Solid Late Summer Striper Bite Points To Sizzling Fall For Delta Anglers   By: Cal Kellogg October 13, 2008 More Articles by Cal

As anybody who reads the Fish Sniffer regularly knows, I absolutely love striper fishing. While I never pass up an opportunity to target hard charging bass within the confines of San Francisco Bay during the spring and summer, I've got to confess that my favorite place for chasing stripers is the beautiful California Delta and my favorite time is during the fall when the air is cool, winds are light and the bass are focused on packing on weight for the lean winter months the ahead.

The best fall striper season in recent memory took place in 2006 when anglers fishing throughout both the Sacramento and San Joaquin side of the delta enjoyed limit style action from the middle of October through the beginning of January, when frigid water temperatures ultimately shut the bite down.

While the fall of 2007 provided very good delta striper fishing the action didn't quite live up to the frantic fishing we experienced in '06.

At this point you are probably wondering what sort of action the fall of 2008 will provide. Well, I'll go way out on a limb and predict that the fishing this fall will at least be on par with the fishing we experienced in '06 and it might even be better.

This summer anglers fishing in San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz during late June and throughout July experienced lights out bass action whenever big tides and strong currents prompted the stripers to feed. At that time there was a lot of speculation as to whether the bass holding in the central bay would move out of the Golden Gate and take up temporary residence on coastal beaches, setting the stage for an exciting beach bite during August and September.

Well, the majority of those notoriously unpredictable stripers ultimately decided not to push out of the Golden Gate and as a result the beach bite never really got going. Instead of moving west the bass pulled a 180 and headed back into the delta. By early August, hardcore delta anglers, such as legendary troller Mark Wilson, started to encounter large groups of stripers moving up river and began to enjoy very good action while trolling Yo-Zuri's and Bombers during periods of slow tidal movement.

These days there are massive numbers of stripers showing at all the usual locations on the Sacramento side of the delta from the upper reaches of Suisun Bay all the way up to the Isleton Bridge. Many of these bass are schoolie-size stripers that fall within the 3 to 8 pound range, but there are plenty of larger fish weighing into the upper teens and beyond. For example, Clyde Wands recently caught and released a 35 pound monster while trolling in the Collinsville area.

With all these stripers in the system, you are probably thinking that the fishing in the Delta must be pretty darn good. At this point I'd have to describe the bite as variable, with phenomenal fishing right around the corner. I've been out on the delta twice in about a month. My first trip took place in early August when Mark Wilson and we boated 35 bass including 20 keepers to 14 pounds while trolling shallow running Yo-Zuri's in the Rio Vista area.

My second trip occurred on September 5 when I headed out for a day of trolling with delta icon Captain Barry Canevaro of Fish Hookers Sportfishing. I was joined on the trip with Bob MacKenzie of KTVU channel 2 news, his lovely wife Miyuki and Barry's son in law Jeff, who served as our deckhand for the day.

After everyone boarded Barry's boat, the Fish 'N' Fool IV, at Vieira's Resort we headed down to the shoals above the Rio Vista Bridge, spooled out three Yo-Zuri shallow running Crystal Minnows in the chartreuse color and made our first pass along the outer edge of the sand bars. There were a lot of floating weeds in the water, so Jeff and I had to work hard to keep the lures free of debris.

We'd been trolling for less than 15 minutes when Bob hooked the first fish of the day. A bright colored 5 or 6 pounder that found it's way into the fish box after putting up a spirited tussle.

For the next hour or so we continued making passes along the shoals as the tide topped out. The action remained pretty steady, as did the amount of weeds in the water that continually fouled our gear. When all was said and done we landed a total of 4 bass while working the shoals. Two of them were keepers, but one of the keepers was just over the minimum 18 inch size, so it went back into the river along with a pair of shakers.

Our next move was a run upriver into Cache Slough, beyond the mouth of Steamboat Slough in an area where Barry had enjoyed very good trolling during the spring. As soon as Barry moved the boat into shallow water near the slough's west bank the sonar unit's screen became crowded with arches indicating dozen of stripers of various sizes.

We'd made a couple passes along the bank without success and were beginning to wonder if the bass were going to hit when the rod on the boat's starboard side doubled over and the reels clicker erupted with a steady scream.

Bob maneuvered the rod out of its holder and the fight was on it. We knew it was a big fish, but the question was how big. We wasted no time clearing the other rods and I fought the urge to get out my camera, not wanting to jinx Bob's chances of landing the heavy fish!

Four of five tense minutes later the husky bass emerged from the depths and Barry brought it aboard with a clean sweep of the net. Moments later the scale revealed that the bass weighed in at a very respectable 12 pounds.

With the 12 pounder in the box, our expectations were heightened, but save for a couple shakers, our Cache Slough hot spot failed to yield any more excitement. Around noon Miyuki landed the final fish of the day, a feisty 5 pounder while trolling the Sacramento just below Vieira's.

With the temperature inching up on the century mark, we called it a day at around 1 o'clock, before the heat really kicked in.

All the bass Barry cleaned that day had empty bellies, indicating that they were striking more out of agitation than hunger. Bob and Miyuki had put together a beautiful bag of fillets, but in reality the bite was pretty slow when you consider the huge numbers of fish we marked on the sonar.

"The water temperature is around 73 degrees right now," related Barry at the boat dock. "When it finally drops down into the mid 60's all the stripers we are marking are going to start feeding and the action is going to shift into high gear for both trollers and bait anglers."