Sacramento River Elite Series

Brent Chapman

> Day 1: 5, 14-05
> Day 2: 5, 14-12
> Day 3: 5, 17-11
> Total = 15, 46-12 (26th place)

I was absolutely exhausted from this event. I don’t know if it’s the stress of not having our camper and getting back into being used to staying in hotels and then not having a good practice

I don’t think I’ve ever been penalized in a tournament before this week either. On day 1, I was scrambling around and I thought I had four fish so I ran to another spot and caught what I thought was my fifth keeper. After that, I ran back toward takeoff and with 20 minutes to go, I catch another good one so I drain my livewells to cull and here I already have six fish.

It felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. I knew it was a 2-pound penalty. I had 16 pounds and wound up with 14 something, which was okay because I thought I had 14 anyway. It was just a dumb mistake that I think was from being exhausted.

I caught enough Friday to squeak into the cut, which after where I finished at Guntersville, was such a relief.

Coming into the tournament, I had the most awesome strategy planned out. I had key areas going in four different places, but I couldn’t fish two of them in the same day. I went to my best spot on day 1 and caught 16 pounds, but I didn’t feel like it would hold up

I went to another spot on day 2 and only caught six keepers. Today, I went to another place and lo and behold, I caught them good there. It might be the first time I’ve fished three totally different areas in a tournament. The consistent bait for me was the Tight Lines UV Whisker Beaver.

Photo: B.A.S.S./Gary Tramontina

Recap
I revisited stuff that I’ve fished for years and expanded on new stuff. I found the fish are in and around the spawn. Right now, there’s a heavy spawn going on because the Delta hasn’t seen this time of weather pattern – stable weather in the 80s – all year and what it’s doing is pushing all the fish that haven’t spawned yet up shallow. The thing is they’re there to spawn and spawn only. They’re not there to feed. The post-spawn fish seem like they’re immediate post-spawn and aren’t on the feed yet.

All the big ones I caught in practice were on a tide stage we won’t see until the weekend so I’m going to fish through spawning areas and slow down. I didn’t slow down all practice so I’m going to stay in areas where I know fish spawn – tournament-winning areas – and sit tight and hope to make the weekend when I can take advantage of the tide.

In the spring time, those spawning fish get very finicky and the two to three of water on their heads seems to make them more comfortable and they stay on their beds longer. When it’s low tide, they get a lot more fickle.

Day 1
Today went well. The goal for first day was to cover north, south, east and west. Typically, each of the four will fish differently in the spring time so I ran 48 gallons of gas through my Skeeter today just looking around – seeing the what the grass is like, seeing what the mats are like and seeing what the water clarity is like.

It looks like they’ve controlled some of the vegetation because it seems like some of the weeds have been killed off. There are a few mats around. As far as fish catching goes, I probably had 15 bites so far and one was a really big one. The fish seem like they’re in all three phases of the spawn. I did see a couple of fish cruising that are worth spending time on during the tournament.

That x-factor will be the 90-minute run from Sacramento. Depending on how the next two days go, I may try to do a trial run from there on Wednesday. Today was a lot about revisiting places from my 15 years of experience here. My goal was to burn all of my gas and revisit everything.

Photo: BassFan

Recap
It’s definitely not the Delta we’re used to. It’s off. Apparently, they’ve killed off a lot of grass and that’s evident. In turn, the water is lot dirtier and the fish are in that funk being right in the middle of the spawn. It’s a weird deal and only having 5 hours of fishing is going to make it tough.

I found three pretty decent areas. I wish they were where I could fish them all. I think I am going to have to pick one and go with it. One of them was with the wind and one was without. I’ll see what weather does tomorrow before I make that call. I’ll have a good hour boat run to make that decision.

Day 1
I’m not overly excited with what I found for the Delta. I had a decent day and caught a few fish but I didn’t find that area I’m hoping to find. Hopefully, Tuesday I’ll find what I’m looking for. It doesn’t take a lot. I just need to find one area I’m comfortable in. I just ran around and got a feel for everything.

I don’t know this place well enough to say (the water clarity) is off, but it seems like a lot was off colored and the grass is not nearly as far along as it should be. I pulled up to the ramp and didn’t the mats I was expecting to see. There were no mats at all. I remember other times I’ve been here I’ve done well flipping holes in mats and there aren’t any now.

Ultimately, having such little fishing time, you’re just going have to go into one or two areas and make the most of it. From what I can tell, we’re right in the middle of the spawn. I saw some on beds and some fry guarders.