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Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019

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    Water Temp: 76-81

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went early Tue 545am out of Paradise, low incoming tide. Decided to try and explore some different areas than usual so ran down Disappointment to just before the San Joaquin and Tinsley/St Francis. There seemed to be a lot of activity at the surface, coming and going. Threw jerkbaits and squarebills into them whenever encountered and would pick up some shaker stripers anywhere from 10 - 14 or 15 inches; fun fights as they were spunky and hit aggressively. Picked up a few almost-keeper bass but no real sizes there. There were some houseboats apparently with a lot of wakeboard and water skiers and they were starting pretty early too, so we got out of the area over to Columbia Cut. Wouldn't ya know it, we chose the route these boarders and skiers were going round and round. After about the 5th round and only a choice few hookups on neko and ned rig/dropshot combos, we ran to Little Connection/Little Potato Slough, and Little Venice areas and worked some flats as well as rock wall weedlines, picking up a few 1lb and 2lbers. Used neko/ned rigs/dropshot and then switched to slow-rolled swimbaits (Berkley Power Swimmer - Ayu) on 1/8 oz head and Flatlands Shimmer Spin (spinnerbait with just a paddletail). Caught 3 in a row on San Joaquin side of Little Venice... 1 lber and a couple 2lbers. Partner was hooking up with a lot of 10"-12"ers on his red craw squarebill so he went to a ned rig/drop shot (ned rig as the dropshot sinker) and started picking up 1 - 2lbers, not many, but enough to believe we were having fun. It was around 11:30am and high tide so we ran up to White Slough and picked up a couple more 1 and 2lbers and called it a day at 12:30pm.

    Tips: As I always say, I'm not really qualified to give any tips; but what worked for us was early mornin' jerkbait (LC Pointer Aurora Black, Megabass 110 GG Perch and Gill), 3.8" swimbait, neko rig / Berkley General 5", and drop shot using ned rig as sinker. 75% hits on drop shot and 25% hits on the ned rig (PB&J - MMIII on both).
    quick note:
    I'm not a tourney fisher so my fishin' buds and me aren't so much worried about total weight we caught or kicker fish; we just like hookups, no matter the size. Don't get me wrong, we love it when line peels out and we know it's got some size, but we're just as happy simply gettin' bit and settin' the hook, whether it's a dink or 1, 2, 3lbs, etc...and we go home feelin like we had a fun day. I get it when guys talk about totals, and I respect that. But not worrying about our total catch let's us reflect that we simply got hookups and that's why we went out. And that's also why I have no problem tellin' where we went and what we used. If someone else goes there and catches, great! Then they had fun too!

Saturday, July 20th, 2019

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    Water Temp: 75-low 80's

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Since hardly anyone posts:
    Friday the 19th. Showed up at around 1pm. Tail end of the outgoing tide. Incoming started at 4ish. Threw the typical topwaters and the fish were keyed on the buzzbait. The fish ignored the plopper, frog and vixen. Best bite was on low tide, sparse weeds. Once the incoming tide began moving in, the topwater bite died for all intensive purposes. I could barely get bit after that. Pitching, chatter, cranks, etc did not work for us. Ended with about 13lbs. Biggest fish on the grassburner. Total of 9 fish or so. Stayed in white slough. Small striper schools were busting all over but could not get any striper action?

    Tips: Buzzbait in shad color.

Friday, June 28th, 2019

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    Water Temp: 69 to74

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I have not posted here in years but saw deepvbasser's report and said why not. We started late at the bottom of the tide (9AM), and went into False River where it was rather windy. Fished the rock banks on the North side and got two dinks and two dink stripers as well. Moved up by Fisherman's Cut and started back on the south side picking up a fish here and there, mostly all dinks. Later ran over to the San Joaquin and headed South and found just a few more fish and again mostly all Dinks. I did not report it but last week, in that same area, I got a nice 5 1/2 pounder. Anyway, I ended the day today with 27 bass and the two stripers and my buddy got 14. Two of his were big fish for the day - one right at 2 lbs and one at just under 2 pounds. By noon, the winds had died to almost nothing plus I noted very little fluctuation of water levels after the incoming tide. I tried cranks, blades, drop shot, and chatterbait as well as a wopper plopper for nada. All fish on soft plastics and mostly senkos. Overall a real fun day for us just no size.

