Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

I was amazed this weekend, both Saturday & Sunday, at the sheer number of bass fishermen, completely ignoring the 5mph restrictions outside the Mildred area during the 2 hour period around the high tides! 1 hour before the high tide, until 1 hour after the high tide, unless you are inside of Mildred, you ARE NOT allowed to exceed 5mph at NO WAKE! Sunday we counted 27 bass boats running out there when they shouldn't have been, and only 1 boat at no wake, while being passed and blown by 5 bass boats.

The OES has made some adjustments to the Restrictions as of Friday. Some of the areas in the upper southern region, that were previously shaded in pink and deemed "Full Restriction in affect", have now been modified to orange with the modified restriction where movement and access is allowed,(this includes Victoria Canal, Woodard and Whiskey Sloughs) and the 2 hour before and after high tides is now in affect. They have modified the window outside of Mildred to 1 hr before and 1 hr after high tide. This would be the sloughs of Latham, Middle RIver, Connection and Empire that surround the outer reaches of Mildred. Any water way in this orange zone, not surrounding Mildred, is in the no MPH zone 2 hrs before and after high tide.

Attached is the updated link to the OES and the new map and closure details. You can also plug into your cell phone the OES office's number, 209-953-6200. Don't listen to or count on the dock talk, call OES, it's really simple, I do it every morning at 9:00am when I'm out there to get updates from Jessica, she's really good and informative.

Please adhere to these restriction folks, the Delta levees and our access depend on it. Bass fishermen are the worst offenders right now, and if we don't start following the law as it is out there right now, serious consequence are to follow. The Delta bass fishing is about to bust loose, we don't want to be the culprits of a complete closure or potential levee failure!

https://www.sjgov.org/department/oes/pd ... ures-5.pdf

Thanks for posting this, Cooch. I feel like I'm one of the very few that are trying to obey the speed limit.

I fully understand the temptation to ignore the speed limit since a trimmed out bass boat on plane probably throws the smallest wake of all powered watercraft on the Delta.

Yes I agree good post. Growing up it was more or less engraved in us by our elders to respect other fisherman, posted signs and our fishing grounds and habitat. Seems like those days are out the window i guess most bass fisherman nowadays would rather look cool and do 60 mph down the sloughs no matter what condition. Pretty much same class as wake boarders. No respect.

its crazy i told a couple of guys that came scootin in and shut down near me.......They both looked at me like they had no idea.....!!! (insert colorful language here) are you kidding me!!!!!

The real question Cooch is how man of those boats were in a tournament last weekend and doing this......I fished a toc last month and heard a bunch of people were not obeying the restrictions. BBT is coming in a couple of weeks and there will be 100 plus boats. I hope people will play fair and obey the restrictions if they are still in effect.

Just need a patrol out there issuing a ticket and word will spread fast. Have not seen any patrol boat out there yet. He better have extra books as he'll run out fast. Just look at Mildred where it use to. be SOLID tules and now you have island breaks .Was out in Connection today fishin and 6 bass boat flew by me around noon just before high tide

Also if your out there and you see a patrol boat with flashing lite next to another boat, you better slow down to 5 mph or he pull you over. That flashing blue lite hard to see as not that big.

As strict as most tournaments are about obeying laws, I'm surprised the current speed limit hasn't been strongly encouraged. It would most certainly add an interesting twist for guys not being able to get to some of their best spots because of geographics and travel time.

I watched numerous "tournament" boats completely ignore the restrictions. Money and bragging rights make guys do funny crap.

I will say that the complete lack of postings at launch ramps is neglect on the state/counties. If they don't care enough to post the restrictions then its hard to enforce. We post limits on roads , they can post them at launch sites.

Hopefully they lift the restrictions soon. It'd be nice to be able to fish some of that area.

First off, I completely agree with the closures/speed limitations 1hour before/1 hour after high tide.

