Date: 3/23 & 3/24 2019
Location: California Delta
Air temperature: 57-61 degrees
Water temperature: 55-60
Water clarity: 1-4 feet
Tide: High outgoing
Wind: 4-18 mph (Sat) – 3-7 mph (Sun)
Headed to the California Delta for the first time this year with buddy and fellow RB angler Charles Cornelison. We decided to make it a two day trip so I hooked up the Skeeter to the RV and headed out. We launched out of B&W Resort off Hwy 12. Saturday we got on the water about 7:45am with a little light rain. We headed to Sycamore and Hog sloughs to start the day off and found a couple small fish around islands. We ended up running across several big sealions roaming around so we decided to leave the area and bounce around between there and Whites Slough. Found a couple more fish here and there but not the size we were looking for. The winds starting picking up so we figured reaction was going to be a good bet, but we could not entice them to bite any reaction at all to our surprise. We went back to flipping both light and heavy cover and then finally, a good bite!! I ended up getting a good one to eat an Xzone Lures Muscle Back Craw in Black/Blue with a 1.25 ounce R2S weight on a New Jack Flippn hook. We ended up with about 6-7 fish for the day before heading back to the ramp to fire up the BBQ.
Sunday morning the ramp was extra busy as there were two clubs holding derbies, so we slept in a little only to wake up to heavy fog. We waited a little while before heading out. We decided to fish a few hours and just stay with 10 minutes or so of the ramp. We fished levee’s, islands and flats but were only able to get a few more fish to the boat and lost a couple as well. It was a really tough bite both days due to the high pressure. Both days we threw Chatter Baits, Blades, Square Bills, Lipless, Texas Rigged plastics and Senko’s. I think between Charles and I we had about 14 rods out just trying to figure out how we could get more bits or better quality bites. Overall, the T Rigged plastics fooled most of the fish around light cover and sparse weeds from 3-10ft deep. The largest of the weekend went 6+ pounds and came flipping heavier cover.
The river is fishing tough right now for many anglers but it will just be a matter of time before things start to heat up and the bite will get much better. The river’s still high and there’s plenty of debris floating around so make sure to be safe when running around.
Good Luck,
Randy Walker