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The Bay Delta Basics Part II: Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta |
In the fall, it’s time to head inland toward the sprawling maze of islands, bays, and sloughs known by West Coast fly anglers simply as “the Delta.” by Kevin Sloan In the fall, it’s time to head inland toward the sprawling maze of islands, bays, and sloughs known by West Coast fly anglers simply as “the Delta.”
The famous Delta Tule fog had settled in thick on that mid- October morning nearly a decade ago, and my fishing partner and I could hardly see 20 feet in front of the boat as I slowly idled down the slough surrounding Bethel Island on the San Joaquin River. Though this was my first trip to the Delta’s vast maze of bays and rivers, I knew we were in the right spot. The area in and around Franks Track and its surrounding sloughs has for decades been known as “striper central” to Delta fly-flingers. We came to one particular intersection with swirling currents, and my depth finder showed the bottom had just dropped into a hole 20 feet deep. Being a rookie and not knowing any specific spots, I figured this was as good a place as any. Plus, I was not keen on heading into open water during near whiteout conditions.
I tied on a chartreuse-and-white baitfish pattern that had always been a producer for me in striper haunts from Maine to the Pacific, and I started casting into the eerie fog. It took only a few casts before I came tight—to a weed. Well, I thought, at least a little excitement. I gave it a good hard strip to pull it free, and just as my fly cleared the weeds, bam, fish on! Our first striper of the morning was just a schoolie, but we were on the board all the same. That started a rally, and over the next few hours we hooked fish after fish, never moving more than a 100 yards from where we’d started.
The fog finally broke at 10 a.m., just as the tide was dying. There were mallards calling from a backwater eddy, a male pheasant was strutting on a nearby levee, and a mink came running down the bank. This place was teeming with life. We had boated close to 20 stripers, including a fish that literally dragged us down the slough before it spit the fly. I’m not sure it ever knew it was hooked, but I certainly was!
What we had discovered was an ideal Delta honey hole. It had a good current seam to carry food, a weed edge for stripers to ambush prey, a flat to chase bait, and deep water for protection nearby. Everything that a striper wants. That was my introduction to the San Joaquin–Sacramento River Delta nearly 10 years ago. Since then it has become my fall and winter stomping ground, and the spot we stumbled into that morning is still one of my favorites.
A Delta Game Plan
The Delta, as it is locally known, is a unique ecosystem unlike anything I have experienced elsewhere. Historically, this vast tidal marsh was the confluence of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers. It is a massive system, nearly 50 miles long and 25 miles wide. Forty-five percent of the state of California drains through these wetlands. Thousands of years of sediment buildup created some of the most fertile land in the world. Unfortunately, much of it was under water, so farmers set about building levees around tracts of land and pumping them dry. This created half a million acres of “islands” that actually lie below sea level. Why does this matter, you might ask? Because these man-made changes are completely responsible for the Delta fishery as we now know it.
Today the Delta is a web of channels that wind through some 50 reclaimed islands. These channels and the main rivers form a series of striper highways that spread fish throughout the system. Over the years some of the levees have breached, turning the islands into shallow tidal lakes that are nothing short of striper magnets. What this amounts to is an unbelievable amount of striper habitat.
With well over 1,000 miles of banks, cuts, lakes, shoals, and flats, tackling the Delta can be a daunting task for a first-timer. The first order of business is to get a good map. I highly recommend having a GPS on board as well before you go exploring. The Delta system has become second nature to me now, but I couldn’t imagine how we would ever find our way home on our first few excursions. If the fog sets in, you will be very glad you have electronics.
Though there are some resident stripers in the Delta estuary 12 months of the year, we want to focus our efforts on the major fall–winter run. After all, we’ve just spent the last seven months chasing them in San Francisco Bay. (See “The Bay–Delta Basics: Part I,” June/July 2007.) As a general rule, the first migratory fish start arriving in the west Delta in early October. Look for bass in Honker Bay Sherman Island, Big Break, Franks Track, and surrounding areas. By mid-November, stripers have taken up residence throughout the system. The areas south down Holland Cut to Discovery Bay and east to the main channel of the San Joaquin River are classic fall hot spots. This is a great time of year to experience the Delta, with warm days and lots of aggressive fish.
As winter storms roll in off the Pacific, striper fishing in January and February often becomes a game of finding clean water. The backs of dead-end sloughs and deep holes are the places to look if things get muddy. In between storms you can often find stripers patrolling the warmer waters of the lakes, looking for a meal.
March brings warm, sunny days, and the stripers wake up from their winter haunts and go on a ravenous feeding binge. This is one of my favorite times on the Delta, and in my opinion, this is your best shot of the year at a trophy bass. Focus on main rivers as the water nears 60 degrees. The stripers will be using these as they move on their way to the spawning grounds on the upper Sacramento River. Intercept a school of oversize spawners, and you will have a day you will not soon forget. As with all things related to stripers, none of these are hard and fast rules. Ultimately, they can be anywhere at any time, so stay flexible and keep moving until you find fish.
Once you have a plan on where to go, you need to know what to look for after you get there. There are really two distinct types of water on which to focus your effort: the lakes and the main rivers and sloughs. No matter what type of water we are fishing, the same features are important. You will almost always want to concentrate on some type of edge, whether it be weeds, current, a rocky wall, or underwater structure.
The Lakes: As mentioned earlier, most of these Delta lakes were once islands that lay below sea level until their levees failed. Franks Tract is the most famous of these lakes and home base for many Delta anglers. Originally this was about 3,500 acres of farmland belonging to John Franks before floods from the False River breached his levee in 1937. Mr. Franks’s loss has become a virtual striper mecca for the fly fisherman. This old farm is full of weed beds, tule islands, holes, and flats. A good plan of attack is to find the weed edges on a very low tide. Remember where these are. Even though many of these edges become submerged as the tide comes in, the stripers are still there.
