Alright this is the first time that I am writing a fishing report for anyone other than myself so here it goes. Hope you like to read.

The morning started off like one of those days that I know we all have had, where anything that can go wrong does. At blast off I headed down river from the rock barrier to a spot that I had caught a couple of 2-3 Lbs the day before. It was a spot at one of the bends in the river where some tules were mixed in with rocks. I was flipping a white 4" tube,pegged 3/4oz tungsten sinker, on a 4/0 EWG hook. About three casts into the day I get bit and go to set the hook and snapped of the line. I go to retie the same rig and find that it is my last weight of that size. I tried to put the weight on and the line would just not slide through the weight. It had not been drilled all the way through. I try to poke through it with everyrthing that I had with no luck. In order to get back to fishing I decide to go down to a 1/2 oz weight, and find that my buddy Alex had not given me back my pegging tools when he had borrowed them the day before. Sighing put the tube down and grab my other rod rigged with a 7" watermelon senko with red/green flake. About five casts with the senko and the line snaps. Retie that rig and see a fish boil about twenty feet away near the shore line. I try to cast over to it and made a HORRIBLE cast and snagged it about five feet up in a tree. Snap it off and retie again. At this moment I decide that I am going to go find my buddy and get my pegging tools back from him. Grab the rod with the gold/black crankbait and start heading back toward the rock barrier. Just before I get there hooked about a 3 lb cat and as I am trying to release it, it flips and sticks one of the treble hooks into my finger past the barb. Finally get the hook out of both the fish and my hand. By this time I had been blown way back downstream and I could no longer see anyone. I decide to forget finding him and just try and make what I got work. I go back to throwing the senko and about ten casts later snag another tree and break my line.

At this point I lost it and just started swearing and getting extremely pissed at myself for being so dumb. I thought nobody was around, but apparently Gordon(I believe that was his name) was on the other side of the island that I was fishing and heard everything that I said. Sorry about that man, I really thought I was all alone! After doing that for probably a good five minutes or so I finally just put my rods down and started kicking back to the launch point.

During this time I finally make myself calm down, and at that point I decided to head to this island that was just upstream from the launch site. I make my way over to the very point of the island and decided to go back to the tube. I was flipping to the very point of the island when I notice off to the left that there were some different weeds than everywhere else around it.(Sorry don't know what type they were)

I picked out the spot that had the thickest amount of those different weeds and flipped my tube to it. As soon as it broke the surface of the weeds there was a huge boil and my line started running to the right, I set the hook and knew that it was a good fish. The first time that I got her to the surface and realized just how big she was I almost had a heart attack. She made another run down and I just let her fight the rod and drag of the reel. I got her to the surface again I went to reach for her and I think she saw my hand coming and made another run, and I thought for sure she was gone becuase I didn't have any tension on the line when she first started that run. When I got her up again was able to lip her and pull up onto my lap. At this point I did my Iaconelli impression and immediately headed back to launch point.

After getting her taken care of I went right back to the same little patch of weeds and caught my second keeper. For the rest of the day I would leave that area for a while and then come back. Everytime I came back to that same little patch of weeds there was another fish there. Although the last one was just a squeaker. At around 2pm I decided to head back down river to another spot that I had seen with the same weeds. No luck there and headed back to weigh-in.

She ended up weighing 13-4 which almost doubled my personal best fish. She was caught on a 4" white tube, 1/2 oz unpegged tungsten bullet sinker, and a 4/0 EWG hook. After being cooped up for about six hours I was really happy to see her swim away. Hopefully the next time someone gets her she will be 14.

I know it was long winded but that was my day on the Delta. I can't wait to get back out there Saturday!

Brian L. Garland