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    Water Temp: 68-74

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Ok, no one wants to pist, I mean post a report. I guess I will.
    Expected another windy day as the wind has been in double digits (12-20mph) last few weeks. Weather forecast said 13mph this morning but just before i left my house, it said 6mph til about 4pm and would then go into double digits. So we launched around 6am from Paradise; already a few boats and kayakers ahead of us. Wind wasn't that bad but we went to our fav protected area at White Slough. First two fish: 1. 1lber on a neko rig; 2. 7lb 5oz on a crankbait. Decided to just stay outta the wind as much as possible so we worked this protected section with a moderate-light wind. Neko and weightless senko/plastic stick worm (berkley general) using junebug and green pumpkin got lots of bites and brought in several 1lb - 2lbers and a few just barely keepers. One fish on a jerkbait on the long pause (20secs) .. LC flash pointer / aurora black. Crankbait hits were on LiveTarget pumpkinseed squarebills.... around 5-6 shaker stripers along with the several 1 -2 lbers. Decided to just stay in this area from 630am til about 12:15pm, just working the line, going back to the start point, and working it again, each time picking up a few fish on both neko rig and crankbait. Around 12:15pm, moved out into a main slough and caught a few barely keepers and decided to call it a day and get an early start back (and beat the Fri traffic). Off the water by 1pm.

    Tips: Not really qualified to offer "tips" but here's what we did: Started the morning with jerk/crank baits... after the 7lber, continued crankin and rippin but it slowed down so rotated through ned, neko, and weightless (both t-rigged and wacky).... also dropshot, then crankin' (by the way, i use a ned rig as my dropshot weight and caught 2 at the same time this way... have done this at Clear and Folsom Lakes as well).
    Anyways, everything looked good in our fav go-to spot and weed patches are cropping back up, so I believe the bass are moving back in. A few months back, It went dormant when they were spraying and hopefully won't do it again for a while as the weed beds disappeared, and so did the fish..... we noticed many months ago our fav hitters died out. Well, seems to be coming back and a 7lb 5oz kicker sure put a big exclamation point on it. On a crank no less. Hopin' it only gets better.
    Hope new reports start coming through. We don't fish tournaments so any fish on the hook is a good and fun thing for us. kickers are simply a bonus.

Friday, May 10th, 2019

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    Water Temp: 68-71

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Wind didn’t kick up as forecasted so headed out to B & W and ran up the Mokelumne around 3 for the bottom end of the outgo.

    First Delta trip of the Spring so dropped in outside of Westgate Landing to get a sense of where fish were in the spawn cycle to see tons of fry of all sizes as well as quite a few cruising bass. Stumbled on to a couple of quick bed fish before moving on.

    Started covering water along irregular weed edges with a Sammy for 5 nice fish and a couple of missed blowups up to about 4#. Moved up in to Hog with the Sammy for a couple more fish and flipped a few bucks before the wind machine started and muddied up the water with the incoming tide.

    Tips: Normally would have thrown a frog but happened to have the Sammy on the deck from a previous trip and got bit on the 2nd cast. Broken weed edges concentrated fish allowing me to bypass long stretches of weed walls with both the topwater and flip baits

Monday, April 1st, 2019

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    Report: by Synwyn » Mon Apr 01, 2019 6:59 pm

    I did very well on the delta this weekend. On Saturday, some friends and I fished Sugar Barge/Frank's. I searched isolated tullies near deeper channels and caught 4 fish between 2-3 lbs. I was pretty confident in the pattern, but every fish was pretty cookie cutter. After that, I went looking for docks near deeper water that had isolated rip rap near them. I found the bigger fish stacked on the docks and the rip rap. Pulled out a 3lber, 4lber and a 6lber on this pattern with a few others between the 2-3 lb range. My best 5 probably went for 18-19 lbs.

    On Sunday, we fished Big Break and I caught a good one on the same tullie pattern on the outside of big break near the main channels - the big girls haven't moved up in there yet. Caught that 4 lber and a few in the 2lb range, and probably 25+ dinks between 8-12 inches

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    Report: by HavocTheBeast » Mon Apr 01, 2019 4:02 pm

    Fished the Delta Saturday and Sunday. Both days we're pretty much a struggle.

    On Saturday, my friend caught a nice 4lb striper (probably 25in+) and another large 9lb 2oz striper (probably 40in+... forgot our measuring tape that day) within the first 20min. Released back. The rest of the day was brutal. A few shakers here and there, but bites were few and very far in between (sometimes a few hours between bites). marked a few spots with fish, but they weren't biting in the afternoon.

