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Hot-Bites Fishing Report By the Fish Sniffer Staff	July 11, 2008 Updated Regularly

WEST DELTA
Fishing in the West Delta is a good news, bad news scenario. The good news is that there are still good numbers of both stripers and sturgeon in the system. The bad news is that the unrelenting winds that have been confronting delta anglers are making it extremely difficult to fish effectively.

“We are not catching a whole lot right now simply because the wind is not allowing us to fish where most of the fish are concentrated,” reported Captain Barry Canevaro of Fish Hookers Sportfishing. “The Mothball Fleet is holding a lot of fish, but we just have not been able to get out there much. Today we’ve tried the area near Light 34 at Pittsburg and then moved into Montezuma Slough. So far we’ve landed a small striper and a catfish.”

Kevin Yost of Lucky Strike Charters has been spending most of his time fishing for halibut and sharks in South San Francisco Bay, but he’s been getting reliable reports from anglers fishing the West Delta.

“From what I’ve been hearing the sturgeon bite is picking up out near the Mothball Fleet. The bite has been the most productive during the incoming tide for anglers fishing grass shrimp in 25 to 30 feet of water,” related Yost.

Black bass anglers fishing locations in the West Delta are experiencing and good level of success on fish averaging 2 to 5 pounds and ranging up to 10 pounds while working several different baits. The top offerings include wake baits, plastic frogs, Senkos and large plastic worms.

EAST DELTA
This is the time to hit the East Delta if your aspiration is to catch a trophy caliber largemouth bass. The spawn in over, the bass are shallow and they are feeding vigorously. Having said that, hooking the bass is not necessarily easy. Anglers must match their tactics and lures to the prevailing conditions.

“The bass fishing has been absolutely phenomenal,” exclaimed Randy Pringle of The Fishing Instructor Guide Service. “Things couldn’t get any better in terms of hooking big fish. Over the past week we’ve put together a 40 pound limit and other limits in the 30’s. Bass in the 5 to 7 pound range are pretty common right now and we are seeing 10’s with regularity.”

“When the wind isn’t blowing the Optimum OB Minnow is working great. The OB is a wake bait so it is important to throw it when the surface is calm or nearly calm. When the wind is blowing, we’ve been relying on the Popping Furbit The Frog in a variety of colors including pink/black and black/yellow. The fish are holding up in shallow water cover and the popping frog really gets them excited,” continued Pringle.

“On warm mornings that feature surface chop, the Persuader Double Buzz is working really well. If the morning is chilly you’ll have to hold off on throwing the Double Buzz until the afternoon. On days when the reaction bite dies, flipping with Berkley Chigger Craws in the green pumpkin or cinnamon brown color is a highly effective approach. If your goal is simply to catch big numbers of average size fish, you can work the Strike King 4s crankbait in the red craw color all day long,” tipped Pringle.

RIO VISTA
The striper and sturgeon fishing in the Rio Vista area has definitely slowed down. This combined with the strong winds that blow on most days are keeping anglers away. Having said that, anglers that make the effort are still catching fish.

“It’s pretty windy today, in fact it seems like it is windy everyday and that is keeping the fishermen away,” reported David Montano at Rio Vista Bait. “Overall striper fishing has been slow. Over a two week period, only 11 keepers were brought by the shop. Those fish all weighed between 3 and 8 pounds. Sturgeon fishing has also been slow, but it is kind of hard to tell if there are any around since very few anglers are trying for them.”

“The best option right now is fishing for catfish. They are always active this time of the year. If I were going out after catfish right now, I’d use mackerel and worms,” added Montano.

Audie Urbano at Hap’s agreed with Montano, relating that few anglers were actually out fishing.

“There are a lot of shaker stripers around, but there are some keeper from 18 to 24 inches mixed in with them. Anchovies and sardines have been the best striper baits recently,” disclosed Urbano.

“I’ve had guys tell me that they are marking a lot of sturgeon on their sonar units, but few guys are fishing for them because it has been so windy. Over the last week I only heard about 1 keeper sturgeon being landed,” said Urbano.

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Area Fishing Maps West Delta Lower Mokelumne River

The Delta, comprised of a hundred plus year old system of levies and canals built to control flooding from the Sierra spring snow melt run-off, is the confluence of the Sacramento, Mokolumne, and San Joaquin Rivers. All the anadromous species pass through the area during their migrations. Permanent residents include sturgeon, largemouth & smallmouth bass, big channel cats, and carp.