 
By: The Fish Sniffer Staff
January 28, 2010
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East Delta
(Stockton) This time of the year the water in the Delta is typically pretty cold and dead sticking jigs and soft plastics is the only way to draw strikes from black bass. This January a series of relatively warm storms have passed through the state, setting the stage for a unique reaction bait bite.
“The temperature is coming up as a result of these warm rains,” related Randy Pringle of The Fishing Instructor Guide Service. “This rise in temperature is sending the black bass toward the shallows.”
“Naturally the water is stained and you still need to use a slow moving bait, so soft plastics that displace a lot of water are the way to go. I’m advising anglers to employ Berkley Chigger Craws, Power Hogs and 10 in Power Worms. The bass are becoming active, but they aren’t ready to chase baits yet. These bulky plastics capture the attention of the bass and stay in the strike zone long enough for the fish to eat them,” tipped Pringle.
“As the fish get more active spinnerbaits will become the bait of choice. Since the weeds have died off in most areas, Persuader spinnerbaits with large Colorado blades will be a great choice. The Colorado blade puts off a bunch of vibration and keeps the bait moving at a fairly slow pace,” added Pringle.
Rio Vista
(Rio Vista) Despite cold weather and cool water temperatures, anglers soaking bait for white sturgeon are fairing well in the Rio Vista area.
“Fishing for sturgeon has been excellent for anglers working the Powerlines,” said Allison Shawnego of Haps Bait. “We had a total of four sturgeon weighed in one day this month.”
Of those anglers, Steve Alford and his wife Lisa bagged two fish – a shaker at 45 and keeper at 58 inches. Shawnego mentioned that eel, ghost and grass shrimp, and shad have been the best baits.
Striper fishing has been fairly slow due to the cold, muddy water. Shawnego noted that the fishing should improve after the storms move through, and the water begins to clear.
“Most anglers targeting stripers were fishing with bait, with mudsuckers and shad,” said Shawn Peddy at Rio Vista Bait. “I haven’t had much in the way of trolling reports lately,” added Peddy.
Peddy also added that a few anglers were targeting largemouth bass in the Three Mile Slough area on minnows. “Catfish is also a good bet around Brannan Island,” noted Peddy.
West Delta
(Pittsburg) There are big numbers of sturgeon holding in the West Delta, but over the past few weeks they haven’t been biting very well. The recent rains have put a lot of runoff in the rivers and raised the water temperature, setting the stage for excellent sturgeon action in the days and weeks to come.
“I think we’ll have very good sturgeon fishing within 3 or 4 days,” reported Captain Barry Canevaro of Fish Hookers Sportfishing. “I was on the water yesterday and I marked a bunch of sturgeon, but it was too windy to fish for them. All this runoff should really get the bite going. The water was cold, but now it has warmed back up into the low 50’s.”
“I’m going to focus my efforts on fishing the sloughs. I think the main river will be blown out for a while. I don’t think we’ll have much striper action for a month or so now. Guys will find isolated pockets of bass action, but the bite will be mainly shut down due to muddy water. Once the water clears, it will likely be possible to hook fish while trolling,” speculated Canevero.
Rene Villanueva of Steelie Dan’s Guide Service said he was going to wait out the stormy weather before attempting to fish. “After things calm down, I’ll be splitting my time between targeting sturgeon, steelhead and stripers. I’ll let the conditions dictate what type of fishing I do,” said Villanueva.
The staff at B & S Bait in Pittsburg described the sturgeon fishing as slow prior to the rain, but expected things to pick up with the freshwater run off brought on by the storms.
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