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California Delta and Reports

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Tuesday, November 25th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished a short spell on Saturday. Water temp still stable at 62 degrees. Fish have definately begun to move into winter patterns. Caught fish tossing a lipless crank on the outer edge of weed flats located next to a channel. Also caught better fish out in 10-12 foot of water along rocky levees. Gotta slow way done and fish the jig from the bank out into this deeper grass. The water temp down there appears to be cooler, as the fish caught in the deeper water tend to be darker black in color with the pinkis red bellies. This also tends to be a good time for those worm fisherman to break out the split shot rods. Using 4-6in worms, in Rythym & Blues or Oxblood, will entice many strikes from these deeper fish. Dead end sloughs and the deeper Marinas can provid some very good fishing from now until February.
    City: Oakley

Sunday, November 23rd, 1997

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    Water Temp: 56

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Stripers still active. Cranked 3/4oz chartreuse traps and pitched 1oz hair jigs on edges of flats North of Sherman Lake. Caught 20 up to 10 lbs. Didn't hit any schools, just one here and one there but action was pretty steady. Water temp in that areah as been at 56 - 57 degrees for the past week. Imagine pattern will hold until next COLD storm drops water temp.
    City: Alamo

Tuesday, November 18th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 60-62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Took 2nd in the WCB Pro-Am last week. During practice I noticed that the water temp dropped to the low 60s. This generally moves the fish from their fall feeding patterns into the staging patterns for winter. Knowing this, I checked a couple of areas wher e I find staging fish this time of year. Caught a 10+ on a jig and had 3 other big fish pick up the hookless jig. Also had a very large fish steal my hookless Red Bomber 7A. It is also very common this time of year for these delta bass to stack up and sch ol or hang out in an aera. The area that I was fishing was a long meandering slough with moderate to no current. The bank was a typicle rocky levee with very few tules. The bank was tattered with weed clumps up in the 1st 0-6 feet and then led to deeper w ter with very thick grass in about 8-12 feet. I decided to fish this entire bank for 2 days as I new it held extremely good fish and I had the best chance of catching a kicker here in two days. Upon 1st arrival I would toss the Red Bomber up to the bank w rking it down into the weed clumps. Most of the early fish would hit that crank ASAP, after the 1st couple of turns. After 2 hours of picking off the agressive fish I would then back off the bank and work it slower by pitching an R&B 3/8 oz brown jig wit a BoHawg Sr. pork. Initially I was working the the jig from the clumps right on the bank to the deeper grass. As the day wore on I began to pitch that jig to the outside edge of the clumps, let it drop to 6 feet and then work it into the deeper gras
    City: Oakley

Tuesday, November 11th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out 11/9 with a buddy and fished sycamor and whites with little luck. Buddy caught 3 14in ,1 topwater, 2 crank'n a rattle trap. I was'nt so lucky with the bass, but did manage to land a 14lb. salmon on a super spot in whites sl.
    City: Brentwood

Sunday, November 9th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 61

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Stockton Bass held its final tournament of the 1997 season with the team of Hose Looper & Gary Gentry took big fish with 4 lb 10 ozs. Jack Strock (Wacko Tackle) & Larry Fraser took third place with a weight of 14 lbs. 10 ozs. Jesse Germano & Darion Fari as took second place with 15 lbs even. The winner was the team of Al Munoz & Vernon Gilbert with a total weight of 17 lbs. 10 ozs. First tournament of 98 will be January 18 at Buckley Cove. If you can't wait that long Delta Bass Masters 10th Annual Turk y Shoot will be on January 1st at Buckley Cove. Information & Entries call (209) 473-BASS or E-Mail JKMB@AOL.COM or ENPRINT@CWWS.NET. tips: Crankbaits, spinner baits & flippin.
    City: Stockton

Monday, November 3rd, 1997

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    Water Temp: 67-69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the 3rd WON team on Saturday 1-1-97. Took 18lbs for 5 fish to win it. Barrack & Bryant won the thing. Scary part is Bobby's just now starting to throw a crank bait. He's finally figured out that in the fall, if ya can't beat em, join em. He got a 7 1/2 lber kicker on a Speed Trap. Rick & I ended up 6th with just short of 13lbs. Where was my damn kicker! Fish have moved into their full fall patterns. Fish the outside edges of grass pockets and weed lines along rock levees with plenty of current, in-8 feet of water. Best bite right now is throwing a crankbait in either craw or shad patterns. The really bigger fish are holding on this same stuff just deeper. Use deep diving Poes or Norman cranks to get down to them. Our best fish came on these same bn ks with submerged wood. If they wouldn't hit the crank, after 3-4 casts, I would pitch a jig and WHAM! Also look for big weed flats on points, during the low tide. Come back and crank em when the tide is up. The fish are really stacking up in these typeof areas. Rick & I caught 25-30 keepers on Saturday.
    City: Oakley

