Spent every weekend on the Delta after Labor day for practice. All my time on the water before the event was in the kickboat. I was in big break, middle river, holand/ rock and white. By the end of all the kickboat practice I had decided holand/rock and middle river would be by go to spots. With Big Break being a back up plan if needed. The bite in holand was a crank and blade bite as with the break. Middle River was a hyacinth flippn bite. Prepped the boat Sunday night worked 2.5 days and headed back to the river for a TBF staff meeting Wednesday night and moved into our house. Sorry I kept a lil quiet on here during my prefish. After the 1st prefish day i decided it would be better to go alone and not post anything in a public forum

House for the 5 days on sandmound. $100.00 a night same as the over crowded hotel. Nice


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Prefished the franks area in the boat Thursday just for a local spot. Spent 3 hours with a swimbait and decided to check out the hyacinth dock jig bites and got 2x4lbrs and a 5.One of the areas I expected to be off limits the others should be ok. After check in Thursday night they made the off limits area huge for russos and all of it was off limits. No biggie I had plenty of other water.

Rods on my deck for the whole event were. 3 jigs= 3/8oz, 1/2oz and 1oz all Paradise Poisen jigs in perch with payback beavers as a trailer. Blade and LV craw crank.

Day 1 Cold, windy a little nasty feeling. Blast off 12th with a guy from Irvine named Antonio. Great guy just wanted to learn the delta, perfect. Started our 30 minute ride with a pit stop in rock and picked up a 5lbr on a blade pretty quick as well as a couple small fish. Spent maybe an hour in there and continued our way to Middle River as this area seemed to turn into dinkville once the tide dropped and the sun came up. Started picking apart the hyacinth with the jigs and picked up a fish here and there until about noon when the tide had dropped enough to put them in a more predictable spot. The bite got really good for a couple hours picking up maybe 10 keepers most in the 3+ range with a 2.9 I never got rid of. Not happy about that but what can you do. The highlight of my day was helping my non boater. I had got my 5th fish and he still didn't have a fish in the well. We came across the pump area and I told him to drag a senko. I explained the wood he couldn't see and to drag it slow and let it sink until you feel wood. Sure enough 2lbr and his first fish on the delta. Cool. He ended up catching 4 including one deep in the hyacinth but lost his 5th that he couldn't get out in time. Headed back about 15 minutes early as it was expected to be rough and to hit a couple spots on the way if we had time. Weighed in 16.4 and was in 4th after day 1 as lot of guys struggled bad. Cam was leading with 20.


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Day 2 I am walking around the dock at russos and could smell donkeys, I cold feel it and they were in the hyacinth. I just didn't get them in the boat. My draw was a local guy named bret that knew his stuff but made it clear I was in the hunt and to do what I wanted. Thanks man. I told him I was looking for 25lbs to seal the deal today and I expected a lot of the top guys would drop off in weights. I had a bug in my brain to hit the break and go for it all but decided against it right before blast off. Made the run to holland and cranked up a bunch of little ones then headed to middle river. Got there earlier then the day before and didn't get a bite until 11:30 when the tide was right. About noon I flipped a 5lbr and started to load the boat again with solid 3+ fish. I flip into this one mat and hook a giant. I couldnt turn this fish and it pulled about 10ft of hyacinth with it. That was a beast no doubt. I got over it pretty quick continuing to catch fish. Then the disaster began. The hyacinth had taken over the slew and began trap us in and also made it completely unfishable. The slough was completely choked at the barrier all the way across and as far as the eye could see and it was coming. Here is a pic of Mark Daniels JR just before it got really bad. He packed up and left shortly after this.


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Headed to sandmound in hopes the few deep docks I know in there would have hyacinth, no luck. I had 1 dock in piper that had deep water and hyacinth so headed that way. As we come off pad I check on my fish and there all on the bottom with slight gold eye and laying on there side. It was now 2.45 and I had a 330 weigh in. I never kill fish and am pissed at this point. I pull cull markers out of them all and check. They are alive but could be dead any minute.I also still have a 2.1lbr I need to get rid of. I hit the dock and don't get bit. Play doctor and try and save the fish checking pumps and everything. Decided to weigh in at 3.15 in hopes they would all live. Arrived at Russos and the fish have there color back. I have feeling I sucked up a bunch of hyacinth and all day they were not getting fresh water. Lucky for me they all lived. Got to the scales and already heard about Cam's 8lbr and he won big fish. I weighed in 16.8 and didn't expect to do to well. A lot of guys had a tough day once again and I got lucky into 2nd place and head to Colorado next year.


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