Delta Thriller

[DEVOREFLYER]

Made the eight hour run to the Delta to fish the BassCat Owners Invitational Tourney on the 11th. Met up with Cutbait at a truck stop 30 miles north of Bakersfield for recon. Having never fished the Delta Cutbait gave my partner and I some GPS points and advice that was priceless. Pre fished the 11th, 12th and 13th for good numbers and checked out Cutbait's hit list. The learning curve is steep with tide change and winds constantly moving the boat and trying to hold position in the channels and sloughs. Not to mention paying attention to the large wakes when a large boat or ship cruses by. My partner and I caught our limit early on day one and began culling as larger fish were caught, finished the day in the middle of the pack. Second day I boated the first keeper 10 minutes into the day and then nothing and I mean nothing until the last hour of the tournament and then it exploded. My partner however had the skunk and was short bit all day and refused to change up to a shorter bait or use a trailer hook. Live well is now full and we have 15-20 minutes to weigh in and have about a 10 mile run to make. It's 65-70 mph through the sloughs and across Franks tract and Old Blue aka: The Redneck Rocket Ship gets us their with time to spare, what a blast to get off those 25-35 mph lakes and open her up. Finished in the upper half of the pack and consider it a good outing for my first trip to the Delta. Delta locals took all the money places, no surprise there. Tournament winner had a 50 lb bag to win and was using the punch method in the weeds at a secret place. I had bought the heaviest punching weights I could find at BassPro (1 oz) and it took an ounce and half weight to get through the weeds unless there was an opening in them. Not an ounce and half weight to be found anywhere only empty racks and $11.00 ea. price tags. I will be ready for next year though and with heavier gear as I had a monster bend my pole in half and come unbuttoned at the net. Pics are of the prefish days as I broke my camera on tournament day and my partner had left his in the motorhome. If you have not fished the Delta you don't know what your missing. A special thanks to Cutbait for helping to make the learning curve much shorter. Oh and on day two I caught a damn Striper can you believe it, here I am in a Bass Tournament and I boat a damn Striper. If I could have taken the divider out of my live well I would have brought it in to the weigh in for laughs a DD and would have won big fish lol.

4262042619

[HawgZWylde]

Congrats and welcome back Dev, sounds like you had a blast up there. Very cool you placed midpack on your first try. CB's the man! That was really cool he set you up with the intel.

Dev, tell me you slayed that ugly jailbird. Those Delta Smelt don't stand a chance against them...

[cutbait]

Good to meet you Devo!...

Now we gotta get you and Pat together for a stripe rest!


Way to represent FNN at the Delta...


Ya know unlike the riff raff that just drone on and on about how smart they are

[cutbait]

Please tell me those green carp met their demise?

[DEVOREFLYER]

Please tell me those green carp met their demise?

Naw, they released them all at weigh in just to piss off the Striper guys, but I did have one croak in the livewell on day one. Can you believe I caught a Striper in a hole in Sand Mound Slough on an Ice Jig, wtf is that about. We were tempted to call ya on the way home for a little Striper action but we had caught that dreaded Asian disease "Dragon Fanny" and the road seemed much longer on the way back. Also I did not know that the bed in the motor home was an air type of mattress and it had a leak, every morning I would wake up a little lower in the bed. On the last morning I could hardly climb out of the damn thing and my back may never be the same.

[TroutOnly]

NICE CATCHIN MIKE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bob,,,,,,,,,

[DEVOREFLYER]

NICE CATCHIN MIKE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bob,,,,,,,,,

Thanks Bob, I can't believe I caught my first solo Striper and on an Ice Jig. Maybe I don't need to troll on Old Blue to catch them jailbirds. lol.

[trail blazer]

great read,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Thank you!

TRAIL BLAZER

[Fishing_Wife]

My husband and I love the Delta, we go every year, and are going again next month for our annual vacation. We fish for stripers but have caught a few large mouth. We are still learning the tide thing too, but are getting better at it. That is a nice large mouth you caught. We fished in the striper derby one year, but it's hard fishing against the locals.

[DEVOREFLYER]

TB thank you, it was great meeting ONE of the BAKO BOYS and I am looking forward to meeting the other BAKO BOY.

[fishinone]

You mean that you meant to catch those UGB? LOL

Nice catch! That's a pretty good haul for the first time you fished there. Props to your informer!

[trail blazer]

TB thank you, it was great meeting ONE of the BAKO BOYS and I am looking forward to meeting the other BAKO BOY.

Would be great to meet the QUAGABUSTER!!!,,,,lol,

T/B

[FreshWaterFishing]

do you know any good fishing info sites besides just posting pictures I know of one here (http://whamz.com/) and would like to find more.