I haven't seen ANY posting of any limitations at any of the ramps I've launched at in the past month. If an angler doesn't get onto Western Bass, or doesn't research the closures on the Internet, how are they supposed to know??? Before I get blasted for saying that, I'm just throwing that out there. Not sure if OES has gone to each and EVERY marina on our delta to educate/inform them of the closures, and also physically posted the restrictions at EVERY RAMP (not just the marinas located in the south near the closures, because we all know you can run the entire delta in a bigger bass boat no matter where you launch from, or how far north you launch). I know this information is on other websites, but again, it starts at the ramp. Believe it or not, not everyone gets onto the Internet. OES, post the limitations at ALL ramps that access our waterway from north of Rio Vista all the way down to Tracy. I know that's not feasible due to man power and lack of resources for OES, but if we want the limitations adhered to by EVERYONE, everyone needs to have access to the information one way or another. If it's not physically posted, anglers will claim "ignorance" when stopped by authorities. One last thing, how is it enforceable/citeable if it's NOT posted???

Road dog is correct and how we found out was on the forum. Nothing posted at any ramp and very little info on radio,tv or newspaper. Bad followup from Dept Waterway

The only reason I know is I store my boat at Whiskey Slough and was notified that the state shut down the ramp and the entire slough. I have seen nothing posted either, but the good news is it got me looking at this website again!

I just got off the phone with Jessica at the OES, and the restrictions are still in affect as posted in my original post above. I spoke at length with her about the communications of getting the word out and the problems we are faced with informing boaters. The OES is limited in what they can do to inform the general public involving extensive communications and basically rely on other agencies or the general public to "get the word out." They have contacted the marinas, promoted this on TV and radio news stations, papers, etc. They can't force the marina operators to post signs. It's the typical California systems lack of budgeting ta do so and not their job to reach the masses and police the regulations. Everybody's hands are tied, it's the same ole crap we hear from our state run officials. SO hence why we have so many users of the Delta who are unaware of this situation, as well as the lack of enforced patrols from County Sheriffs and the Coast Guard. Purty sad really. So the burden lies in our hands as users to best do what we can to inform our fellow users, as we can, of the current conditions.

Unfortunately, the future release of these restrictions do not look bright. Mostly because of the continued rain fall and the amount of snow pack up in the Sierras. The water flows into the system are going to continue at a higher pace than what we're used to, and their main objective is to try and protect the levees from further damage. Assessing and correcting the problems is not an overnight process and will take a lot more time than we as users can expect. The current restricts will be with us here as late as July, and could even get more strict as that snow begins to melt and comes down into the system. To assist in preventing a full shut down of the river's waterways, it's only prudent we try and let folks know about it and what is happening. I know it's not the answers we all want to hear, yet the last thing we want to hear is that a major part of the system is fully shut down because we as boaters are not adhering to the current restrictions, or worse are the cause of levee failures in certain areas.

I can't imagine wakeboarders adhering to this restriction once they all hit the water. I'm still obeying it with my bass boat, but the bulk of the problem is/will be the cruisers and wakeboarders throwing 4 foot wakes.

Cooch wrote:I just got off the phone with Jessica at the OES, and the restrictions are still in affect as posted in my original post above. I spoke at length with her about the communications of getting the word out and the problems we are faced with informing boaters. The OES is limited in what they can do to inform the general public involving extensive communications and basically rely on other agencies or the general public to "get the word out." They have contacted the marinas, promoted this on TV and radio news stations, papers, etc. They can't force the marina operators to post signs. It's the typical California systems lack of budgeting ta do so and not their job to reach the masses and police the regulations. Everybody's hands are tied, it's the same ole crap we hear from our state run officials. SO hence why we have so many users of the Delta who are unaware of this situation, as well as the lack of enforced patrols from County Sheriffs and the Coast Guard. Purty sad really. So the burden lies in our hands as users to best do what we can to inform our fellow users, as we can, of the current conditions.

Unfortunately, the future release of these restrictions do not look bright. Mostly because of the continued rain fall and the amount of snow pack up in the Sierras. The water flows into the system are going to continue at a higher pace than what we're used to, and their main objective is to try and protect the levees from further damage. Assessing and correcting the problems is not an overnight process and will take a lot more time than we as users can expect. The current restricts will be with us here as late as July, and could even get more strict as that snow begins to melt and comes down into the system. To assist in preventing a full shut down of the river's waterways, it's only prudent we try and let folks know about it and what is happening. I know it's not the answers we all want to hear, yet the last thing we want to hear is that a major part of the system is fully shut down because we as boaters are not adhering to the current restrictions, or worse are the cause of levee failures in certain areas.

There is a levee district for my section of Sandmound that is doing levee repairs constantly.
Who is responsible for the levees around the islands?

