California Delta and Reports

Sunday, March 7th, 1999

• By Shortcake

  Water Temp: 52-54

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Went and did some pre-fishing. Saw a lot of 4 lb clones at staging points heading into sloughs. They were holding close to the eight foot mark right near channels. Black and blue jig. Didn't run into the momma bass yet. Will keep looking.
  City: Sacramento

  Tips: Tips: n/a

• By Cooch

  Water Temp: 55-60

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Water temperature varies on the Delta right now with the North, central and west Delta hovering around 55-57 degrees. There are reports that some areas in the south tip the 62 degree mark. The full moon of the last week drew the bucks to the bank. 30 fish days were the norm on cranks, jigs, brushhogs and spinnerbaits. Not to many fish over 3 pounds, but a lot of fun catching numbers. Seems the bigger fish were right behind them, they tend to hang out a little deeper and are tougher to catch. You can fish for these fish all day long and not get many bites, but when ya do, it'll be a good one. Slow rolling white spinnerbaits and jigs in that 8-15' range, way off the bank seems to work best. We saw a drastic temperature drop this week and fishing has slowed some coming into this weekend. We should continue to have outstanding fishing for the next 3 weeks as long as we don't get any major cold fronts like this last week. The water temperature should be just right come the end of the month when the full moon hits, which should put our first wave of fish on the beds.
  City: Oakley

  Tips: Tips: Nothing less, than 20# test! You want a pig, fish with a jig! To avoid that blank, toss a fire green crank!

Saturday, March 6th, 1999

• By Mike

  Water Temp: 52-54

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Ditto to all the other reports.We did well on saturday with brushogs, white blades, rattletraps and power worms. fish went everywhere from dinks to 4+ lbs. Bigger fish are in 10-15 feet of water.Ill throw this out to all of you for comments, I have never seen this one before. Two weeks ago, my partner caught a tagged fish (about 2 lbs) it had two stainless steel tags. He caught it just below orwood. We cut off the tags,and released the fish. Tags were worth 10.00 each. Dfg said they had tagged 800 fish 1 year ago, and tagged 300 twice.What were those odds?we are waiting to hear where the fish was tagged, should be interesting.
  City: Fremont

  Tips: Tips: n/a

• By Bob

  Water Temp: n/a

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: went to big break on saturday the 6th. was rippin lips using a speed trap and rat'l trap. caught 17 fish (all keepers) up to 5 lbs in the rocks. the 30+ fish days are comming soon!
  City: n/a

  Tips: Tips: n/a

• By k mulhair

  Water Temp: 52

  Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

  Report: Launched out of Orwood and went down to fish Discovery Bay. Landed a nice 1lb 9 oz fish on 3rd cast. Ended up with 3 more: one 3 lb 10 oz, 3lb 4 oz and a 2 lb 8 oz. Lost one which would have completed a 5 fish limit that was as big as the 3 pounders. Caught every fish on a crayfish shad fat rap. Trick was to work it so slow that you could count the wobble of the lure. Fish were up against rock banks in 10 to 12 foot of water. Tried everything else, jigs, worms etc.
  City: Cupertino

  Tips: Tips: You can't work it slow enough!! The fish aren't hitting the lure either. They are just sort of grabbing on to it. All you feel is a little extra weight. When I sensed a grab I sort of kept the line tight and watched to see if the line was moving. If it was,set it hard!

• By D BASSIN

  Water Temp: 49-54

  Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

  Report: Put in at the hope today.This was our first trip for 99 Fished the delta last year for the first time after buying a skeeter caugth frog fish then and learned alot about the delta.But after buying this computer and checking out this awesome web site.My son and I went into the slough today put in @newhope @630am first fish didnt come until 930am and it was only a dink 1 1/2 male.on a jig tryed all the other IE cranks jerks spinners worms tops?? saw some fish jumping ) useuall chase. Then we started working with the only thing that had caught a fish the JIG worked our way back towards the truck thinking it was going to be one of those days. The son was getting bored and said hey dad lets go try sycamore we know what they hit there. By acciedent I was approaching a set of trees between the tules and made what I thought was going to be the last cast before we haul ###.. Thats when our whole day became real I pulled a nice #4 . Within 45sec my son pulled a 4.3# then it g! ot real good my next cast rewarded us with a 3.7# We fished this spot in the trees for over an hour never moving the boat more than a 150ft in either direction. When it was all done and over with we ended with a total of 9 fish that ranged from 2.9 to4.3 THESE WERE ALL PICTURE FISH AS FAR AS IM CONCERND. What a beautifull day of BASS and I must give thanks to this web site for providing me with the chance to share this with you .OOHHH!!! Look for warmer water in back waters slack waters sloughs.. DOCK TEMP WAS 49% FISH TEMP WAS 54% BOAT WAS IN 6-8 FT FISH CAME FROM 1--3 FT TIGHT TO THE TREES OR COVER. PICTH A LIGHT SOFT COLORED JIG.
  City: Sacramento