    Went back out Sunday with the wife, and I caught a 4lb 15oz largemouth in the early morning with a jerkbait and a 6lb 7oz largemouth in the afternoon on a dropshot. Both released back. Again, it was a slow bite with only a very few shakers here and there. The wife only got 1 bite trolling minnows all day and that was her only bite. She was pretty bummed out.

    Water clarity was pretty good over the weekend. Sherman Island was slightly murky in several areas, but for the most part, visibility wasn't too big of an issue. Big Break, Bethel Island and Franks had much better visibility though.

    Going to try again next week.

Saturday, March 16th, 2019

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    Report: by Synwyn » Sat Mar 16, 2019 6:30 pm

    I launched today out of Sugar Barge and caught 4 or 5. Every fish was in 7-9 feet of water and they'd only bite a squarebill .

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    Water Temp: 54 degrees

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Well after a few days of no rain my buddy and I headed out of Big Break to our favorite shallow water spots, where water temperature is a little higher than the main channel. As far into the slough as possible we had water temperature max out at about 57 degrees. No bites, caught one LMB about 1.5 pounds on a TRD with 1/4 ounce weight. Weather was beautiful, minimal wind. Rain is coming this week so I'm going to say that April, assuming temp continues to rise, will be the month to remember with all the rain we've had. Water levels were extremely high. We fished for about 3 hours, throwing everything from jerk baits, to chatters, to wacky, etc.

    Tips: Stay home 'till April if you plan to fish the Delta. Or go to a reservoir in the lower Sierras where it's going to heat up sooner, and be clearer in clarity.

Thursday, March 14th, 2019

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    Report: by monte300 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 3:14 pm

    I was at the Delta yesterday and the 20-25mph north wind flat out kicked our ***. However, in the Whiskey Slough/Empire Cut/Tiki Lagun areas the water clarity was pretty decent. Everywhere we went looked pretty safe but for us the bite was tough

Saturday, February 23rd, 2019

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    Water Temp: 53

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Franks area for a couple of hours not a bite. Also don't waste your time idling to the never built housing development past Emerald Point Marina, It is roped off and posted no trespassing.

    Tips: Wait a couple more weeks unless you know where to find clear water.

Thursday, December 27th, 2018

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    Water Temp: 52

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: They say when you fish the Delta you better get used to the wind. Today was the only day my buddy and I could fish, so we decided to brave the 25+ mph winds. Fishing in these conditions can get pretty squirrely, so it's recommended to stay in the backwaters/marinas and avoid the large flats.

    We launched at Disco around 12:30pm. Even with the houses there the north wind was brutal. We hugged north banks. Found one group of docks that held fish. Drop shot was the ticket here, as it usually is in the winter. We decided to brave a east/west stretch and hug the north bank. Jerkbaits were the ticket here. Fished until sunset at 5 ish.

    No big fish, just fat, well-fed, healthy 1s and 2s. 8 fish in the boat. One broke off right at the boat. A couple more missed bites. Is this considered a good day on the Delta? We don't know, but we caught fish in miserable weather and we're happy about that.

    This year has been tough for me on the Delta. I can fish reservoirs fine but the Delta is a different animal. However, the last couple trips have slowly been restoring my confidence.

    Tips: Slow everything down. Dead stick the drop shot. Most hits weren't really hits, we just felt weight. If they did hit it was a subtle tick. Increase pauses between jerkbaits. Jerk, then count to a number. Or sit down and eat a sandwich. Hell, purposely backlash and pick out the backlash. Fishing slow, especially in the wind, sucks hard. But it puts fish in the boat.

Saturday, December 22nd, 2018

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    Water Temp: 55 deg F

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Left Bethel Island around sunrise and took a cold (39 deg F) ride over to Tinsley Island, mostly to avoid getting shot at by duck hunters at Frank's Tract. Only caught one small LM at Tinsley on a white/silver spinnerbait. Nothing on the swimjigs or crankbaits. Back on the north, inner-side of Franks kept the bite continually going with the spinnerbait (probably about 6 LMs) but nothing sizeable.

Saturday, December 1st, 2018

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    Report: by Kyle46N » Sat Dec 01, 2018 8:55 am

    This was our second trip this week to the Delta, the first was slooooowwww, but we found them chewing good Friday. On the water by 9, and fished till dark. Tossed the IMA Flit 120 and Strike King KVD jerkbaits all day. Boated 30 bass between my son and I, highlighted by a 6 lb, 12 oz fish. Also had a 4 lber, and a 3.5er. Best 5 went 17 lbs. The fish were in the 3-8 foot range, located on grass and points. They were definitely feeding, albeit sluggishly. If the bait was moving, they wouldn't touch it. We started out in a pond type set up, and it was loaded. So, next stop was going to be the back of a slough to duplicate the setting, but we never made it, as every island point seemed to have fish on it in the front of the slough. Obviously it was great to catch fish all day, but I'm pretty psyched to get an idea of how these fish will position in the winter when they feed. Water temps were 53-55 and visibility about 3 ft.

