A
s most know, the California Delta is such
a vast and dynamic fishery that unless
someone fishes it regularly, it is very
difficult to find tournament quality fish in quantities that will last two days in a row. I found
myself in a much worse situation though. After 3
days of pre-fishing, I couldn’t seem to even find
enough fish to have confidence that I’d catch a limit
of bass even one day. I spent my time in all the
usual spots; Whites Slough, Sand Mound, Franks
Tract just to name a few. The weather had cooled
and the few fish I was seeing on beds weren’t of
“tournament” quality so on a whim, I decided the
first day of the tournament to take the chance
and run into Discovery Bay and take a look around
there, with a few stops on the way of course. It
played well into my plans because, wouldn’t you
know it, we fought a tough north wind all day
that made many places on the Delta unfishable. I
toughed it out though and with my partners help
(shared weight format) and a lucky bite from a post
spawn 8lber, I managed to bring in 16lbs which left
me sitting in around 7th place. Sounds pretty good
but knowing I couldn’t count on another lucky bite
and since I culled some of the fish from there at the
end of the day in Franks Tract, I made the gamble
to run to a completely different area on day two
still hoping to find fish and frankly, to continue my
pre-fish. The wind laid down the second day and I
was able to run into some marinas around Big Break
as well as into the Break. Unfortunately for me,
this day was much more like I had experienced in
the pre-fish prior and I only managed four fish for
around six or seven pounds.
Monday morning prior to the Everstart, I was back to work pre-fishing. The bite appeared to be getting a better but they were still few and far between. Worse, one was on a fluke, another a senko, then a frog etc. Junk fishing at its finest. I spent the next two days continuing to search the stingy waters of the Delta hoping I would stumble onto something productive.
First day of the Everstart I still did not have a solid pattern or a plan. I thought I knew where some quality fish lived but wasn’t clear on the tides or how easily these fish may have been found by
ISSUE 2 June 2011
other fishermen. I continued my search for a quality stringer and about mid way through the morning, finding boats on many of my spots, with one little bass in my box, I distinctly remember telling my co- angler “this isn’t working. Let’s at least fish around where I know the quality fish should be”. It became an issue of relying on previous experiences, knowing where spawning fish should be and trying to locate them. I made the run back into Franks Tract, where I had previously visited no less than 3 times in the week prior without success, and started fishing. Some adjustments I made that I think really helped me the first day mostly involved pulling out a spinning rod with ten pound fluorocarbon and changing my bait from a wacky rigged six inch senko to a five inch senko Texas rigged. This bait gave me a few more options than I had before. It allowed me to stay way back and skip the senko up into little pockets of tulles as well as to toss the senko up over long tulle stocks to reach those little open water pockets that were so hard to reach any other way. The Texas rigging of the senko also allowed me to slowly drag the senko out in a more natural presentation without making it come up off the bottom. Well for day one this seemed to be the ticket and it suddenly became easy to catch fish. No big ones but I managed around twenty or more fish and was able to cull up to all three and four pounders. A winning weight? No way. But a far cry from where I was just a few hours and days earlier. I ended day one with just over seventeen pounds and sitting tied for twenty ninth place. At least I wasn’t completely out of the tournament and was solidly within check range.
Day two of the Everstart I thought I knew just what I needed to do and where to do it. I ran to the Tract and with spinning rod in hand, found that conditions had changed significantly. There was a strong west wind blowing directly onto my most productive spot, which made it impossible for me to fish it effectively. The two-foot rollers were making me point straight into the wind and putting my non- boater right in the tulles, not very productive for either one of us. I found that my best option was to focus on little pockets that faced east and were at least a little more protected. I tried the spinning rod and small senko but all I got was my bait floating by as my line blew away. And accuracy was out of the question in
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