These days there are a dozen or more breaks in the levee. Each cut provides an ideal striper spot with good current and a channel with edges to hold fish. These are definitely worth checking out. Generally speaking, I prefer to fish where the tide is coming into the lake. That means the southern and western sides during the incoming and the northern and eastern during the falling tide.
You will want to look for the same major structure in all the lakes. Mildrid Island has an old apple orchard that is now underwater except for the tops of the trees. This has become known as the “Bay of Tears.” Whether it is because of the huge stripers that have taken to wrapping your line up in the limbs or the number of flies you will donate to the trees is up to you. Other major lakes include Big Break and Sherman Island, as well as the Suisun, Honker and Grizzly Bays. Every year more and more levees fail, creating new striper habitat. Be sure to check these out.
The Rivers and Sloughs: Look at a map and you will see that the Delta is a virtual maze of rivers and channels. At certain times all of them hold stripers. There are several distinct features to look for when fishing these areas. Points will almost always create some kind of break that holds fish. Fish the inside seam where stripers can lay out of the current and ambush prey as it comes by. Flats that come up out of deep holding water can also be dynamite. I often look for what I call the Magic Number 12. Twelve feet of water, give or take a few, surrounded by 20 or more feet of water, is an ideal feeding range for stripers. Find stripers on these flats, and more than likely they will be active. Traditional hot spots include the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Mokelumne, Old, and Middle Rivers.
The dead-end sloughs are also a favorite haunt of wintertime bass. They generally provide warmer, cleaner water than the main rivers. For some reason, they seem to produce best on the outgoing tide, so run as far back as you can go at high tide and fish your way back out as the tide drops. Great places to look include Connection, Potato, Whiskey, Fisherman’s Cut, and Sycamore Sloughs.
Fishing the main rivers can be a little intimidating at first. There are miles upon miles of banks and vast expanses of water, but if you break them down like the sloughs, they provide excellent striper opportunities. Look for shoals, weed edges, and points. One of my favorite areas to focus on when fishing the big waters are the islands. (These are actual islands in the traditional sense, not the low-lying islands created by the levees.) Often they will provide you a flat, weed edge, and a current seam all in one. The “push” of water on the upcurrent side can be exceptional at times. There are very few islands that haven’t produced a striper for me at one time or another. They are always worth a few casts.
Tides and Techniques
Like striper fishing in most locales, knowing your tides is key. With the labyrinth of winding waterways in the Delta, tide flow varies greatly depending on where you are. There is nearly a fivehour difference between high tide in Grizzly Bay and the northern reaches of the Delta. One of my most valuable pieces of equipment is the tide program on my GPS. It tells me exactl where I am in the tide cycle no matter where I am located.
Most Delta anglers prefer the bigger tide cycles (spring tides) as more moving water usually equals more active fish. Knowing exactly what areas will fish well on what tide comes only from experience. Some areas will be too fast to get a good presentation during big flows; others will seem to have no movement at all during lesser tides. Sometimes, the flow in crossover sloughs can completely change direction in the middle of the tide! For me, water flow that “looks right” is about the speed of a slow walking pace.
The same striper gear that served you well over the summer months in the Bay, or virtually any other striper water, will suffice for fishing the Delta. Use 8- to 10-weight rods rigged with a lead-core shooting head system or a fast-sinking integrated line for the majority of the work.
Once the stripers move into the delta, more than 90 percent of the striper’s diet is shad, followed by juvenile striped bass. (It’s not uncommon to have a small schoolie chased right back to the boat.) However, stripers are opportunistic feeders and will dine on whatever is readily available. There are many fly patterns that will get the job done. I know very successful anglers who fish only small, subtle 31⁄2- to 4-inch baitfish patterns. Others cast flies that look like half a chicken is tied on their hook. My experience has been that flies that move water get the attention of big fish. Local angler Charlie Bisharat has developed a series of flies called Airheads that fit the bill and have accounted for numerous large bass.
Other proven striper bugs include 2/0 to 4/0 Whistlers, Clousers, and Deceiver-style patterns. “Flashtail” style ties are also a good choice. I like to make sure I have both bright and muted colors on hand. Favorite color combinations include chartreuse and white, hot pink and white, yellow and white, and olive and white. When fishing at night or in very turbid water, all black is hard to beat.
Fishing in the fall usually requires a fairly active retrieve with long strips, twitches, and pauses. As the water temperature drops in winter, there is a change in the program. Big, bulky flies fished slow will entice bass to feed. Finding the right retrieve becomes critical to success. A strip followed by a long pause and drop— three seconds or more—is often the ticket. It is very common for winter fish to pick up on the drop, so make sure you stay connected to your fly. Locals refer to this as the “sponge bite.” Sometimes, the grab from a big fish can be nothing more than a slight tick. Be sure to strip-set. Lift the rod like you are hooking a trout, and all you will feel is a head shake before they are gone.
Over the last few years there have been a growing number of striper addicts who have committed themselves to fishing topwater during the fall and spring months. Some of the results have been outstanding, with many of the most impressive fish of the year coming to surface flies. This technique is also enabling fly anglers to fish striper-infested waters they could not cover with traditional sinking setups. Look for large flats with submerged grass and weeds. You might be surprised with what you discover. Whether hunting bass on the surface or down deep, in the Delta or in the Bay proper, this vast fishery offers fly anglers nearly unlimited opportunities.
Kevin Sloan is general manager of Guideline Eyegear and an avid fly angler for everything from trout to sailfish. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
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