|
HUNTING STRIPPERS ON THE
DELTA & BASS ON THE LAKES
By: Ron Wilson
April 27, 2010.... For the last couple
weeks I have been chasing striped bass in the delta. My target area has
been from Santa Clara Shoals down to the Antioch Bridge. The striper
fishing last year was bad and I look for it to be even worse this Year.
Last Saturday was a prime example to how
bad the fishery is right now as Gary Vella fished the Sacramento Chapter
of the California Striped Bass Association derby on the delta and came
in second with a 23 1/2" fish.
The week before I fished all weekend for
a dozen fish with just two fish in the 20 inch class and last weekend I
fished for 2 days and caught a 20 inch keeper and a shaker on Saturday
and never had a bump on Sunday. My fishing buddy Mike Monschein and I
never kept a fish as they were two small in our book.
 With
the rains coming down this week I can only hope the fishing gets better
as Mike and I are fishing the Annual Escalon Sportsman's Club Striper
Derby held at Bruno's Island Resort this weekend. I look for poor
fishing results but I know the party held Friday and Saturday nights is
going to be a blast.
Monday I fished Lake Don Pedro with
Harold Willey. We started trolling at first light right at the buoy line
at Fleming Meadows and headed up toward Rogers Creek. The trout bite was
slow and the fish were hitting the Ex-Cel lures we were using, but the
fish were not getting hooked. Harold scored first with a 17 incher 3
colors on the lead core. I scored the next two times on a long line 175
feet behind the boat with a Vance's slim willy and a blue/gold Ex-Cel
about 4 feet behind that.
We were having a hard time hooking fish.
I hooked a nice 2 pound plus trout on my long line and after 4 or 5
jumps it broke my 8 pound test line. We laughed and decided to go give
the bass a try.
We soon discovered that we were having
the same hard time of catching bass as we did trout. By noon we both had
1 fish in the boat and had missed a dozen fish each. No high fives from
success but we laughed at each other as we would swing on the fish and
miss or they would get off before we got them to the boat.
We finally settled down and got on the
pattern and started putting fish in the boat. A smallmouth here, a spot
or two over there. The WB001R and WB003 Wright baits were the main two
baits that they wanted to chew on.
I split shot WB001R baits for a couple in
the 4 pound plus range and then dart headed a WB003 bait for another
black in the 4 pound class. We threw back all the bigger bass as Harold
and I prefer to eat the 12 1/2 to 13 inch fish as our taste buds tell us
they just taste better than the big gals.
 We
put a half dozen fish in the box to take home for dinner and trolled our
way back to the dock from Rogers Creek Arm. Talk about a slow bite, well
for us anyway, as I felt we needed to be down at least 30 feet at that
time of day to be successful, but we kept out lures in the 15 to 20 foot
depth. We had another couple hits and lost another trout at the boat and
called it a day as we had plenty of fish for our households to eat.
I don't like freezing fish. Once a fish
is dead they start deteriorating and besides when I get fish hungry amd
I don't have any in the ice box it gives me and excuse to got catch some
for dinner. That's a win, win situation in my book any time.
We saw Curt Messner at the cleaning
station and I could not believe that he was filleting 3 pound plus bass
to take home to eat. I think that's the trouble with a lot of fishermen
they eat with there eyes and not with there taste buds.
Myself I feel that by releasing the
bigger fish that are full of eggs to spawn is helping me in my endeavor
to have more fish for me to eat in the future. |
