I decided to hit up the delta to prefish for Gilroy bassmasters club tournament next weekend and the Snag Proof tournament the weekend after. In July, I really didn't fish that often as the jet skiiers seem to chase me off the lakes/rivers when the weather warms up. Since my uncle owns part of an island about 5 min from Rivers End (a.k.a. Dale's) as a vacation house I decided to spend the weekend and fish the south end of the delta and get in some wakeboarding.

Nothing really exciting which requires a play by play for the weekend, so i'll just give the basic info.

Sat 8/3 - low tide weekend:
Caught 18 bass + 9 stipers (once I located the bait fish) and a 4lb catfish on a Lucky Craft LV-500 on a Black/Gold which was very odd. Most of the bass came on crank baits as I was trying to find the right color combination that they wanted. All crankbait fish were from .5 lbs - 1.5 lbs and all 9 stipers hit crankbaits as well. Since these were small fish I can't honestly say that the color made any difference as small fish will hit just about anything they can see sometimes plus I was experimenting with new colors/retrieves from my goto colors.

I also caught a 2.6, 3.5 and a 4.1 pitching a black/blue senko around heavy cover/docks while using PowerPro line in 65lb test on baitcasting and 35lb test on spinning reals. I think I'm switching to PowerPro line for all soft plastic/senko/jig fishing from here on out. Very pleased with the results and feel with very little backlash w/ no breaks all weekend. Also had 5 blow ups on the frog but nothing landed -- from what I've been told high tide or tide coming in is a more productive time to use the frog even though I threw it for about 85% of the day.

Sun 8/4 - still low tide but coming in a bit:
Same approach as yesterday with the frog. I switched from using my Lamglas Delta Frog Rod (Power 7) with a 6:1 Curado to my Gloomis CBR845 and a 5:1 Curado (still using PowerPro) and fished some new water that I saw while out Wakeboarding with my cousin. I noticed that this rod allowed me to throw the frog about 50%-75% farther than with the Power 7 rod due to the softer tip, however the 5:1 Curado just wasn't fast enough for me for using the frog as a search bait. Next trip I'm going to switch the two reels and use the Frog rod as for the jig (as I normally do in heavy cover) and use the CBR845 for the frog. I also spoke with some guys who were doing fairly well throwing spinner baits, however I left that box at home. I also pitched the senko for 3 small fish in heavy cover no bigger than 1.5lbs each and hit 6 more small fish on crankbaits and no stipers. Still nothing on the frog except for a handful of blow ups.


Next week's approach for the tournament:
I should be back up that way this coming Friday and I'm narrowing my bait selection by using senkos, spinnerbaits, only 2 colors of LV-500 crankbaits this time (my goto bait w/ the 2 I know that catch fish at the delta), jig/madman craw trailer (as a backup) and the snag proof frog (I need to get more time in on the frog) and if all else fails I'll make a long run south to Rivers End if I'm having trouble catching a limit (1/3 tank gas round trip-- ouch).


Questions:
Where have all the bait fish gone this time of year? And where are the big hogs hiding come Aug in the delta? Just about everyone I ran into was having a problem catching a bass over 5lbs? Have all of the tournaments relocated these bass near the popular launch ramps? Maybe I should just target those areas instead.

Anyway, fun weekend however nothing of any real size. I'm still trying to figure out a pattern for fishing the delta at low tide. Anyone have any suggestions?


Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

On a low tide I find a bank that has deep water near by and then crank the outside weed line with a deep to medium diving crank. If the wind is not blowing too much I also like to split-shot or carolina rig the outside weed line or directly in the weeds. I use larger reepers and flat tailed grubs.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

Yeah that's pretty much what I was doing -- cranking the outside weed lines and channel points (nice ambush areas). However I don't carolina rig that often and in fact I don't think I've ever used it in the delta before. Usually I use it to find how hard/soft a bottom structure is when I'm new to a lake or figuring out a pattern. Maybe I'll try carolina rigging a brush hog once the crankbait bite falls off.

Thanks John.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

BTW, I'm going up early Friday morning and I have a free back seat should anyone be interested. I'm also fishing solo for the tournament as we didn't have enough non-boaters so if anyone wants to fish as a guest you're more than welcome to.

Email me if anyone is interested.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

Vince
where ya launching out of on friday. I will be going out of Holland w/ a friend.

