|
FINDING 'EM ON THE DELTA
WITH THE DOC
By: Ron Wilson
July 27, 2020.... I just got back from my
yearly camping trip at Sugar Barge. While the ladies do there RVing and
visiting, the guys hit the local fishery for black bass.
Norval Pimentel,
Doc Quen Young and
I fished the Franks Tract area
on Thursday. The
fishing was slow and we had to travel to the main channel before we
found some decent fish.
While fishing the Franks Tract area I
noticed that all the money spent by the state a couple years ago to kill
the weeds and vegetation inside of Franks Tract was a big waste of the
taxpayers dollars as the weeds have come back in just two years and they
are as thick if not thicker than ever.
On the
main river channel
confluence we found lots of black bass and picked our way around the
area finding different schools of fish to catch. Norval caught a few in
the 3 to 4 pound class and Quen and I brought up the rear with a few of
our own. I had to hand it to Doc as he caught the first keeper bass of
the day.
On the second day of fishing Quen said
lets head to the south end of Franks Tract as that is were both him and
I have had some great success. The bass were not there for some reason
and if they were the didn't want to eat what we threw at them. Another
thing against us was the wind and it was blowing hard right where we
wanted to fish.
When the white caps started rolling we
ducked into a channel and headed down it for a mile or so where we were
out of the wind and the outgoing tide made for a nice slow ride down the
bank.
I put in a couple keepers and a ton of
dink bass on a 6 inch WB001R Wright Bait. Anytime I am in fairly clear
water this worm works for me whether its in a lake or river. When the
water gets dingy I go to a Wright Baits WB003. The WB001R resembles a
minnow or lightly colored crawdad while the WB003 resemble a crawdad or
darker type minnow like a carp. One thing I have found about bass is
that they will eat quite often, all you have to do is just find the
right presentation, right color and shape of bait and the right area of
the body of water your fishing in to catch them.
 Quen
and I had about 30 fish going down the one bank but the size was all
small. Quen kept harassing me, well that is another nursery bass time
and time again and a couple times he commented that the fish were not
old enough to even be in the nursery.
He even got a chuckle out of one bass
that was attacking my six inch worm right on top of the water by the
boat. Quen said that fish is smaller than the bait. The bass would grab
the tail and try to run off with it and it would pull out of its mouth
and he would turn and attack it again and again. If nothing happens to
him he is going to be a real terror if he grows up to be a 5 pound fish
or bigger.
Quen and I left the area and headed to
the main channel. There the wind seemed to die down and we ran into
Norval Pimentel and Jim Clark. Norval was having a good morning with
fish up to 7 pounds and several 3's while Jim was struggling in the back
of the boat. Norval was dropshotting and whacky rigging senko's.
I went down the rocky bank giving Norval
some space and stopped at a pipe going into the water. Quen pitched his
bait by it and a fish took off as Quen's rod bowed double. I knew right
away it was a picture fish we were after as the fish drove into a heavy
weed pile nearby. It didn't take the fish but a few seconds to work the
hook loose and leave Quen with a batch of thick weeds to pull off his
hook.
Quen and I went down a rocky bank and
soon had a limit of bass in the boat up to 2 1/2 pounds. Anything bigger
goes back as I like to know there are nice fish in the area that I am
fishing. We went to Norval and Jim and told them where the hot bite was
and called it another great day on the water.
On Saturday Quen
and I headed to the main channel and started hitting rock walls that had
deep water near them. The tide was wrong and we struggled for awhile
until the tide was about half out. Then it was game on and Quen and I
started putting fish in the boat.
Now Quen every now and then liked to lead
them around. I would watch the fish pick up his bait and head for deep
water and Quen would feel the bite on the braid and give a wimpy
hookset, which really just tightened up the line as the fish headed
under the boat. As the rod got bent good the fish would spit the bait
out.
Quen never thought that was funny but I
did. I would encourage him to set the hook hard and I guess for an 80
year old in his mind he was, but them bigger delta bass can just clamp
down on your bait with their jaws and you have to all but break the rod
to get a good hook penetration.
I moved to some tule clumps to get out of
the wind as Quen was still a little chilled. He even mentioned that if
all he had on was a t-shirt like me he would of insisted that I take him
back to camp long ago.
Quen soon had another bass grab his bait
and head back at him. I said set the hook, I thought I did he exclaimed,
I said no harder! He never had a chance to as the fish came up and spit
the bait at him.
I worked down the tules on one side of
the cut and looked over to a clump of tules on the other side that
hollered fish me. I went over and pitched out to the wind blown front
of the tule patch with no luck. I then noticed a shaded patch behind
the tules and pitched into it. I left it lay on the bottom for a few
seconds and then I saw the line twitch. I reeled down until I felt the
fish and then set hard. All hell broke loose as the fish churned up mud
and then ran into the nearby clumps of weeds. She thrashed and thrashed
but with steady pressure she soon came to the top of the weeds and I
grabbed her by the lip and put her in the boat. She was a chunk
that made my weekend of fishing more than worth while.
 I
put her in the livewell and drove down to show her to Norval and Jim. I
held her up and Norval said she is skinny and in the 7 pound class from
30 yards away. I said ya right try 9 plus and quickly put her in the
live well and went back where I caught her. A quick picture for show and
tell and then sent her back to her home.
The tide was all but stopped on low now
and Norval was pounding bass in the 3 to 4 pound class in one spot. He
called us over by phone but the bite died as quick as it had started
when we got there.
With the skiers and pleasure boats
churning up the water I had enough rocking and rolling and was ready to
call it a day which Quen agreed, as he wanted to leave early so he could
make his usual fish run back to San Francisco.
Quen has a lot of friends and family so
he gives a lot of fish away. How do I know this, well after 20 years of
traveling all over the world with him where some of the freshest and
best eating fish are found I can not ever remember him ever ordering
fish to eat for lunch or dinner from a menu. |
