Delta Stripers
I went out Sunday to take advantage of what I had heard was on off the hook striper bite. Took a buddy from work who had never caught a striper before to get in on the "hot action" as well. The day started well but it ended up being a disappointment.
Rand down to Mildred Island and got bumped almost immediately on the Big Hammer but did not hook up. Fished down the bank a bit and I switched over to the Punker and had a fish absolutely destroy it at the very start of the retrieve, he went about 22 inches. about 100 yards down the bank I get another one on the Punker, slightly larger than the first one. After that the wind picked, the sky cleared and the bite died. Spent the rest of the day running to various spots in the central and south delta with no luck.
South Delta Report
I took my buddy Witold from grad school to the delta today. We had nice condition, with clouds, light wind, etc. It was a little post front by the end of the day but not horrible. Water was 63 degrees, we launched from River's End. Mostly clear water, from 3 to 5 feet.
Right off we went in to the mouth of grantline canal and saw like 5 boats fishing striper. I stopped way short of it and we fished down. Saw fish on the graph and Witold caught a 5lb striper on a big hammer. I thought it was going to be a solid day. Instead things turned tough.
We fished from 10am to dark and after that first fish sheesh, it was bad. I caught about a half dozen small striper, a half dozen non-keeper largemouth, and of course a bullhead on a spoon. Witold lost one striper. That was it. We saw a few guys get schoolie stripers in grantline on live bluegill, and one on an anchovy.
I thought the south end of the delta would be uncrowded but it was the complete opposite. There were boats eveywhere, all day. For bass and striper. We went up to widows and back down coney and it was boat boat boat. There was one spot I wanted to fish by widows and it was a take a number situation with bass boats coming by. At the end of the day we tried to fish the pumps by River's End and I counted 7 other boats in that one stretch. So that was perplexing.
Witold
In case there was any doubt who is the captain of catfeesh