Not sure just yet. The tournament on Sat is out of Holland and my uncle's place is near Rivers End. I may end up launching out of Rivers End jetting over to Holland to start off in the AM. I saw a few spots in between Holland and Orrwood that might be pretty nice for the frog when I was driving around and maping the area with my GPS this weekend.

If you want to hook up just let me know and I'll email you my cell phone number. Either way I will probably run into you if you're launching out of Holland.

BTW, I'm going to be up there till Sunday afternoon.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

I know I have asked this before but what color and type boat you running? If you dont recall mine its a white w/ blue ranger and OKUMA stickers on the hull. If you see me flag me down and I will try and feed you some info. We need a calfishing.com to win the GB event saturday

Thanks John. I have a 95 Ranger R72 with red/black flake and drive a Forest Green Jeep Grand Cherokee. I'm planning on launching out of Holland at first safe light and I'll have my cell phone on (408) 203-8000.

I'll see you on the water. Thanks again.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

cool i have your cell # on me and will look ya up miday after some fish catching

BTW: I will be running down to victoria probally as soon as i get on the water

Cool yeah Victoria is about 5 min North of my uncle's place (lot's of wakeboarding traffic there). If you go south from Victoria's past Quinn's Island going towards the fixed bridge, you come across a couple of islands with homes on the (before the bridge). The first house on the corner from Quinns Island to the bridge is his place. The GPS coordinates are N 37" 50.892', W 121" 32.368'.

If you're running down to Victoria then I'll launch from Rivers End (aka Dales).

Talk to you later.

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

I don't know what style cranks you are trying, but, I have slammed them an the biggest Manns 1- in crawdad pattern or Chart./Blue. I actually throw it in between the rocks and the grass in the little channel. Usually, the area in which you are casting is only about a foot wide and you need to put the boat right on the bank, but I have had some incredible days on those cranks on low tide.
If you have spots that are choked with grass on low tide. Try it when you can see a visable channel between the weeds and rocks when the tide starts to come in. Those fish sit back in the grass and face the shore. When the shad run up and down the little channel, they attack. Thats what I did in the Fedeation tournement in May. The weights were down for everyone(like 43 pounds to win for 3 days), but I scrownged up almost 37 pounds on my 1-. Finished 12th out of 120.
Just another Idea for the bag of tricks.
Good Luck
Cam

Cam,

Thanks for the tip. Which 1- were you referring to? the 1/4, 3/8 or 5/8 lures? I was able to find the 1/4 in those colors, but not the 3/8 or 5/8.

On a side note, a similar approach was taken at GB's last delta tournament out of Lundborg hitting the bass alleys (as we referred to them) behind the boat docks pitching a senko. The guy who took first had a limit by 8:00am and culled a couple of fish throughout the day.

Looking at my tackle box I noticed that I really don't have any crankbaits that cover the 0'-3' range which is why I loose some Lucky Craft LV-500's in the weeds during low tide. My 2 goto colors for the delta are similar colors you referred to in your post. I think I'm going to pickup some Lucky Craft Pointer 78 and Pointer 100 in my delta colors as they are 1'-4' baits and might work well with the high tide over the weed beds.

The tides (listed below) for this weekend should actually give me plenty of time to crank and frog for fish in the morning with a lot of fast moving water. I have a feeling that those bass alleys are going to be pretty productive as they offer a relief area from the current from the bass and hold lots of bait fish. I'll give the 1- a try and let you know how it went.

Thanks again, Cam and Welcome to the board!


Delta Tides this Weekend
------------------------
Friday 8/9 (no moon)
L 1:23a 2.7'
H 6:30a 6.8'
L 2:31p -1.0'
H 8:23p 5.3'

Sat 8/10
L 2:12a 2.4'
H 7:20a 6.7'
L 2:59p -0.9'
H 9:00p 5.5'

Sun 8/11
L 3:04a 2.1'
H 8:12a 6.4'
L 3:40p -0.5'
H 9:38p 5.7'


Vince
vince@theblankslate.com

Vince,
Where did you find the tide tables that you reference? Is there a Web site somewhere?

Thanks,
Kase

Actually most marinas/bait shops have a guide for $1 that lists this info. The data is also listed on the internet at the following url:

http://www.californiadelta.org/deltatides.htm

Be sure to compensate based on your location (listed in the guide).

Vince
vince@theblankslate.com