Jig Fish

March madness applies to more than just basketball if you are a bass fisherman. March can be extremely rewarding or a disappointment to say the least. Fish are wanting to spawn and if the weather allows for it to happen, it can be game on in those spawning areas. Here is the catch, when you think you have got it down and see fish moving up to do their thing, Bammmmm! Mother nature drops the weather bomb on you and things change. The fish are gone and relocated, baits and techniques that worked the days before now cannot catch a fish. What do I do you ask? I find protected areas and slow down. Fish a black and blue jig, like the Black Ice Jig, in water with less than 12 inches of visibility or a brown jig with red in it, like the AS Craw, in water that has 1 foot of visibility or more. These baits will provide the most consistent bite this time of year. Videos on these techniques will be coming to www.fishdelta.com shortly. Get out there and catch some giants, it is that time of year.

Delta Toad!

March fishing on the delta can be maddening at times. I’ve had days with 75 degree weather and no wind only to wake up the next morning to cloud cover, low 40 temperatures, and 30 mph winds. Good luck patterning the fish, right? My advice…keep it simple. I fish with a jig and a senko when things are calm and a spinner bait or swim bait when I get some wind. Yep, that’s it! Keep it simple. The guests on my boat have enjoyed great success by sticking with these simple and effective techniques.

To help, here is what I am using and where to get it.

Spinner bait by Dandy Baits in color (Mr. Boops, SLK and Tennessee Twister)

Swim baits by Optimum Baits

Senko (green pumpkin and Watermelon Red)  — 5″ & 6″ work great

With the Delta water temps in the 40s, I thought I would shake things up and head out to one of my favorite spotted bass fisheries, New Melones.

I started the morning using my Lowrance HDS 8 to determine the depth that the fish were at. Using a graph this time of year is an absolute must for success. Surprisingly, the fish were in less than 50 feet of water. Swimbaits were the bait of choice and on our 4th case, a nice 6 lb spotted decided to eat. We caught fish throughout the day on jigs, creature baits, and worms.

In winter time, get out to a lake that has spotted bass. They will eat and fishing can be pretty good!

 Winter stripers are biting. It is December and the fog has become a part of the daily winter grind. Water temps are in the 40s with day time highs in the 50s. For those of us willing to battle the early morning cold air the reward can be awesome.  At the moment I am catching fish on one of these three baits a Lunker Punker, Optimum Titan Swimbaits and an IMA Flit. Throw these baits around moving water and current breaks and it will produce good bites from now until the spring. Slow is the key!

I have been fishing for stripers my last few outings. The bite has not been as productive as in years past and everyone on the boat has to work hard for the reward of a big tuxedo fish. I have been getting 5-10 quality fish each trip.

In low light conditions the top-water bite using an IMA Big Stick in rainbow trout is producing the bigger bites. In the middle of the day I have been using a Basstrix paddle tail or an IMA Flit in shad color patterns.

Pictures to follow soon!!!

I can only say that now is the time to throw swimbaits on the California Delta.  Largemouth bass and big stripers are keyed in on all the shad that are in the system and it can be extremely rewarding for those of you who love to throw swimbaits.  Optimum Baits has a Line Thru swim bait that is producing the most aggressive strikes from monster bass.  My favorite colors this time of year are the AYU, Shiner and Sex Shad.   

I recently visited Clear Lake and it was incredible with wolf packs of 3 to 5lbers cruising the banks and docks all around the lake. I used a Perfect Buzz and an Optimum Bait’s swim bait in chartreuse shad and CL hitch colors to search for active fish. Once I found active schools I would slow down and cover the area with a Snag Proof Bobby’s Perfect Frog over the grass beds and an IMA Flit in the open water areas. This, complimented with a Big Bite Baits 6” trick stick, worked well for me throughout the week.

Not much to report other than the IMA Flit is a killer bait on the California Delta!  Big girls are starting to feed on shad take advantage and match the hatch.

This was a fun productive week for me on the Delta. I had a client that wanted to learn how to punch, flip, and pitch and that is exactly what we did.

The day was most productive when using a Big Bite Bait YoMama in watermelon red and sunfish. If you are looking for a big bite, try slowing down and tossing this bait around heavy cover.  Trust me —  it will pay off!

Delta Toad caught with a Bit Bite Baits YoMama

This giant bass decided it was time to eat a frog. The delta was good to me this week flipping a YoMama and throwing a frog produced the bigger bites. The IMA Shaker was the bait of choice for quantity of fish.

Snag Proof comes through again!