Delta Area Weather   Delta Tide Tables    California Delta Fishing News    Fishing Clubs

CA DELTA REPORT
Updated - 1/25/2007
Brought to you by...

Sturgeon Focus of most Anglers

Isleton Riverside Bait reports, anglers catching sturgeon in the 50-pound range on Power Worms, ghost shrimp, grass shrimp, roe and even a little eel.Sturgeon fishing improves on the Sacramento River at the mouth of Steamboat Slough and into Cache Slough. "We're weighing sturgeon every day," said Jack Kelly at Viera's Riverside Bait in Isleton. "We've had them from 44 inches to 67 inches."

The staff at Hap’s reports Striped bass fishing is but, but anglers using frozen shad are hooking 18-inch keepers to 5 pounds. There's probably a better chance of scoring a sturgeon at Decker Island than a striper. This is confirmed in the Wilson Files below.

Pat Hayden at Martini's Bait in Lodi reports, tough striped bass bite- stripers to have been taken by trollers on the Mokelumne River. Broken-backed Rebels are the ticket. Bass to 11 pounds have been taken this week, reported

The glimpse of hope is bait action shad in the ship channel by Windmill Cove. Shad is the key to hooking striped bass, 8 to 10 pounds - up to 17 pounds - reported Johnny Cain at Jolly's Bait. We have found the Turning Basin at the Port of Stockton is "loaded with shad minnows," and boaters are metering stripers. Getting the to go in another story with the cold temperatures. Again, find the of birds feeding on shad and you'll find the fish. Tong Chang at The Outdoor Sportsman touts school-sized stripers in downtown Stockton. He said the black bass bite is very tough, though 1-pound largemouth are available for persistent anglers. The Super Bowl Sturgeon Derby returns Feb. 4-5. Last year, $19,000 in prize money was handed out each day. For more information and an entry form try www.originalsturgeonderby.com ,

 

Looking for that cool sweat shirt to wear on your next trip to the Delta? Be one of the first to get that Fishdelta.com sweatshirts.

 
Rio Vista - Isleton

Bob’s Bait Report www.themasterbaiter.com

The raining season is continuing this week after four consecutive dry and beautiful days. Even that, the water was still very high and muddy. This is one of the reasons why fishing activity was really slow last week.
January is normally slow month in a year for fishing activity in the Delta channels. The main reason is striped bass fishing is really slow due to muddy water. Even sturgeons fishing is picking up but this kind of fish is really hard to catch and it requires a lot of time. Going home with empty hand is normal if planning fishing for sturgeon. Some anglers haven’t had any luck for number of consecutive days or months. That’s the reason why there are not many anglers who are willing to fish for sturgeon in the Delta.
This is the best time to have a change to hook sturgeon until end of April. Fishing for sturgeon required a lot of patient and spare time. It’s usual to fish for sturgeon as team from two or more anglers that makes fishing more impressive than fishing alone. As a group, they can play card, BBQ, or cooking a favorite food using a portable stove.
Beside the difficulties above, when fishing at night, the outside temperature is sometime dropped to low 40 degree. It doesn’t matter how warm clothes you wear, your face and your hands are mostly contacting to the cold air that would make you feel very uncomfortable. The final thing that may be more challenging is hooking the fish. Since sturgeon bites very light and slow, it’s required to pay very high attention to the tip of your fishing rod. If you are not set the hook right at the second time when the fishing tip bending down, you are most likely not see the bite for another 6 hours. Sturgeon mostly bites during the tide changes. That is the reason you may have to wait for another tide changes for sturgeon bites.
The water was too strong and fast during the outgoing tide. The sinker weight sometimes would be used up to 14 oz to hold the bait not moving with the current.
Baits for sturgeon widely available at this time are ghost shrimp and pile worm. Grass shrimp is very rare due to too much fresh water flowing to the Bay that force grass shrimp moving out to the ocean.
Last week, Leonard Walter from Isleton got 35 lb. sturgeon and lost another one at his boat dock on 01/15/06. Other anglers at Ko-Ket resort got four sturgeons total in three consecutive days from 01/14/06 to 01/17/06. Most sturgeons were caught on ghost shrimp and one on pile worm.
Best luck to you all and have a good coming weekend.

