Delta Summertime Frogging
By Mike Coleman
After spending several days practicing and then fishing the Ultimate Frog Challenge (UFC) I located a good number of bass and developed a pretty consistent pattern.
Are you’re fishing the Snag Proof Open?
The UFC tournament didn’t go as I expected, solely on the decisions my partner and myself made on day one where we fished a fragile open water fish pattern straying from the better mat fish we found in previous days. Even with a bad day one we were only ounces from a check after catching over 10lbs on day two.
We found the fish relating to current and heavy cover basically, Red Leaf and Hippie Grass.
Red leaf is a willow leaf looking plant that grows from the bottom upward and only we’re there’s sufficient current and bottom composition. When the tide starts falling it will lay over making a canopy for the fish to set up in.
Hippie Grass is a stringy grass that grows up from the bottom in sparse small clumps also making a canopy on a falling tide which might be a little hard to find but can be rewarding when you do.
During the summer bass are in or very near the current then when you pair the Red Leaf or Hippie Grass in the current it makes for a good big fish spot.
Don’t worry about it looking too thick as bass this time of year can bust through it without a problem.
Start you search around tulle islands points where the water from each side of the island comes together creating a current eddy. Also, where flooded islands empty out can be key, even without the grass. There are a ton of current related areas that have fish holding vegetation in the Delta, you just need to spend some time locating then.
We found the outgoing tide to be the best where there was deep water close by and closer to the bank on the higher tides.
The frog, we found the black and yellow produced well but also caught a few on the white and then when we were off the mat or if it was a little windy I’d opt for a popping frog in either black yellow or white.
Don’t forget the cheese.
