BASSIN’ EXPERIENCES
that wind. Again, it became a situation where I knew the fish were still there. I just needed to figure out the most productive means of catching them. With the waves and ripple, the six-inch senko became the right tool to use. I managed to at least start getting bites, but with the slack in my line, getting bites and detecting them were two different things and between losing a couple keepers and breaking off a nice fish after my line wrapped around a middle guide, I thought the day was slipping away from me. I managed to settle down and eventually the fish started coming into the boat. One particular fish I am very fortunate to have, I tossed my senko into the air up over some ten-foot tall tulles and landed the perfect drop into a little hole. Unfortunately, between fighting with the tulles and the wind, I never felt a thing but when I went to pick up, there it was, a very solid fish on the end. Of course, it managed to get off right away which just furthered my thoughts that I was blowing it. Thank goodness for bed fish though. Many times over the years, I have managed to catch the same fish off the same bed and based on what the spot looked like, I was pretty certain this was a bed fish. So after twenty minutes or so, I told my co-angler “I’ve got to go back and try to catch that fish again”. I was fortunate to have been able to mark the spot and find it again. Only this time I just KNEW there was a fish there and the anticipation and concentration was higher. Lucky for me, the fish bit and even more fortunate, my co-angler was an excellent partner and worked very hard to reach way into the tulles and grab the fish after I got it’s head out of the water. It was a 4lb 12oz fish that would end up being the biggest fish I weighed both days.
With that single fish, my confidence was restored. I was able to fish braid to fluorocarbon and able to use my Dobyns 784 jig rod with confidence that the bites would come and the fish
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would make it to the boat. But again, this is the Delta. The only constant in a place like this is certainty that things are always changing. The delta is full of weeds. Places that are easily accessible during high tide are completely out of water at low tide. We started the day near the top of the high and I found my best area quickly becoming much more difficult to navigate as the clock ticked down.
Now might be the time to mention a real smooth move I made for which I have no doubt I will hear about for months to come. After finally catching a limit, which included a 1 1/2lber along with one touching 12 inches, I eventually caught another solid three pounder. Knowing that I had to cull, I dug around for the little fish and while holding both little fish in my left hand with another fish in my right, I made the smart move to fling the little fish over the side. What could probably go wrong? Oh yea, that hands holding both fish! Over goes the pound and a halfer along with the twelve incher. With tongue in cheek, I sheepishly let my co-angler know I no longer even have a limit! With a sense of resignation, I shut the livewell lid and turned around to find the “squeaker” still flopping around under the console. Imagine that,
in the moment that I realized I was losing my grip
on one fish and tried to prevent it, the other didn’t
quite make it out of the boat. Well, at least I
still had a limit but with the small fish and a
two pounder, along with three solid fish, I
was sitting with around fifteen pounds.
Certainly not enough to move up, but I
still had several hours before
weigh in.
As the hours wore on, it was becoming apparent that I may have missed my opportunities for a few more fish. I bounced around the tract and my co-angler managed a couple of fish along with us witnessing another co-angler catch two very solid fish but without a bite myself in over two hours, back to
Photo By Jody Only