  Tips: Tips: 3/8 oz jig dark blue *8ZOOM SUPER CHUNK. SHAKE IT. THE SON CAUGHT THE TWO BIGGEST FISH 4.3 4.2 PICTHING IN BEHIND ME . WORK IT SLOW SLOW SLOW

• By newcomer

  Water Temp: 55

  Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

  Report: fished franks tract area tried flippin no luck changed area and fish deeper and caught 4 fish split shottin couldnt get bit shallow all r fish were deep.
  City: Dixon

  Tips: Tips: n/a

Friday, March 5th, 1999

• By Dan Henrichsen

  Water Temp: 52

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: ished the delta on Monday Wednesday and Friday. Caught a few fish each day, up to four lbs. Wind blew most every day. Fished franks track, fishermans cut and all around. Best luck was in franks track
  City: Dixon

  Tips: Tips: Had best luck flipping a jig, or a brush hog. Had no tackers on a blade. I did hear that ther are some being tacken on cranks, fishing over the top of the grass.

Thursday, March 4th, 1999

• By SandwichMan

  Water Temp: 55+

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Had a great morning in the Big Break Area. Fished white spinnerbaits, shallow crankbaits, buzzbaits and flukes. Caught over 20 fish in a 2 hour period. Movved over towards Franks and caught tranistioning fish in sparce tullies.
  City: Oakley

  Tips: Tips: n/a

Monday, March 1st, 1999

• By Tom

  Water Temp: 54-58

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Fished yesterday 1:00-5:30 in Big Break. Caught over 30 bass. Mostly on shallow running crank baits. The biggest only went three pounds but we had a great time. Double hook ups common. It was a blast. Especially after this cold winter.
  City: n/a

  Tips: Tips: n/a

Sunday, February 28th, 1999

• By Jason Terhune

  Water Temp: n/a

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: I fished the area of Frank's Tract during the afternoon. I didn't catch anything though, but it was my first time fishing the Delta. I tried a Vyper 1/4-ounce Double Willowleaf Chartreuse/White Spinnerbait, a Berkley Power Bait Tournament Strength 6" Flip n' Tail Power Worm in Black, Bill Lewis Lures 1/4-ounce Mini-Trap in Chrome/Blue and Large Live Minnows. Hopefully I'll do better next time!
  City: Clayton

  Tips: Tips: n/a

Saturday, February 27th, 1999

• By Bob

  Water Temp: n/a

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Went to the west dleta and felt the first fire of the year. Great fishing weather....overcast skys and fairly warm. Caught 7 fish, 3lbs. an over using the trusty old jig and pig combo. Had to work the bait a while to get the big fish to bite. Can't wait until the next fishing trip.
  City: n/a

  Tips: Tips: n/a

• By Cooch

  Water Temp: 52-55

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: Fished the 100% team today, 104 boats. The water temp is up and the fish are on the move. Took 29+ pounds to win. There were also 4 bags over 28 pounds. Most guys reported catching fish on brushhogs, black jigs and white spinnerbaits. Winners also had a 9+ pounder and a 7 pounder. Fish seem to be moving through the tules right now. Pound them transistion areas and you should find lots of . Pat and I had 21.40 for 25th place. All our fish came flippin black jogs with blue pork into sparce tulles pockets along the rip rap.
  City: Oakley

  Tips: Tips: Use no less then 20 pound TEST!

