Weather: Sunny, Light Winds

Air Temperature: 58-62

Water Temperature: 50-53.8

Tide: Incoming

The week of Thanksgiving presented me a few opportunities to get out and fish.  Saturday, 11/28/2020, I was able to sneak out to the famed CA Delta for a few hours.  My brother and I got on the water around 12:45pm and fished until dark.  Upon putting my boat on the water I fired up my recently repaired Mercury Pro XS  thanks to Gone Fishin’ Marine and powered up my Humminbird Helix unit to check water temps and adjust my Lakemaster chip’s water level offset setting since I fished Folsom Lake Thanksgiving day.

  Being that I have not been on the delta since September I felt slightly out of touch with the water.  I went out with the mindset to target dead end sloughs and areas away from the main river channels.  These areas will have slightly warmer water. The slightest difference in water temp can make a huge difference this time of year. 

We pulled up to our first area and found a grass flat just off the channel of the slough.  We chose to flip the grass clumps throughout the flat.  We were flipping 1oz and 1.5oz Picasso Lures tungsten punch weights and Gamakatsu Super Heavy Cover Punch Hooks.  We rigged up with a combination of X-Zone Lures Adrenaline Bugs, Reaction Innovations Beavers, and Missile Baits D-Bombs.  We made our way though the area with no success. 

After reading the situation and trying to grasp what the fish may want. We moved over to a grass line and began slinging bladed jigs.  I chose my favorite, a 3/8oz Picasso Lures Shock Pro in Dark Red Craw and my brother picked up a blue gill color.  We covered water and bounced up and down this bank for about a mile.  My brother swung in to one after coming over a clump of grass for our first fish of the day. 

Upon fishing the grass line we bumped over to a rip rap point that seems to always have a fish on it.  I continued to creep my Shock Blade Pro around and my brother picked up his ripbait.  He threw across the point and leaned into our second fish of the day.  Not a giant, but it was another piece to the puzzle.  After making a few more casts I positioned my boat near the tip of the point and told my brother my brother bump his square bill crankbait right on the point on a very specific line. He turns the handle 4 times and loads up into a 3lber. 

We move on down the slough to another grass flat with a small current created drain that meanders back to the channel of the slough.  We fan cast the area for a while and finally hit another fish, a solid 3.5lber on the bladed jig. 

The sun is starting to lower in the sky, and I felt I couldn’t leave without catching one flipping.  I may be a little stubborn.  Especially considering we have been catching fish on reaction baits.  I decide to run back down the slough to an area where some hyacinth was blown in to the tules.  We flip through the bank for about 10 minutes and made a flip into a pretty little clump of hyacinth on the back side of a tule point.  My Picasso weight clears the mat and I feel a very slight tick on the way down.  I hop my bait a few times near the bottom and keep feeling a subtle “bite”.  I keep hopping the bait in hopes I could talk the fish in to eating and then the bait got heavy.  I set back and my Dobyns Rods Champion Extreme 795flip pounds this fish.  I get it though the mat and lift her into the boat.  Thank goodness for sensitive rods because I would have never known that fish was playing with my bait.  

All said and done we had a great time on the Delta.  As always I will list a link to all of the baits and products we used.  Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or comments.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Ryan Hall

@ryanhallfishing

[email protected]