Sacramento Area Report - by Jack Chapman

URGENT!
To all CSBA members and fellow fishermen and families:

The South Delta Improvement Project must be Stopped until the Science Projects and our fisheries are back on the road to recovery. This means all of our fisheries! I emphasize all of our fisheries!

As all of you are now aware thanks to media articles on the Delta and the crises our fisheries were published in news papers. The Cal Fed EIR (Environmental Impact Report) was published and made available to the public during the Christmas holiday season which again was timely managed to the benefit of CAL FED and the water contractors in the south land and Westlands District. The EIR is the most flawed document without consideration for our Delta Agriculture, Communities, Recreationists, Commercial establishments and we as a fishing community.

We have until Feb. 7th to make our feelings and comments known to CAL Fed.. GO TO the FOLLOWING WEB SITE and voice your comments.

http//SDIP.water.CA.gov/ Link to comments will be in the upper right corner. They must be in by February, 07, 2006!!!

Our opportunity to voice our opinion in a Public Forum will be at two meetings. We have been given a short notice which is typical unless you read the Federal Record or on the web sights for CAL FED.

The first is:

Sacramento at 650 Capitol Mall, (CAL Fed Bldg.) Sacramento Hearing Room. The time is 9 to 12 or possibly 1 P.M..

There will also be a public Media event outside of the building at 9:30 a.m.. The public will also have time to enter the building following the media presentation. Allow time to go through security prior to showing up for the hearing.

There is a presentation and public hearing in L.A. on the 24th..

The 3rd public hearing is in STOCKTON one week from today!!!!
This Meeting is the most important for all of us fishermen and families to show our dissent to the management of our water and heritage to the powers that for to long have ignored us. The buck stops here with us as citizens. We will have a rally prior to the meeting 6PM to 7PM.. We must show our unified support.
Wednesday; 26th of January.
Time is; 7 to 9 p.m.
Location; 31 Channel Street,
General Services Auditorium

This is our last chance unless we can get a postponement! The decision makers are Cal Fed and the Dept. of Interior that has already started dredging and has Franks Tract on line for experimental blockage this year. Help

The Wilson Files Striper Guru Mark Wilson

Wednesday, January 24, 2007...Biff Brethour joined me today to go chase stripers.  We tried some trolling around Sherman Lake, Collinsville, Broad Slough and into Montezuma Slough.  Nada, nothing, zero, and zip.  We baitfished the same area with shad and caught 1 shaker striper and 9 keeper stripers to 9 pounds.  Kind of a slow day, but some action.  Back to Vieira's to filet fish before dark and home right after dark.  That's it.  Good luck.  Catch you later - Mark. 

Hook Line And Sinker Report
Robert from the Hook in Oakley reports.
Black Bass:
The largemouth bite has slowed down some in overall weight with the recent cold weather. It has dropped the water temps into the mid to low 40's which means you'll have to slow down and cover areas very thouroughly to get the most and better quality bites. Keys for getting bit right now are to look for areas out of extreme current, clearer water and areas holding lots of bait. If you find these 3 keys you will find the fish. Fish slower techniques with plastics like drop-shotting, split-shotting and texas rigging and stick to more straight tail or small curly tail worms and down size your presentations. Also, a suspending rip bait this time of the year works well.

Striped Bass:
The majority of the stripers have moved well into the middle portion of the delta by now and from Frank's Tract to Stockton on the San Joaquin River should be holding good numbers of fish and will until Feburary. Also, Old and Middle Rivers and into Discovery Bay are holding some good sized fish right now with 30lbs.+ sized fish being reported in the last week. With the water temp. dropping drastically and dirtier water flowing in bait fishing will be the best bet for top results. On the live end mudsuckers and minnows fished off the bottom and fresh or frozen shad will all get the job done.

Fish Hookers Report

This report seems to start the same the last couple of months.  The striper fishing in Montezuma Slough just continues to be good. Today, the gates are being put back in and once again the locks in Montezuma Slough will be manned for entry and exit to the Sacramento River. This could enhance the fishing in Montezuma Slough but it will change the location of the fish on the tides.   

