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With water temperatures hitting the upper 70's and low 80's in most of our lakes across northern California, the window of opportunity for bass fishermen has now been limited to the very early morning and late evening hours. One of the exceptions to the rule is the California Delta where anglers can find tremendous action throughout the entire day. The reason for this is the bass' feeding cycle is heavily influenced by tidal movements. Rather than feeding during periods of low light or even at night, Delta largemouth can go on the bite at any time of day depending upon the movement of the tides. The beauty of fishing the Delta this time of year is that these fish thrive in shallow water and they are extremely aggressive. While anglers at other lakes are limited to throwing plastics in deep water during the heat of the day, Delta fishermen might be flipping into 2 to 4 feet of water or even throwing topwater baits during 100 degree temperatures. While Snag Proof tournament frogs and Zoom brush hogs have been the craze on the Delta during the past few years, local anglers have discovered a new bait that is suddenly producing big numbers of quality fish, especially under tough fishing conditions. For those of you who have followed the last few pro-ams on the Delta or Clear Lake, you are undoubtedly familiar with the Yamamoto Senko. The Senko is a heavily salted thick plastic "do-nothing" worm that has taken over the northern California bass fishing scene much like the brush hog did several years ago. |
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Adam Mokres of Lodi has been fishing the Delta two to three days a week for the past year and a recent phone conversation confirmed the productivity of these baits. "I've really been struggling for the past month," he explained. "The frog bite just hasn't materialized and most of good summer areas just haven't been producing any quality fish." Up until last weekend, Mokres had been fishing his usual stuff, buzz baits, brush hogs, jigs and flukes with only nominal success. "I finally decided to fish Senkos last Sunday and I caught three times the amount of fish I've been catching on recent trips," he said. "I also landed two of my biggest fish this summer, a 5 pound, 4 ouncer and another fish just over 7 pounds." Mokres was fishing the east Delta concentrating on tule walls behind weed lines during the high tide. "The incoming tide has been the key time to fish these baits," he explained. "As water begins to build up behind the weedlines, the better fish will move in tight to the bank. I'm pitching a watermelon colored Senko rigged weightless on a 3/0 hook and just letting it fall against the back of the weedlines or pockets in the tules." I spoke to another local angler, Jody Jordan of Vacaville who found similar success fishing Senkos in the Franks Tract area. "I was fishing on the amateur side of the last Won Bass pro-am and ended up catching the majority of our fish both days on Senkos. In fact, we were really struggling fishing spinnerbaits and crankbaits the final day and switched over to Senkos on the incoming tide and caught more than 20 keepers during the last few hours of the day," he said. "Since that tournament, I've been taking a lot of fish targeting rip rap and tule walls on the incoming or high tide." While Senkos aren't the only baits that are producing fish on the Delta, they seem to be the hot bait of the season and should continue to produce fish for quite some time. The majority of successful tournament anglers have been throwing some type of topwater bait such as a Zara Spook, tournament frog or buzzbait for the first hour or so, then switching over to flipping Senkos, plastic worms or jigs. One thing is for sure, the Delta can't be beat for summertime largemouths and now is prime time to hit the water. No other body of water produces the consistent warm weather action that the Delta is capable of. Also, remember to bring along plenty of sunscreen and water! |
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