Personally, I plan to continue to honor the speed restriction until 1) it's lifted or 2) I start seeing large numbers of wakeboard boats doing their thing unticketed

Cooch wrote:I just got off the phone with Jessica at the OES, and the restrictions are still in affect as posted in my original post above. I spoke at length with her about the communications of getting the word out and the problems we are faced with informing boaters. The OES is limited in what they can do to inform the general public involving extensive communications and basically rely on other agencies or the general public to "get the word out." They have contacted the marinas, promoted this on TV and radio news stations, papers, etc. They can't force the marina operators to post signs. It's the typical California systems lack of budgeting ta do so and not their job to reach the masses and police the regulations. Everybody's hands are tied, it's the same ole crap we hear from our state run officials. SO hence why we have so many users of the Delta who are unaware of this situation, as well as the lack of enforced patrols from County Sheriffs and the Coast Guard. Purty sad really. So the burden lies in our hands as users to best do what we can to inform our fellow users, as we can, of the current conditions.

Unfortunately, the future release of these restrictions do not look bright. Mostly because of the continued rain fall and the amount of snow pack up in the Sierras. The water flows into the system are going to continue at a higher pace than what we're used to, and their main objective is to try and protect the levees from further damage. Assessing and correcting the problems is not an overnight process and will take a lot more time than we as users can expect. The current restricts will be with us here as late as July, and could even get more strict as that snow begins to melt and comes down into the system. To assist in preventing a full shut down of the river's waterways, it's only prudent we try and let folks know about it and what is happening. I know it's not the answers we all want to hear, yet the last thing we want to hear is that a major part of the system is fully shut down because we as boaters are not adhering to the current restrictions, or worse are the cause of levee failures in certain areas.

Here's a link to the new 4/17 map: https://www.sjgov.org/department/oes/pd ... 041717.pdf

click to enlarge

Last Monday evening on the 17th, the OES modified the restrictions on The Delta. All previous areas that had a speed restriction during the high tides, have now been cleared for full boating access. The new map of the closures(see previous post by WB Staff), now shows the deep south part of the Delta still on a full recreational closure and NO WAKE Still exist. That closure includes all of the San Joaquine R, south of Rough N Ready Island near Stockton, ALL of Middle River south of Victoria Canal and all of Old River below and including Fabian & Bell Canals to the South. You can use Grant Line Canal to the north all the way to Tracy BLVD, beyond that it's still full restriction to the east.

Cooch wrote:Last Monday evening on the 17th, the OES modified the restrictions on The Delta. All previous areas that had a speed restriction during the high tides, have now been cleared for full boating access. The new map of the closures(see previous post by WB Staff), now shows the deep south part of the Delta still on a full recreational closure and NO WAKE Still exist. That closure includes all of the San Joaquine R, south of Rough N Ready Island near Stockton, ALL of Middle River south of Victoria Canal and all of Old River below and including Fabian & Bell Canals to the South. You can use Grant Line Canal to the north all the way to Tracy BLVD, beyond that it's still full restriction to the east.

Can you fish if you only use the TM in the closed sections?

mark poulson wrote:

Cooch wrote:Last Monday evening on the 17th, the OES modified the restrictions on The Delta. All previous areas that had a speed restriction during the high tides, have now been cleared for full boating access. The new map of the closures(see previous post by WB Staff), now shows the deep south part of the Delta still on a full recreational closure and NO WAKE Still exist. That closure includes all of the San Joaquine R, south of Rough N Ready Island near Stockton, ALL of Middle River south of Victoria Canal and all of Old River below and including Fabian & Bell Canals to the South. You can use Grant Line Canal to the north all the way to Tracy BLVD, beyond that it's still full restriction to the east.

Can you fish if you only use the TM in the closed sections?

See the highlight..."full recreational closure" seems pretty well self-explanatory

Thanks Cooch for the update.

mark poulson wrote:Can you fish if you only use the TM in the closed sections?

It's kinda odd and confusing when they use terms like "Full recreational Closure", but then turn around and say it's "All NO WAKE." According to Jessica, "Full Recreational Closure" means, "You can only proceed thru these areas at low speeds creating, No Wake." That would lead me to believe if you went into those areas on an electric trolling motor, such as we have on our bass boats, this would be permissible. I would also believe this would allow you to take a float tube or kayak into those areas as well.

The key is no wake at any time, as it is the wakes from the boats pushing on the slipping levees that will create further damage.