By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan
I’ve often referred to it as “The Amazon of North America.” It has fewer monkeys, macaws and anacondas, but the California Delta is certainly one vast and fertile fish factory. For most neophytes, the hard part is figuring out where to begin – and to those of such sentiment, we say: “Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger.”
Well, not only would a comprehensive explanation far exceed this space and most readers’ attention level; but it also defies summation. The fact is the Delta’s an ever-changing creature of equal parts beauty and beast.
Don’t try to tame it; don’t try to cage it. Just take this astounding fishery day by day and embrace the value of frequent adjustments. Of course, a few points of guiding wisdom will facilitate the mission, and we just happen to have a few insights handy.
Water Wisdom
First and foremost, we all bow to the indomitable power of daily ebb and flow. You can fish tidal waters for a lifetime, but try and out-think this all-controlling force and she will humble you.
Seen it way too many times – guys with stellar tournament resumes trudging through weigh-in lines with light sacks and long faces because they just missed it by a little bit. No mercy, but plenty of lesson-learning.
“Here on the delta, the tide is everything, so you really need to focus your day around the tide cycles,” said seasoned Delta rat Zack Thompson. “The tide positions the fish and it has the water moving in different directions throughout the day, so the fish might be on the right side of the tule berm on an incoming tide or on the left side, depending on where the tide’s moving.”
Additionally, California pro Jimmy Reese points out the influence of water depth on fish mood. Higher water can make it harder to spot fish, but the logic works both ways.
“I really like to have a high tide and just go fishing,” he said. “When the water’s high, they (sometimes) don’t even know you’re there and if you can get a bait around them, you have a better chance of them eating it.
“As the tide goes out, the water filters through the vegetation and really clears up. That’s when they start getting a little spooky.”
Your tide apps or the data on your chart plotter will help keep you on top of the fishing action and ensure safe navigation. However, in a pinch, the Delta offers visual cues. First, note the direction that hydrilla and other subsurface weeds are leaning – this indicates an upstream or downstream flow consistent with incoming or outgoing water.
Further, subsurface weeds indicate current rate with a slight lean or a blown-over appearance. Thompson offers another tip for gauging water strength: Drop a hollow body frog off the bow and see how long it takes to reach the stern.
And one more: Monitor nature’s tide markers. Grass and debris lines on rip-rap show you the water’s status relative to how high it gets. Even easier – check those tules.
“Look at the tule berms and you’ll notice that on a low tide, there will be a foot to two feet of a brownish coloration with a little algae or moss growing on it,” he said. “That’s indicative of where the low tide line is. The more dirty surface you see, the lower the water is. At high tide, all of that dirty tule will be under the water and all you’ll see is the green top.”
Pick Your Targets
Tules are in no short supply throughout the Delta and this habitat alone consistently holds fish. But when Reese is idling down a berm, he’s keeping careful watch for something different. Logs, laydowns, exposed root masses or any manner of debris that tides and wind blow into the stalky vegetation represent your high percentage spots.
FLW Tour pro Jimmy Reese says that understanding an area's potential is the key to making good decisions on a fishery as vast as the California Delta.
“Usually a piece of wood will hold a fish because it provides more cover and ambush spots,” Reese said. “That’s where the outgoing tide helps because fish will hold tighter to the cover.”
Similarly, when multiple forms of Delta vegetation converge, Reese expects good things to happen. During a past practice mission, Reese pointed out a spot that he said he’d want to fish in the upcoming tournament. Essentially a dense raft of hyacinth had jammed into the point of a tule berm with scattered patches of hyacinth mixed with hydrilla nearby.
A high tide had all but the tips of the grass and some scattered wood hidden, but as Reese pointed out, understanding an area’s potential is the key to making good decisions on such a vast fishery.
“That’s twice the reason for them to be there,” he said of the additional cover. “I’m confident with this area just knowing what’s there. Maybe I just fish it slower with a dropshot or a tube or a Senko.”
On the periphery, Thompson also pays attention to some of the more subtle cues such as herons and river otters; both of which often indicate potentially productive bass habitat.
“When I see wading birds in an area, I start paying more attention to what’s going on over there because they eat the same baitfish the bass are after,” he said. “The same is true for otters.”
When Opportunity Knocks
Of course, there’s nothing better than the “Cast here!” sign hung by an active bass.
As Reese approached a small pocket in a tule shoreline, he spotted a fish busting bait from under a raft of dead stalks.
“Hello; you read?” he grinned.
The orientation of subsurface vegetation offers clues as to the tide's direction.
Tossing his black and yellow Sumo Frog at the point of attack, Reese got a couple of hops before the bait jammed in the floating cover. Keeping his cool, Reese deftly wigged the frog loose and the second it cleared the snag, Smack!
The fish missed that first shot, but Reese’s follow-up cast connected.
Lesson: Obviously, take your shot at a hot fish, but don’t sweat an imperfect presentation or retrieve. And don’t burn the spot by yanking an errant cast off the playing field. Often, such imperfection actually mimics the natural appearance of real prey better than our best efforts to sell the ruse.
Notably, during the day I spent with Reese, his practice partner, standout co-angler Gary Haraguchi, spent much of his time with a dropshot, but he also fished a swimbait in tule pockets.
Now, just think about that for a moment – a co-angler fishing a swimbait on the shoreward side of the boat. Interesting premise, right?
Overhead casts will deliver too much force with an unreasonably large entry splash, while sidearm attempts off the back deck are usually a lesson in futility. Snagging a seat or a tackle bag, whacking the console, the motor or Power Poles – yeah, that just doesn’t work.
Haraguchi’s solution: Casual underhanded pitches. It’s not just for jigs or Texas-rigged plastics, he says. When space is limited, patiently waiting for a lane to open up gives him the opportunity to work one of the big-boy baits. Shots are short and sweet, but if he drops a swimbait in front of the right fish, a few feet is all he needs.
