That was the pattern Berends and Saso worked to perfection on Thursday afternoon. "We were pitching 6 inch Yamamoto Senkos in a variety of colors including watermelon red, junebug and chartreuse," he added. "We also caught fish on Luhr Jensen Speed Traps in the crawdad pattern, chartreuse and white spinnerbaits and a 6 inch #39 Magic Worm fished on a drop-shot rig. The 12 pounder fell for a #208 Senko."

According to Berends, the fishing has been hit and miss out on the Delta, but when you hit it right, you can load the boat with quality fish. "It's basically feast or famine out there," he explained. "There are little pockets of active fish throughout the Delta and when we run into one of those pockets, we're catching fish on nearly every cast. Of course it doesn't last long, but it's possible to put a big limit in the boat in a hurry. That's why we're seeing a few teams with huge limits in most of the tournaments and other teams are struggling for a few bites a day."

As far as choosing an area to fish, the middle Delta has been very consistent for Berends. "Water temperatures are still in the low to mid 50's, so you want to look for protected areas that might be a degree or two warmer that other areas," he said. "On Thursday, we did most of our damage in Middle River, Lathom and Connection Sloughs."

So there we were loaded with the latest information; We knew right where we needed to go and exactly what baits to use. The weather couldn't have been better with little to no wind and warm sunshine beating on our faces. I was joined by Paul Cunningham of Sacramento and to say we were pumped would be an understatement. So how did we do? Well, after 10 hours on the water, we had a grand total of 5 bites and managed to land 3 small fish up to 2 pounds.

How is this possible? It appeared that everything was in our favor. Good tides, great weather and all the latest information. The one thing we couldn't change was the fact that it was still February and no matter how great the weather is, you just never know if the fish are going to bite from one day to the next. Albert was also out on the water fishing the same general area and he and two other anglers found it equally tough with a total of 5 fish. Albert did manage one quality largemouth that weighed 4.7 pounds, but the rest were small fish in the 1-1/2 to 2 pound class.

Areas that had produced numerous quality fish just a day earlier were suddenly dead. Even Berends was amazed at the drastic change in the bite with seemingly identical conditions found on both days. I know this is typical of bass fishing in winter, but it's still frustrating when these fish don't do what they're supposed to.

Fishing this time of year is a gamble regardless of the weather, but the chance of catching one of those monster Delta limits or possibly the fish of a lifetime will always keep us coming back for more.