Monday, February 15th, 1999

• By Ceasar J

  Water Temp: n/a

  Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

  Report: Went out of the Break today at about 2:30. Man there was a lot of boats out there. The holiday traffic was thick. Went out to look for some Hoggs. Water was still a little cold for a prespawn pattern so I had no choice but to do what I do best go Flippin'!!! Looked for the shallow bite for about 1 hour than relized that with the overcast conditions the fish were a little deeper. Started hitting the outside tules. Not all were holding fish only very specific combos were. But when you find the spots you just put the troller on high and hold on. Landed 6 nice fish from 3-4.5 and lost some fish probably small.
  City: Antioch

  Tips: Tips: Dont give to much attention to one spot. You have to make the fish bite out of reaction so to many flips are a waste of time. Use a heavier weight than most to get those fish to jump all over you jig. The fish arent holding a pattern right now.....at least not one I can find so you have to work to find what the fish are doing from day to day. Good Luck!

• By JIGGERONE

  Water Temp: n/a

  Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

  Report: took my youngest boy and grandson out of the break today it was a nice day. we played around alot threw a bounch of worms a few jigs but the fish just didnt want to play. plan on taking them out next weekend, if anyone has a spot I can take these boys to catch some bass in this cold water and some lure tips it would sure make this old father/grandpa make a better fishing day for the boys.
  City: CONCORD

  Tips: Tips: n/a

Sunday, February 14th, 1999

• By Ceasar J

  Water Temp: n/a

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Went out in the break today. In the water at about 3 pm. It was real high tide. The water wasnt as muddy as it has been. Had about 1 foot vis. I went towards the northern entrance to the break and started fliping shallow. At about 4:10 caught a HOGG. It was about 6.5-7. Got me shaking. Got him on a jig in about 2 ft of water. Flipped about 250 yds of bank without another bite. Grabbed my rod with a BIG blade on it and started slow rollin' shallow. Hooked about a 4 and got him in. He was in about 3 ft. of water. Its was a good day since I was targeting better quality fish.
  City: Antioch

  Tips: Tips: Dissect structure!

Saturday, February 13th, 1999

• By Matt

  Water Temp: 49

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Launched from Paradise Marina and went to whites slough, found some stained water and threw blades up on the tule islands and caught 3 fish to 2lbs. Then I went to a few of the local marinas and fished up on the rocks with jigs, seemed to have better fish there caught 4 to 3.5 and a 16lb stripper.
  City: Sacramento

  Tips: Tips: Fish the outside weed line with a black and blue jig with blue pork trailer, fish it very slow. Look for clearer water, delta now seems to be quite muddy.

• By Ceaser J

  Water Temp: n/a

  Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

  Report: Went out of in the north sac today......the water is soooooo muddy. Its is unbelivable how muddy it is. Went north because figured that it wouldnt be as muddy as down here..wrong! Well I only commited to about 1.25 hrs of fishing before I decided to get lost. It was a waste of time up there. Went to Sherman and stuck a few nice fish but the bite was slow.
  City: Antioch

  Tips: Tips: Find clearer water, it looks like creamed coffee out there.

Friday, February 12th, 1999

• By nperata

  Water Temp: 49.5

  Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

  Report: lanched from Havens Acres in Lathrop at Noon with the Frenchmen, Marko Beard. Conditions were overcast with muddy, muddy waters....After a short blast to Ladd's, we picked up a 3 lb. er flippin a black and blue jig in 10 feet of water. Took a ride back to Havens Acres, dodging floating crap everywhere... Put the Skeeter back on the trailer and put back a Heineken before leaving for the afternoon at 4pm. Overall I think we could have caught more if we kept heading towards the clearer water. We fished muddy waters...probably not the best idea.. Maybe toward Big Break would have been a better call? Who knows? The whether ended up being overall very pleasant.
  City: Lathrop

  Tips: Tips: Warm clothes and lotsa dank.

Thursday, February 11th, 1999

• By Bircher

  Water Temp: 51-54

  Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

  Report: Launched today from Big Break. Nailed a 3 lb. Largemouth near Lauretzens on zipper. Rain heavy and steady with lots wind. Motored south and fished Frank's Tract. No relief from wind. Went to Sandmound and attempted to split shot but wind made it tough to feel bites. Started throwing rattletrap and picked up a 4 lb. striper. Called it a day at 3pm due to wind and rain. Still beats a day at the office.
  City: Danville