Friday, November 30th, 2018

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    Report: Delta Report…Stripers Sturgeon Solid Bass action settling in

    ABA Kicks off Out Of Russo’s Marina Saturday morning promises to be a good tight Tournament as Fall winter conditions settle in.

    Isleton Looks good as anglers take advantage of cooler water temperatures with Stripers and Smallmouth leading the way. Water temperatures have dropped with the cooler storms. VBO Vince Borges has been putting on a clinic and for huge Stripers in the shallows as we fin ally got some weather!

    Walnut Grove . Fair for the trolling anglers, but fish cracking the 15 pound plus keeps anglers hopes up. Savage Prey series and Angry Eyes are the top choices here as well, there seems to bit more call for chartreuse patterns here. Bank anglers livers and cut baits prevail for plenty 2 to 4 pound catfish evenings are top for those looking for a few bites. Bass anglers try some smallie fishing, crankbaits and brown blue jigs and getting the Smallmouth.

    Discovery Bay Some nice fish coming out of Discovery Bay this week. Bigger fish have been falling for a 8" Savage Gear 3D SHINE GLIDE. Dropshot will put more fish in the boat but the size is just not there. A-rigs and Rip Baits starting to work well now. Dress warm and enjoy the your time in Discovery Bay. Some Nice fish are coming Cranking Square bills like the DDO custom KP used to land several like the one pictured this week.

    Frank’s Tract Stripers and bass bite both OK but ya gotta Slow down with the cold temperatures. It’s no secret what a little fall weather can do. Ripbaits are great options while small swim baits and swim jigs get the mention. We found plenty of Stripers and Black Bass with A-rigs, Swim Baits, like the Bone Colored Shine Glides getting grabbed. Lot of Stripers in main River and Mildred areas.

    West Delta The West as in Honker Bay to the Bait tossers are getting fish when wind cooperates. Sturgeon quietly is slipping into the spotlight. Eel is the best bait over all, but night crawlers, roe and shad also scoring diamondbacks Broad slough and surrounding cuts. There were many shaker sturgeon reports in double power lines in Decker Island and Sherman Island. There were few shaker sturgeons also reports from Light 42 to Light 49 in the deep channel Most of the nice stripers coming soaking Shad, anchovies and sardines .

    Las Vaqueros Fishing for trout continues to be good even with the increased water temperature. They are being caught in South Cove and Oak Point as well as Peninsula Cove. The baits of choice for shore anglers are garlic-scented PowerBaits, nightcrawlers or Kastmaster lures. Trout average a pound and a half but range to over 5 lbs. There was a 1000 pound Lassen plant. Light tackle is important for catching trout with 4-6 pound test being plenty. Trout fishing is good especially in the morning, with limits being caught from around the reservoir and more fish being caught overall. Several large trout were brought into the Marina this week. These included an 8 pound fish caught on a Kastmaster in South Cove, a 7.1 pounder caught in Cowboy Cove on powerbait and a 7.2 pound trout caught on a nightcrawler in South Cove. More limits are starting to show up from South Cove and from boats around the lake.

    Contra Loma 500 Pounds of trout planted this week have anglers smiling. While there are very few anglers taking advantage of the put and take trout fishery here that action is solid. Kastmasters and floating baits are the keys. Marshmallows and crawlers are working for Loma regulars.

    Provided by Dan’s Delta Outdoors, 1625 Main St Oakley CA 925/234-4694 Follow us on Facebook

Friday, November 23rd, 2018

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    Water Temp: 52-54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: We decided to fish a little turkey shoot out of Tracy Oasis. Fished south past the Grant Line Bridge for the day. We began the day throwing a jerkbait and a drop shot. Had decent one 3lb+ come off on jerkbait. Alot of small fish on the drop shot 12-14"; not the ones you want on derby day. We started out fishing some dead end sloughs with minimal current with not much activity. We made a move out to the main river channel where the current was flowing heavier. I decided since always we were catching on the drop shot was mainly shorts to start dragging around a lipless crankbait on the steeper rock banks. Boom about 3 casts after making the switch we had a 5.5lber in the boat. A little bit further down another 3lber then i couldn't get another bite on the lipless. Switched to a chatterbait and start ripping out of the grass on a similar steeper rocky bank with good current and another 5lber in the boat. Chatterbait caught another 3lber to make a cull before weigh in as well. Best 5 bass went 17.19.

