven bass for 31.44 and caught them all by a self-imposed time limit.

With a personal engagement to attend to, the Durlings planned to be off of the water around noon, giving themselves a weigh-in time of 12:30 p.m., giving them only four hours of fish time.

They traveled to the north-end of the Delta. “We targeted two dead-end sloughs with isolated patches of grass, along rip-rap walls,” said Joseph. “The water was dirty with visibility of only six-inches or so and the slack-low tide seemed to be best. That was weird; because usually on the Delta, you want moving water. For us, when the water started we just didn’t get bit as much.”

A single bait was credited for their tournament total.

“We both threw a 3/8-oz, homemade, blue gill-colored ChatterBait with a Zoom Super Fluke trailer,” said Joseph. “The trailer was green pumpkin. I started with a crawdad-colored crankbait in the morning; but I catching the quality, so we both ended up throwing the ChatterBait.”

Although in the past the Durlings enjoyed competing against one another, this season they joined forces to fish as a team. Their pairing paid off as in this event, they earned $3,750, including $500 Evinrude contingency dollars.

3rd – Romuar/Yang

Rouding out the top-3, Dave Romuar and Zeng Yang, both of Stockton, sacked up the only other 30-plus pound limit. The team’s seven fish came in at 30.58.

Romuar feels a different look to their ChatterBait gave them an edge.

“It’s not a big secret; everyone’s been on the ChatterBait bite,” he stated.  “We’ve been on it since January; but we’ve been hand tying our own colors and I think that and the trailer is what has been the key for us.”

While he wasn’t specific on the color thrown this gameday, Romuar reported using crawdad patterns, in order to mimic the forage. He chose not to disclose information on the trailer.

Their productive areas had water depths of 5-ft or less and limited visibility. They found the best bite on the incoming tide.  

“If we had clean water, it didn’t help the bite,” added Romuar. “We looked for anything from tinted to stained water and with the high winds on the Delta lately, we had no problem finding water with color to it.”

Over the course of the day, the team caught a total of 10 keepers from five areas.

“Two of the spots, we ran on two different tides,” he said. “That was where we got most of our weight; but it was more about the type of cover than the spot. We’ve really been trying to understand the weeds a lot better the last couple of months and I think that was also a key, because a lot of our areas had real good healthy weeds around them.”

The Romuar/Yang partnership is in its first year. Their Delta efforts gave the team $2,400. “I am humbled that we have done well against guys that I’ve been looking up to,” said Romuar in his final statement.

 

FULL TEAMS RESULTS

 

The WWBT Delta Pro/Am event had a total pro payout of $72,590 and co payout of $25,860.

The following contingency payouts were awarded:

$500 Run and Win with Lucas Oil to Jason Lazzerini (21st Co)

$500 Run and Win with Lucas Oil to Dan Daniel (47th Co)

$500 Run and Win with Lucas Oil to Shaun Heaney (62nd Co)

 

The WWBT Delta Teams event had a total payout of $29,400.

The following contingency payouts were awarded:

$500 Yamamoto Toad of the Day to Sarnecki/Parra

$500 Run and Win with Lucas Oil to Lawrence/Nevills

$300 Evinrude to Thompson/Caron

$200 Evinrude to Tripp/Green

 

The California Teams division will meet for a two-day, year-end championship at Clear Lake, Calif. on June 11 – 12.

The WWBT Lucas Oil Western Class Pro/Am Championship will meet for a year-end qualifying event at Lake Mead on Sept. 30 – Oct. 2.

The WWBT debuted in 2016 with 17 events that include two Pro/Am and two Teams circuits – one based in California and the other in Arizona. Each Pro/Am circuit consists of three tournaments and a combined, year-end qualifying championship event. The Teams circuit includes four tournaments and a year-end championship.

A special thanks to all of the WWBT sponsors – Lucas Oil, Ranger Boats, Evinrude, Lowrance Electronics, Dobyns Rods, General Tire, Add-A-Wrap, Protect the Harvest, Gator Guards, P-Line, Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Power-Pole, Industrial Decals, Hydro Force Marine, Super Clean and E3 Spark Plugs.