The weather continues to be cool but nice in the afternoons.  The sturgeon fishing continues to be slow.  The water is still real cold and the rain has not sweetened it at all.  Of course, we all would like to see more rain in the area to enhance all the fishing.   

It is show season again, lots of you have probably already visited some of the sports and boat shows.  We will have a booth at the Fred Hall Fishing Tackle, Boat and Travel Show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, February 14 through February 18.  Barry will be doing seminars on striped bass and delta sturgeon.  You can check out FredHall.com and find the line up of speakers and the times that they will be speaking at the San Francisco Show.  We hope to see you there.   

Give us a call if you are ready to go striper or sturgeon fishing.  The heaters are on the boats and we leave from the City of Pittsburg Marina. Just call for a reservation.

 

Flash Fishing Report www.flashfishing.net


A bit about Captain Steve, Captain Steve fished the San Francisco Bay since 1970, when his grandfather would take him out to the old Berkeley pier. He bought his first boat in 1980 and got his Captain's license in 1997. He enjoys small groups (no more than 6) and gives personal attention to all. Having 2 young daughters himself, he is especially patient with children on the boat. Bring your own equipment or use Steve's top of the line equipment. Steve has impressive state of the art commercial electronics on the boat to optimize your fishing experience! And yes, we went to the same High School, Welcome Capt. Steve!

I am starting to see some nice Sturgeon.Also I think the fall bass run is starting to go.Most of the action seems to be at night.
Saturday night we targeted bass.3 rods had 7 solid runs and many drivebys.
I also know of fish up to 32lbs landed.I am not fishing this week due to slow tides.Next week I will be in Cabo San Lucas for a week.But the month of December I plan on pounding the fish.December is full of great tides.
I hope you enjoy some photos from the last week.

Capt. Steve
Flash Sportfishing

Lucky Strike Fishing Report www.luckystrikefishing.com

Sturgeon fishing is by far ahead of last years score at this time.
Xmas eve and the day after Xmas was as good as it gets. Action all day on large Sturgeon and shakers to keep everyone on their toes.

The weather was just right for this time of the year. Light winds and no rain. The tides were in our favor too.
Al Millan from San Mateo caught the biggest fish 66" Mike (Rock Pile) from Stockton caught 64" and we caught a 46" and a 48" Xmas eve .

The action continued the day after Xmas with a 65" and a 57 " Sturgeon.
We should have continued success in the coming months.
Since Sept 10th we have caught 71 Keepers 6 oversize and 235 Shakers. 12 Bass while fishing for Sturgeon. A great year so far.

The weather is changing and that should stir up the Sturgeon to be even more aggressive. So put your coats on and lets go fishing.

I will be doing seminars at San Mateo International Sportsmen Show on Thursday Jan 12 at 4:30 pm and on Fri Jan 13 at 2:30. I will do one Seminar in Sacramento on January 21 at 5:30 pm. I will show some of my hook ups and tips on how we catch Sturgeon.
Rich

FishDelta.com now brings you out of area reports as well!!!!!!!

