How do I avoid water skiers/wakeboarders in the Delta?

[ElGuapo]

Launching out of Rivers End in Tracy this Saturday. I'm thinking I need to find narrower cuts/sloughs or sloughs that bend more to avoid these people. Suggestions appreciated.

[Cooch]

Fish at nite!

In all seriousness, for the next few months, you just have to pick yer spots accordingly where they are not. This could be in the big flooded lakes, marina's, 5 mph zones and far back reaches in shallow areas where they don't frequent. That section of the Delta, from River's End to Holland and accross to the San Jauqine River is the most heavily populated section with recreational users other than fishermen during the summer months. Even the east side of the SJ River from Tower to Whites, 14 Mile and all the way to Ladds can be just as bad if not worse at times.

For the most part, they are more problamatic to us fishermen in rocking the boat and creating unsafe conditions at time, but for the fish, they adjust and aren't affected too much other than are driven deeper and farther off the bank by the excessive wave action, hence it is prudent to fish deeper in many areas through out the summer or fish the shallow areas early before they come out, then go deeper later or into areas where they are not as the day wears on.

There really is no "avoiding them", nor can they avoid us, just gotta work it out and comingle.



Cooch

Launching out of Rivers End in Tracy this Saturday. I'm thinking I need to find narrower cuts/sloughs or sloughs that bend more to avoid these people. Suggestions appreciated.

[Revoke36]

Cooch gave some great advice. I find the yachts the most difficult to deal with. Some are inconsiderate of their wakes. Stay positive, drive with confidence and always be alert. We are just as guilty hot rodding around the twist and turns of the river

[MT]

They are actually a good thing on lakes this time of year because of the mudlines they create on points.

[davet.]

Avoid them?? Are you kidding? If you take out just five, you're considered an Ace.
On a good day, I'm sure I could take out at least 25 as there is no limit

[Burke]

It's hard to avoid them this time of the year. If you fish weekdays, there's normally fewer water skiers/wakeboarders out there. Picking narrower sloughs or sloughs with a lot of bends will help, but not always.

Here's two personal experiences with water skiers/wakerboarders/weekend cruisers in the delta that show their stupidity/inconsideration.

Story #1: We were fishing near a small pier at the end of Hog Slough where the slough is probably about 15 feet wide. At most, the water in the middle of the slough is about 5 feet deep and the edges are 1-2 feet deep. We were drop shotting near pilings when we heard the roar of a motor coming toward us. We looked up and saw a speedboat coming up the slough at a high speed. Both my cousin and I knew we were in trouble. We immediately dropped our rods on the deck and sat down. Both of us put our feet against the pilings to prevent the boat from being pushed against the pilings in case the boat didn't slow down. Good thing we did because the boat did not slow down. The boat generated 2 foot waves as it passed within 3 feet of us. Our boat would have been seriously damaged if we hadn't use our feet to keep the boat away from the pilings. The boat contained about 10 young people and they went to the end of the slough where the water is less than 2 feet deep. It was an outgoing tide so we were hoping they would stay long enough to get stuck in the shallow water. They stayed about 10 minutes and left. They left the same way they came in and we had to use our feet again to push against the piling to protect our boat.

Story #2: We were flipping the tules in Potato Slough where the slough is probably 150 feet wide. I hear the roar of a motor and looked up to see a 40-50 foot motorized cruiser coming toward us. The cruiser was about 100 yards away from us, but you can tell it was going fast because it was generating 4-5 foot waves. We immediately moved away from the bank and were probably about 40-50 feet way from the bank when the cruiser passed us. I yelled to the woman who was steering the cruiser to slow down. Her response was "I'm in the middle of the channel so I don't need to slow down". If we had continued our fishing instead moving toward the center of the slough, I'm sure the waves from the cruiser would have put our boat on the rocks. About 2 weeks later, in the same area, we heard that another cruiser traveling at high speed created waves that put one boat on the rocks and flipped a second boat. The cruiser didn't stop until another bass boat chased them down and told them about the accidents they created.

[clearlakeoutdoors]

fish from 5:30 -10:00am take a nap and go back out at 5pm
dave

[stubbs]

fish from 5:30 -10:00am take a nap and go back out at 5pm
dave

This is what we normally try to practice these days.

We were out this past weekend in the SJ River area...saw a houseboat drop anchor in the middle and the wind pushes them sidways and basically blocked half of the slough. Gotta love the number of boaters driving past them at high speeds giving them the finger....not a safe move for anyone. I think the houseboat eventually got the message and pulled up anchor and moved.

[mark poulson]

Do the world a favor. Take a digital picture of the boat, their CF#s, and the wake they generate, and turn them in.

[ElGuapo]

Sorry been busy with work this week and haven't had time to check this thread. All awesome advice! Thanks everyone. Really appreciate it.

Cooch - thanks for the tip about targeting farther off the bank and deeper. Never crossed my mind!

[Cooch]

Cooch - thanks for the tip about targeting farther off the bank and deeper. Never crossed my mind!

Amazingly, yer not alone and that is true fer most anglers who fish The Delta! What most anglers don't realize here, is that the fish "live" in 7-15 all the time, yet most anglers you see fishing this river are right on top of em and focusing on 0-6 feet, cause that's where they tend to have their best success, chasing those few shallow, agressive feeding fish. There's a far greater population of fish deeper here and many variables go into preventing the River bass from going shallow to feed with any consistancy, tide fluctuation, cold snaps and yes, recreational wave activity.

It's great when we find shallow, agressive feeders, they are the easiest of bass to catch here, but too often, we get caught in that 0-6 box and spend way too much time fishing non-productive water, versus backing off to find em. We fish deeper on lakes all the time, so why not here too. A bass is just a bass, no mater where they reside. Delta bass love their deeper haunts too!

[Fly'in V]

Avoid the issue if you can.

Try Pardee, there are some big green fish in that lake, and if you catch a trout by accident, you got supper!

Otherwise On the Delta at 5:00 and off by 11:00.

Or try Sherman!

Be safe and take care

Fly'in V

[Andy Giannini]

I try to hit areas that may get busy early.

Get them done, and then have a plan to fall back into marinas or out of the way sloughs that are less popular.

Also one time we were getting pissed at this ski boat that was waking us. And then we found the bite in tules got better after each wake. (Not saying this happens all the time, and have no idea why it was working.) But then we were looking forward to the next pass!

[Fly'in V]

You know what I have had the same thing happen, a wakeboard boat or a couple of cruisers go by and you get this little window where BAM it lunch time kids!

Fish well, have fun, be safe!

"Fly'in V"