Sunday, November 2nd, 1997

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    Water Temp: 63-65

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: The striper are stealing the spotlight now but, Salmon and black bass anglers are also having success. Hair jig anglers are working both ends of Mayberry Slough with success.
    City: Tracy

Saturday, October 18th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out Saturday for a short trip and decide to fish the north end of the delta since I haven't fished the north end this year. Fished Snodgrass and the Meadows and managed to catch a limit totaling 10.45 pounds. All clones with the biggest going 4.10p ounds. Threw mostly blades and cranked. Saw a lot of big fish hiding under lay downs but couldn't pitch in close enough without spooking them. Unusual to find fish like that way back in the stagnant water. Lost one of my cranking rods when a fish struk , yanked it out of my hand when I set the hook. Must have been a big stripper, I have caught strippers over 20 pounds before fishing back there. A painful and costly lesson on remembering to have a good grip instead of palming your rod to loosely. So th end of the delta definitely has better quality fish.
    City: Sacramento

Monday, October 13th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the 2nd WON Delta region on Saturday. Tough bite for most, as a cold front moved in after the Thursday/Friday storms. We found fish had actually moved shallow in about 6', real tight to dieing weed clumps. We pitched & flipped a black jig to catc h 11 clones between 3.00 & 3.37lbs. We ended up with 15.75 for 5 fish and took 2nd place to Steve Sapp and his son. They had 5 for 18lb with a 6lb 12oz kicker. On Sunday the cold front really kicked in and just shut the flip bite down. We started crankin Red Bombers at 8:00a and managed to get 11.87 for 7 fish. This put us 2 out of the money in 17th. Turns out of the 5 tournaments on the Delta Sunday, crankin was the ticket. This is typical of the Delta this time of year when cold fronts shut down the bit . The crank bait allows you to cover as much water as possible. The bait is in the strike zone for a longer period than say a jig or worm. You then pick off all the aggressive fish.
    City: Oakley

Wednesday, October 1st, 1997

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    Water Temp: 71-74

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the 100% BASS on Saturday 9/18. Made a long run up north above Rio Vista and fished deep weed lines in 10-18 feet. All fish came using a 3/8 oz Black R&B round rubber jig with a Yamamoto grub. Use of this grub has become more wide spread the last f ew months. It is working on the Delta much better than other trailers. It allows the bait to fall faster to the bottom where the better fish are holding as the water temp is dropping. The bait must then be worked in an erratic fashion, litterally crawling on the bottom, until a bass eats it. We ended up in second place with 19.98 lbs for 7 fish. They were all clones in size. We then fished the Oakley tournament on Sunday but had little or no tidal movement during the outgoing tide. To catch these deeper fish there must be some noticable but not rip snorting current present. As a results we had a very tough day and only caught 5 fish to 10 lbs total. I then fished the Redman Delta Regional on Sunday 9-28, had the perfect tides and won the tournament with over 17.5 lbs for 5 fish. I caught over 30 keepers, all over 2 1/2 lbs.
    City: Oakley

Thursday, September 25th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 76

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out to the delta on Thursday for a short trip. We fished the Big Break area and found fish fairly shallow. Got on the water with the start of an incoming tide. We caught all our fish throwing buzzbaits, Splash-its, and flipping. Had a toad that w ent 7 pounds with a couple of nice 3-4 pounders. We had overcast skies on and off throughout the day. We found strippers boiling on top and started fishing for them the rest of the day. We were hooking up practically every cast and caught close to 50t rippers. The only problem with this is they were all 6-8 inches. Shouldn't of have wasted so much time fishing for them, but it was a blast watching my Splash-it get mobbed by two or three strippers all at one time.
    City: Sacramento

Saturday, September 13th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 70-72

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Saturday & Sunday. Both days found fish in 10-15' of water on deep weed lines of tule berms. Fish are just now beggining to stage for that fall feasting period. All fish caught on black 3/8 oz jigs. Partner on Saturday caught a 5.90 and took big fi sh in club tournament. Between us we had 5 over 3lbs. Sunday's bite, with the cloud cover, was much better. We also found the fish moving into shallower water tight to brush, wood, pipes and pilons. This shallow bite was non-existant on Saturday. Flippenh e jig worked real well all day long both days. With the constant changing fronts, these bass are doing something different day to day. Yet they are clearly moving into their fall patterns. To stay on em you need to fish shallow to deep. Once you findt he right depth & structure they are, on you can count on fish in other areas doing the same thing. As water begins to drop below 70 degrees look for the Delta to just explode! That long awaited fall reaction bite is right around the corner. When thisim e comes the fish will position themselves at ambush points with lots of current. You will find fish feeding all day long.
    City: Oakley

