Sheeting Rain, Brilliant Sun and Bad Mannered Delta Stripers Confront Bass Derby Participants   By: Cal Kellogg November 17, 2007 More Articles by Cal

Fishing is an individual sport at its essence. It’s not about teams or competition save for the competition that pits angler against fish. Yet, for anglers that possess a competitive nature, fishing in derbies, tournaments or even jumping into a five dollar jackpot pool on a charter boat can add another level of excitement to the already exciting sport of fishing.

Throughout the course of a year I engage in a number of different competitive fishing events ranging from bass tournaments to trout derbies and, of course, I never shy away from throwing a five or ten into the jackpot pool on charter boats. My hands down favorite competitive fishing event is the Rio Vista Striped Bass Derby.

The derby has been a delta institution since 1947, making it one of the oldest continuously operating fishing contests in the nation. Originally, the contest was a winner-take-all affair focused on catching the largest striped bass possible. More recently sturgeon and salmon categories have been added to the derby.

The biggest change to the derby occurred three years ago when the focus was taken off of landing the biggest possible striper or sturgeon to landing fish as close as possible to a randomly drawn target length without going over that length. This change was adopted both to encourage the release of the largest fish caught and to make it more difficult for anyone thinking of cheating.

Despite these changes in the rules the sardine slingers and Pet Spoon trollers of yesteryear and today’s shad soakers and Bomber pullers still have much in common, namely a love of the delta and an obsession with battling heavyweight gamefish!

The 2007 derby kicked off on October 12 and ran through the 14th. Fishing began at 6 o’clock in the morning on the 12th and the target lengths of the fish were drawn a little before legal fishing time. The striper length was determined to be 34.5 inches while the sturgeon target was set at 53.5 inches. Salmon don’t have a target length and the angler that weighs the largest salmon takes the top prize.

On the first day of the derby, Rene Villanueva of Steelie Dan’s Guide Service and I decided to team up and on the second day I was scheduled to fish with Captain Barry Canevaro of Fish Hookers Sportfishing.

Rene and I pulled into Rio Vista at about 5:30 on Friday morning, picked up 3 pounds of fresh shad, backtracked across the Rio Vista Bridge and headed for the Sherman Island launch ramp. Rain was in the forecast, so Rene and I slipped into our rubber bibs before launching his Alumaweld and heading down river toward Collinsville.

At Collinsville, we pulled into Montezuma Slough and motored down toward the saltwater locks. After cruising a few areas that generally hold stripers without marking much on the sonar, we stumbled on a decent concentration of fish holding just off the bottom in 18 feet of water.

While Rene dropped the anchor I started filleting shad and applying Pro Cure Super Gel to them. My favorite scent for stripers is anise, so I put that on half the shad, Rene likes to use a combination of garlic and crawfish scent, so I put that mixture on Rene’s shad.

After casting out it didn’t take long for the bass to find our baits. We’d been at it for less than ten minutes when a bass grabbed my shad and took off on a clicker screaming run. Picking up the rod I engaged the reel, allowed the tip to load up and drove the hook home. The bass put up a spirited fight, but I could tell right away that it wasn’t a big boy and it didn’t take me long to steer the 6 pounder up to the side of the boat. As soon as I got my bait back into the water I caught a second keeper size bass measuring about 22 inches.

Next it was Rene’s turn and he reeled in a 5 or 6 pound keeper. During our first hour on the water we boated a total of 7 keepers before the action slowed down and rain started falling.

Although Rene and I contemplated moving several times throughout the day, we continued catching the occasional bass and it didn’t seem like a very good idea to leave fish in order to find fish. Late in the morning I got lucky when our biggest fish of the day, a husky 28 inch 7.5 pound battler, decided bolt off with my shad.

During the afternoon the sky really broke open and we were assaulted by strong waves of rain and occasional gusts of wind. When all was said and done, Rene and I ended the day just before dusk with 15 keepers between us. Captains Barry and Diana Canevaro had spent much of the day fishing within sight of us and they had experienced similar results.

A call to derby headquarters revealed that bass of 33 and 34 inches had already been brought in, so there was no need for me to take in my 28 incher.

After eating dinner with Rene, I headed back to the Fish Sniffer office in Elk Grove and grabbed a few hours of sleep, before driving down to the Pittsburg Marina to hook up with Barry. When I arrived at Pittsburg at 6 o’clock, Barry was already aboard the Fish ‘N’ Fool IV readying his gear for the day ahead.

By 7 o’clock Barry’s other anglers Oscar Parish, Ken Banford, John David, Edward Baeza Jr. and Edward Baeza Sr. had arrived and we motored out of the marina under crisp clear skies. Barry wanted to fish in Honker Bay in hopes of finding some larger bass, but a combination of breezy conditions combined with a weak tide forced us into the sheltered waters of Montezuma.

On the previous day the bass had gone from running with the bait in the morning to picking at the bait in the afternoon as the low pressure area moved into the region. The blue skies on day two were clear evidence that we would be fishing in the wake of the retreating low and that typically mean tough fishing.

Setting up in the same area that we’d all fished the previous day, Barry baited 4 rods with shad and two with lively bullheads. The shad rods got instant action in the form of bumps and taps, but the bass refused to gulp the baits down.

We’d been fishing for about two hours when a bass picked up my bullhead and took off on a sustained run. I picked up the rod, but not wanting to make my move too soon with bites being so scarce I let the bass run and run.

Looking over to Barry, I asked him if he thought the bass had the bait and he nodded yes. Since the bullhead was rigged on a circle hook, I simply pointed the rod to the side, engaged the reel and allowed the striper to set the hook with its own momentum.

The bass felt heavy, so I played it gently as it dipped and dodged back and forth through the other lines. By the time I worked the bass to the net I was amazed that it had only fouled one other line. The striper was a sleek 8 pounder and we hoped it was the first of many more, but with an unstable barometer we were fighting an uphill battle.

Our only other solid bite came in the middle of the afternoon when a nice 7 pounder grabbed Ken’s shad adorned circle hook. Ken gave the fish plenty of time to get the bait down, engaged he reel and waited for the bass to load the rod and set the hook before beginning to work the reel. Ken kept steady pressure on his prize and brought it to the net without incident.

Around 3 o’clock Barry told us to reel in our lines and we headed back to Pittsburg. We hadn’t caught as many bass as we hoped for, but if there is one thing you can’t fight when fishing, it’s the weather. Despite the fact that the bass didn’t cooperate with us, we still had a lot of laughs, while enjoying the sights and sounds of the beautiful California Delta!  

Rio Vista Bass Derby Results  

The 60th Annual Rio Vista Bass Derby was a resounding success, with more than 800 folks turning out to participate. During the derby, striper and sturgeon anglers found consistent action while salmon anglers struggled to find fish.

The target length for stripers was 34.5 inches and the target for sturgeon was 53.5 inches. Several anglers entered stripers close to the target, but Suisun City’s Ronald Brewer held off the competition and took home $2,000 for his 34.5 inch 16.25 pound striped bass.

Doug Aurit of Livermore took home $1,000 for top honors in the sturgeon division for his 53 inch 38 pound diamondback. Leonard Johnson of Turlock, beat the odds and bagged a 16.10 pound king salmon that was large enough to earn him a cool $1,000 for the largest king.

The Fish Sniffer would like to congratulate Rio Vista for providing delta anglers with another successful and exciting derby. To all the winners we say “Good Job” and we wish the other participants good luck for next year’s event!