New Melones in Great Shape for Fat Trout

Water Conditions:  New Melones Lake is currently holding 1,998,350 acre-feet of water.  The lake level held steady again this week, and is currently 1051 ft. above sea level and 37 ft. from full capacity.  Surface water temperature is around 52-53 degrees.  Water is clear to lightly stained with around 15 ft. visibility with little or no mudline.  We are still at the high-water ramps.   Trout:  Slowed down a bit this week.  We had a few less big trout come in this week, although we still had plenty of happy anglers, both trolling and bank fishing.  The cold snap and clear weather conditions seemed to give the trout a bit of lockjaw.  A good rain will do wonders for the bite, so pray for rain!   Bank anglers had the best luck in the area around the marina, and off of Glory Hole Point.   Use Berkley Select (glitter) Power Bait in rainbow or chartreuse, or a nightcrawler/scented marshmallow combo. The Glory Hole Sports Big Fish of the Week Contest (salmonids) and a free deli lunch was won this week by Matthew and Dan Canfield of Brisbane, who caught a limit of trout while bank fishing with a crawler/marshmallow combo by the marina that included a 4-pound, 12-ounce fish, as well as two more in the 4 ½ -pound range and a couple of 2+-pounders.  Paul Cox caught a 4-pounder on orange Power Bait and a crawler while bank fishing off of Glory Hole Point.   Jeff Mikkelson caught four nice rainbows, including a 3-pound, 7-ouncer. 6-year-old Justin Pfeiffer of Sonora caught a 3-pound, 3-ounce rainbow on crawlers while bank fishing near the marina.   If you have a boat, try still-fishing or drifting bait or a minnow under a bobber, or troll as close to shore.  The waters off of Glory Hole Point, as well as upriver between the two bridges and in Angels Creek, are all good places to troll.  A crawler/spinner combo or any shad-patterned lure will entice the rainbows to bite, and rolling shad will get you a rainbow or a big, beautiful brown trout.  When trolling at this time of year when trout are shallow (0-20 ft. deep), don’t forget to leave out lots of line (100 ft.), or use a side planer to pull your lure out of your boat’s wake, so the shallow fish aren’t scared away.  Some trollers are having good luck using flashers, although it’s usually better to troll without them at this time of year.  John, Mike and Clint caught a limit of rainbows while trolling with flashers/crawlers in Angels Creek.  Greg Branson trolled a red Apex behind a dodger near Glory Hole Point to catch his limit in just a couple of hours. 

Kokanee: done for the season.

Bass:  Bass can be found from 5-40 feet deep on points in the main lake and upriver.  W.O.N Bass held a team tournament on Melones this week.  28 teams competed, and every team caught their 5-fish limit. Alex Niapas and Jerry Harvey took 1st place with 18.42 pounds, with a 4.45-pound kicker fish.  Steve Tosh, Jr. and Ben Hetrick took 2nd with 17.42-pounds and a 5.31-pound big fish, and Dennis Lee and Don Parr came in 3rd with 15.97-pounds.  The biggest fish of the tournament was 5.85-pounds, caught by Daryl Elsea and Carl Maddox.  Many anglers who competed in the W.O.N. Bass tournament this weekend reported catching their fish fairly shallow for this time of year- from 15-20’ deep, on main lake points.   All winter long, swimbaits will catch the big fish, as well as shad imitation reaction baits such as T.D. Minnows, or crawdad imitations like Carolina-rigged green pumpkin Zoom Brush Hogs or brown jigs/trailers.   A dart-headed crawdad-colored 4” worm, swam across main lake points, is working well right now.   Please remember to practice catch and release. The Department of Fish and Game does not plant bass, so it is up to us to maintain the bass fishery!  

Catfish:  Use anchovies, sardines, or a ball of nightcrawlers.  Leave your bail open so the cats can pick the bait up and swim with it- you will be more likely to hook them that way. Also, be sure to use a sliding sinker weight.  The bite has been very light- any tension on the line will scare those cats away

Crappie and bluegill:  Slowing - we have had the best crappie bite Melones has seen in years. Crappie have moved deeper with the cooling water temperatures- try fishing in submerged trees, about 30-40 feet deep. For crappie, try fishing live minnows or trying to entice them with jigs in red/white or purple/white. Bluegill and sunfish will hit a piece of a crawler or mealworm under a bobber


 


Lake Pardee

Lake Pardee will finally re open the gates for the 2006 season on THURSDAY February the 2nd for Campers and Recreational Vehicles only. The gate will be manned until 11 PM both Thursday and Friday for the opening. Fishing for shore anglers will begin FRIDAY morning the 3rd at 12:01 AM and at daybreak the same day for boaters. The Lake Pardee Management and Staff are looking forward to welcoming back all our friends both old and new.

Lake level is normally 10 foot or more below the spillway this time of year in anticipation of runoff from winter storms. The forecast is calling for some wet stuff this weekend so some dirt and debris will end up in the water but it never lasts long and the clarity quickly recovers to 10 feet or beyond.

Three plants are scheduled by Lake Pardee and another by the Department of fish and Game prior to season opening.