Thursday, September 11th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 72-73

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Made a quick trip to the Delta on wednesday, 9-10-97. Spent about four hours fishing from 10am to 2pm. Caught a total of five bass from 2 to 3 pounds. All were caught around rip rap with deep water nearby (10+). Two came on gitzit, two on 6 inch worm, and one on a crankbait. They were all caught within the hour of high tide. Very windy today, but fish came in protected areas. TIPs rip rap with current and nearby deep water.
    City: Sacramento

Sunday, September 7th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the FBT tournament there on Sunday. This tournament didn't produce the usual large fish as in previous tournaments. My partner did fairly well in the morning throwing black buzzbaits while I threw a blade. We decided to fish Victoria and still co uld not get a bite on the blade. We then decided to flip the rest of the tournament and I managed to bag 3 keepers before weigh in. My partner ended up winning the tournament with just under 9 pounds. This is almost half the weight that is usually weiged in. Tough bite. Fish the current and look for sparce weed patches and isolated tules. Threw the usual brown and orange pig as well as flipping a camo craw.
    City: Sacramento

Saturday, September 6th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 73-76

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Saturday with Willie Page. Water temp seems to have come up a few degress since last week-end. Caught quite a few small fish, had some top water early on Spittin' Image and buzzbait. Best fish were caught along riprap with loose weeds. Brown/Or ange Jigs with a grub and shad pattern flukes produced the most and best fish. Biggest of the day was a little over 3 pounds. TIPs: Jigs and flukes along riprap with weeds and current.
    City: Marysville

Friday, September 5th, 1997

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    Water Temp: N/A

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Terry Davis and I fished on wed 9-3-97. We caught several keeper fish, flippin 10in berkley junebug worms. We also caught a couple nice fish on red crankbaits. We caught most of the fish in Franks Tract area. TIPS: use red spinnerbaits and crankbaits. flip big plastics from berkley, i.e. powercraws and powerworms.
    City: Marysville

Monday, September 1st, 1997

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished east delta Saturday 8/30. Decent jig bite early on outgoing tides. Bite off after 10 am. Too much holiday boat traffic ! Should have known better but you go when you can.Would appreciate info on consistent fall pattern. Best colors seem to curren tly brown jig with yamamoto trailers and june bug worms. All fish on primary channel breaks.
    City: Sonora

Tuesday, August 26th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the WCB Team Tournament on August 16th. We caught approximately 15 bass between 16in to 22 1/2in flipping red Iovino worms in the Big Break/West Delta area and won the tournament with 7 fish for 25.02 lbs. We prefished the weekend prior to the to urnament and caught 4 bass over 3 lbs. flipping plastics. We knew we were on big fish, but unsure if we could catch 7. The bass were definately in a fall pattern with rocks and weeds key. We caught most of our fish on the outgoing tide prior to 10:30 a . Reaction baits have been producing smaller fish.
    City: San Jose

Thursday, August 21st, 1997

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    Water Temp: 72-76

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went out last Thursday, out of Holland, on a whim. Two consecutive days of clouds & rain. Had to go! I get on the water, Blue Bird sky, no wind and 90 degrees. Add in the back side of the full moon, tough day. We started out with three nice fish in the 4- 5 lbs range first stop on 3 consecutive casts to the same pocket with poppers. Thought we were in for a spectacular day. NOT! As soon as the sun hit the water, never caught a keeper the rest of the day.
    City: Oakley

Tuesday, August 19th, 1997

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    Water Temp: 72-78

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the final West Coast Bass Delta Region team last Saturday. As usual the wind blew and fishing was tough. You know it's tough when we keep Barrack & Dobyns out of the top 5 places. That was not the case for the brother team of Todd & Cliff Gyotoku.T hese two guys came in with an outstading weight of 25+ lbs for 7 fish. Awsome for this time of year. The 2nd place team of Garcia & Lambrose also weighed a great bag at 23+ lbs. The weights dropped from there. We had 16.58 and got 5th. Top water is stillo ff. Top 2 teams caught most of their fish flippin big plastics; worms, lizards, reapers & craws. Next four teams flippin jigs. Crazy fish seem to be moving into their fall patterns.
    City: Oakley