This past weekend My tournament partner Chris Perez and I fished the BBT Delta-Wine event on the Delta. We had our best finish of the year so far and were able to string together a solid 4th place finish. Although we had a pretty solid bag the fishing is tough right now.
We came out of blast of fishing a sparse tule flat in Franks Tract. This is an area where we both have had an extensive history. We spent the early part of the morning flipping a 6″ X-Zone Lures True Center Stick into the pockets in the tules. We had a few 2-2.5lbers eat to start a limit. After about an hour of work I was able to get a good one to bite and throttle her out of the thicket of tules(7.81lbs).
Also, we mixed in a couple of punch/flip fish. We were both flipping an X-Zone Lures Muscle Back Craw in both the 3.25″ and the 4″. As of late this has become one of my favorite flip baits since its slender profile allows it to slide throught the mats easily and the floating claws entice extra bites while the bait is on the bottom. The X-Zone Lures Muscle Back Craw was paired up with 1oz – 1.5oz Canopy Grenades Tungsten weights and a Canopy Grenades Punch Skirt all of which was handled to perfection by our Dobyns Champion XP 805 Flip Rods.
After leaving the first area with a limit we headed to another well know spawn area and continued to flip grass and mats adjacent to the spawn areas. We managed a few fish and even culled a time or 2.
As the tide continued to fall and the sun rose high we began looking for bed fish. Being that Chris is an excellent sight fisherman he put on a clinic for the rest of the day. We headed to a bed we had spotted in practice and found a fish on it. Chris didn’t waste any time in getting this high 5lber in to the boat.
After picking off the first sight fish we ran back to our second area and looked for more sight fish. Luckily for us we found a pair of good ones locked on to their nest. Chris picked up right where he left off and got another 5lber to go.
After this bed fish we had about an hour left in the day before we headed back to weigh in. We spent the last part of the day trying to cull out our last 2lbers to no avail. When it was all said and done Chris and I weighed in 21.81 and missed 3rd place by just ounces and a big fish check by a similar margin.
We were extremely happy with our results and we couldn’t have been happier to have thrived in a field stacked with great fishermen. I know the fish we caught were a testament to the products we were using. Quite frankly we feel it is some of the best on the market. Especially the strength and sensitivity of our Dobyns Rods. I’m extremely happy I had my Dobyns Sierra 734c in my hands when the big girl decided to eat my True Center Stick about 35ft back in some heavy tule fields.
If you would like to see the footage of our day we will be posting a video very soon on “The Idle Out” YouTube page and social media pages. If you would like more tips and info on the Delta or any other body of water we host free seminars at Bass Pro Shops in Rocklin, CA every second Thursday of every month.
As I like to do the links to all of the tackle we used will be listed below. Thank you for visiting RB Bass. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Thank you,
Ryan Hall
Instagram & Twitter @ryanhallfishing & @theidleout
Tackle Used:
Dobyns Sierra 734c: https://www.outdoorproshop.com/Dobyns-Rods-Sierra-Series-p/dobyns-sierra.htm
Dobyns Champion XP 805 Flip/Punch: https://www.outdoorproshop.com/Dobyns-Rods-Champion-XP-Flipping-p/dobyns-champxpflp.htm
X-Zone Lures True Center Stick: https://www.xzonelures.com/site/shop/detail/pro-series-true-center-stick-6inch-fishing-lures
X-Zone Lures Muscle Back Craw: https://www.xzonelures.com/site/shop/detail/pro-series-muscle-back-craw-fishing-lures
Canopy Grenades Punch Skirt: https://www.outdoorproshop.com/Canopy-Grenades-Punch-Skirts-p/cg-ps.htm
Canopy Grenades Tungsten Weight: https://canopygrenades.com/collections/weights-and-stops/products/tfwflipping-weight
Power Pro Braid: https://www.outdoorproshop.com/Power-Pro-Braid-150-p/powerpro-150yds.htm
Seaguar Flourocarbon: https://www.outdoorproshop.com/Seaguar-InvizX-Fluorocarbon-p/seaguar-invizx-fluoro.htm
Gamakatsu EWG Superline Hook: https://www.outdoorproshop.com/Gamakatsu-Hooks-EWG-Offset-Superline-p/gamakatsu-hooks-sl-ewg.htm
Gamakatsu Super Heavy Punch Hook: https://www.outdoorproshop.com/Gamakatsu-Hooks-Flipping-Super-p/gamakatsuheavycover-super.htm