All facilities (except the pool) and services will be available on opening weekend. Check the Marina for all your fishing, boating, bait and snacking needs. The Coffee Shop is always a great place to start whether it’s a full breakfast or just a steaming cup of coffee to kick start your day.

Good Luck---Tight Lines.

For information or reservations call (209) 772-1472

 

The Lake Camanche Fishing Report - January 24, 2007

LAKE CONDITIONS:

Lake Camanche’s current elevation is 217.56 feet above sea level, a drop of 4.4 feet since last Sunday. The surface temperature at the dam is 53.8 degrees F. and drops to 50.6 degrees at the bottom. The surface temp readings upriver are 49 degrees, a result of lots of inflow from Pardee Lake. The lake waters are slightly colored with a Secchi dish reading of 11 feet at the dam and 6 to 9 feet at the upriver sampling locations.

Gate hours for North and South shores are 5 A.M. TO 11 P.M.

TROUT: There were lots of anglers out yesterday taking lots of limits of 1 pound to 6 pound Rainbows. Most trollers did best with floating Rapalas in Fire tiger or gold/black back. Another hot ticket is to troll Sep’s Scented Pro Grubs in chartreuse; pink or orange about 4 feet behind a ¼ ounce split shot or try Needlefish in bright colors, such as the #581 pearlescent white or #054, which is chartreuse with fire dots. When the skies are cloudy or overcast, the fish are right on the surface; if the sun appears , use leadcore to get down to 15 feet deep or so. John and Shirley Bartlett, of Ripon, caught 2 limits of beautiful rainbows this week. They were trolling with Uncle Larry’s spinners, and also wedding rings, and caught most of their fish up the river. Rich and Maureen Drawbert, from Camanche, caught their limits of trout while fishing in shallow water near the islands outside of Camper’s Cove. They were using Power Bait.

Bank angling has improved lately, thanks mostly to the fog and overcast keeping the ‘bows close to shore. Use Power Bait in orange or chartreuse near the North ramp or South Chevron Point. Casting and retrieving the Magic Bullet works off the banks early and again late in the day.

South Shore pond action is very good since we planted the pond with over 600 pounds last week. All sorts of stuff work at the pond; best bet is to use Power Bait in chartreuse or white. Jim Murray, from Camanche, caught a 13.11 pound rainbow from the pond this week using a Pistol Pete lure.

This week’s trout plant of 1,200 pounds will be at North Shore.

BASS: The W.O.N. Bass tournament was held at Lake Camanche on Saturday. We congratulate Leandro Sanchez and Bill Martin for winning the meet with a big fish of 8.41 pounds, and a total weight of 16.62 pounds. Jay LeClerc and Bob Haag had a 5 fish limit weighing 14.63 pounds, and Taylor Parsons and Jeremiah Payne had a total weight of 14.5 pounds. Brown or purple jigs, and worms in brown, purple, or blue were some of the favorite baits. Most bass were in 15-30 feet of water.

BOTH NORTH SHORE AND SOUTH SHORE STORES ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED DURING THE WEEK AND OPEN ON THE WEEKENDS ONLY. BOAT RENTALS ARE AVAILABLE DURING THE WEEK BY TELEPHONE RESERVATION ONLY. PLEASE CALL NORTH SHORE (209-763-5166), OR SOUTH SHORE (209-763-5915) FOR DETAILS. BOTH SHORES ARE OPEN EVERY WEEKEND (WEATHER PERMITTING).

Northshore store:(209) 763-5166

North gate: (209) 763-5922

Boat rental reservations are recommended.
Phone North: (209) 763-5166 Phone South: (209) 763-5915.

Southshore store: (209)763-5915

South gate: (209) 763-5913

Gate hours for North and South shores are 5 A.M. TO 11 P.M.

 

 

Pennies on the dollar for fishing rods, reels, baits, lures, and more? You be the judge!

 


 
Great products and great prices for California Delta Fishing
 
 
Copyright © 2004 FishDelta.com. All rights reserved.
Duplication in whole or in part of this Web site without express written consent is prohibited.