Shasta oh wait Delta May 8, 2010
What is going on this year? This tournament was supposed to be on Shasta Lake but because of bridge bay resort decided at the last minute not to allow tournaments after May 1st it was moved to the Cal Delta – oh goody. I like to be up for the challenges that are bass fishing I strongly feel that this is what makes you a better fisherman overcoming adversity. Though I can tell you this was not a welcome surprise. Last year the delta took on the role as my arch nemesis this year it has proven it wants to keep that title.

PRE-FISH
I can honestly say that I debated with myself for along time on whether I should go out and pre-fish for this event. I’m not sure which side won good or evil but I pre-fished and had over 16 pounds I knew that couldn’t win the event but if I could cull up with a kicker or just a couple solid fours I felt like I could have a chance at the win. Now on this day the wind blew around ten miles per hour and picked up later in the evening. With reports of wind for Saturday I chose to find some marinas that had calm areas to hide in which would also be used by spawning bass. For me this turned out to work well I was catching fish right where they should have been on the inside of the grass lines and at the ends of the docks. Every marina had a rock wall jetty that when I threw crank baits I was getting quality fish so I felt pretty comfortable about catching a limit on Saturday I just needed to find that kicker or up grade the over all size of the fish I had.

TOURNAMENT DAY
I can remember being on the delta in worse weather that still doesn’t make it any easier on my back especially on the main channel (thank you to my masseuse). The wind had picked up to twenty or twenty five miles per hour and was coming out of the north not what I wanted to see. I started on the mouth of fisherman’s cut with buzz baits, frogs and senkos all with no response then we motored to the jetty’s in the front and I picked up three short fish. I was glad to see my best bait was still producing now just need to get bigger bites. Those were the last crank bait fish till 2:30 when I got a 1.5 I had hit allot of points we did pick up one other keeper a four pounder on a drop shot in ten feet of water at the mouth of little potato all for a total of 5.24 pounds not good. The fish were gone, the places I had found them before were over run with anglers escaping the wind. So I had to try and find fish, it just wasn’t happening you can usually flip some fish on the delta but no go I couldn’t even get senko bites that was my day on the delta. I hope I can one day fish this body of water with confidence and actually finish well in a tournament or dare I dream win one.