Delta=tough :-/

[afchris]

I beat my head againts wall this weekend. Man, it's been tough out there. Any one else struggling? The big fish have yet to show themselves.

[Revoke36]

I've been waiting for this fantastical fall bite where all the fish are shallow, busting on shad. But all I've found is a lot of dinks. Same at Clear Lake. Last Fall I had an epic October and November and have been waiting all year to replicate. But I'm sure most of the let down is due to my lack of expierience. But at least I'm not the only one not catching the bigguns

[Vince Borges]

Havnt been able to get many giants the last few weeks, buts lots of 3-5lbrs. Most of the better fish for myself and clients have been in about 4-8' on TnT jigs. Brown with purple Dble Tail grubs. Also getting some better fish on the new River2Sea Biggie Pappa Crank in the "I Know It" color. Best part of the crank bite is the acidental striper bite! Most crank fish have been around grass edges and current breaks. High tide bite has Deffinately been the best for us the last few weeks!

[afchris]

Vince,

I gotten the same action on cranks and flipping small creature baits. But the BIG bite has yet to show itself. Last year October was rocking!! Lot's of action from big delta bass. This year.....nada. Looks like a lot of the stellar Delta Rats are running into the same issues. Just peeked at the results of the tourney out there last week. If Bobby Barrack and Dee Thomas are struggling...I don't feel so bad about what I've encountered. I just figured with the cooler water temps the action would be picking up.

I'll be out there this weekend to make sure it's still slow

[Cooch]

The big fish bite is indeed there guys, yer just not lookin in all the right places with the current conditions. We're catchin em in 4-8 foot in the grass, on jig-n-pigs. During my 5 trips last week, the first day was a bust for Tom & I cause I had continued to force feed em and look for em where I caught em on my previous week's of fishing. The second day we made the right adjustments and relocated a completely different pattern and the tactics we had ta use to git bit. We caught a ton of fish over the next 4 days and some really good ones included, here's a couple pics.

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Is the bite smokin hot, no it's not. Yet you can catch plenty of fish if'n ya make the right adjustments. Our bigger fish have indeed come on jigs. For me, the adjustment was getting away from plastic trailers and getting on that pork chunk! We had to change our plastics to green pumkin and weightless or dropshot 4" Senkos. We then figured out they would eat a 3" weightless craw. It was the only two plastics we coud git bit on, it took us an hour that 2nd day, going thru countless bags and boxes of plastics ta figure it out. Once we did, it worked all week. We had to change our standard Stacy and Pointer jerkbaits to teeny, tiny 4", reflective shallow Japanese jerk baits that only dove 6" in the water. We couldn't keep the fish off this lil bait and saw every single strike! I even switch from the shad square bills and lipless baits to a damn Cicada metal slab vibrator used to catch winter smallies ta git bit on reaction. Instead of a blade, Claymore(vibrating jig) or paddle tail Hammer swimbait, I started tossing my white bucktail HairRaiser with a bright 6" chartruese Hyper Stryper trail to catch those reaction fish. It's all about getting out of your comfort zones guys. 100s of guys a day are out there in this predominantly gin clear water of the Delta right now, all tossing the same baits in the same locations, entertaining the same poor results.

I didn't do a whole lot of fishing this past week each day as I drove countless miles around this Delta looking for my boat. Yet I took a jig rod and that hairaiser rod with me every day and could catch fish during the short periods when I just couldn't stand just driving around. The fish are there, and they are fattening up really nicely, you just gotta git out of yer comfort zone and stop tryin ta force feed em what ya did last year, even last month, cause as you have experienced, that ain't workin'!

[afchris]

Hey Cooch,

Thanks for your response! Gotta be honest I spent quite a bite of time reading some your articles when I moved out here. Good 411! Only got a few years to figure it out before it's on to the next location. Def helps shorten the learning curve.

Yesterday I changed tactics too. Wailed on em'! Funny thing is although the ambient temps are higher than normal the water temps are fairly consistent with this time of year. I didn't adjust to my fall baits fast enough. Glad to hear your on them on the ole jig and pig.

Sorry about the boat, but in the grand scheme of things everyone is safe and I'm sure you'll get a new even better one!

Carry on!

Chris