    Tips: The bite seemed to pick up during the incoming tide when current picked up. On a side note after the weigh-in we went back out and found stripers running shad right at the Grant Line bridge and about 45 minutes of non-stop action with stripers up to 27" caught.

Sunday, November 4th, 2018

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    Water Temp: 63

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: On the water at 7AM out of Frank's Tract. Water temperature around 63 degrees, no wind, low tide, fished until 1PM. Caught 3-4 striped bass in the main channel, biggest around 4 pounds (two keepers). All were caught on jerk baits against the rip rap. Switched to fishing for large mouth bass outside of Little Frank's and caught one on top water, then a few more on wacky worm, biggest to 2 pounds. Beautiful day on the water.

Monday, October 29th, 2018

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    Water Temp: 64.3-65.3

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished the HL&S tournament yesterday, morning started off gorgeous, hit our first spot and started with top water popper ( silver and black) caught one keeper, Tried chatter baits in white but no luck with that, tried creature baits and the bite felt like they were just playing with the tails,
    fished the main channels with he popper and it continued to produce bites boated another fish, went to fishing boat slips in the marinas and boated 2 more keepers top water, a 12.5 " fish hammered the popper and had the whole thing in its mouth sideways, they were really crushing it,
    the wind played havoc trying to keep the boat in position in the afternoon, tried trowing a small A rig but no bites.
    Good Luck

Sunday, September 30th, 2018

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    Water Temp: Water Temp 68 - 71

    Report: by AKBASSFISHING » Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:19 pm

    California Delta 9/30/2018
    Water Temp 68 - 71
    Visibility 1 – 6 feet
    Wind 2 - 12 mph

    Got a late start, launched the boat around 9:30 in the morning. The water was like glass.

    We made a run to our usual weed flat. I started with my good ol’ white swimbait and my father went with a topwater. The bite was very tough with conditions so calm. Lots of short strikes and fish bumping our baits, but not fully committing to them.

    Then our luck changed. Some of the clouds that had been off in the distance, traveled our way. With the sun now blocked, the fish started to feed. Throwing spooks, we found plenty of fish willing to eat. Once we got one to eat, the school would fire up. From there, it was just a matter of how fast you could take them off the hook. This lasted for as long as the clouds would allow. But, once the sun came out, the bite died down.

    With our fill of stripers, we switched tactics and targeted largemouth. It was a grind to be honest. I found a few willing to eat a jig, but the fish were few and far between. Then, the clouds made a grand reappearance. With the low light, I switched to a chatterbat. And just like that, the bite was on. Working the chatterbait along weedlines, adjacent to deep water, the fish were actively feeding. Lots of small fish, but a couple of better two’s and occational three-pounder mixed in.

    We followed the weedline pattern for a while, but the tide started to move too fast, which in turn killed our bite. Knowing the fish couldn’t have moved too far, we moved to the inside of the weedline. Sure enough, the fish had re-positioned themselves in the slower water. The bite turned back on. Lots of small fish and some two’s here and there. Then, I hooked a good one. I thought I hooked a striper by the size of the boil she made when I hooked her. She ran about like a train in the weeds. Fortunately, I was able to pull her out. It felt good to finally get a good bass, its been a while.

    Overall, slow start, but we finally found some fish in the end.

    Tips: Notes

    The cloud cover was key for our bite.

    The bass seemed to be relating to the 3 – 5ft drop-offs.

    If you find a good bite and then it dies on you, don’t be afraid to look around the area. A lot of times they just re-position themselves.

Monday, September 24th, 2018

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    Report: by THE DR » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:09 pm

    We made a couple exploratory trips this weekend to try and find some of the larger models. Focusing mainly on the Sac river side, we burned a ton of gas and made hundreds of casts for small bursts of action. When targeting the big girls we only throw 6-9" topwater plugs and 10-13" glidebaits. This does limit how many bites we actually get, but produces some heart pounding moments, when you do get one of the big fish show itself, by rolling on or bumping the bait. Over all it was pretty slow for us. We did manage a couple fish per trip to 10lbs on DeltaWoodBommber wood plugs. And, had a few 20-30lb fish follow the Deps 250 and TripleTrout, but none committed. It's still early for the fall run, so our hopes remain high for the coming months.