Delta Bank Fishing
by Roland “Innovate” Aspiras

Roland “Innovate” Aspiras
Roland's Fishing Blog
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Isleton Area
by Can Nguyen -- Bob's Bait Shops

It rained very good last week with a series of storms that passed through Northern California. There was very a good snow also at the high elevations. This week is good with cloudy skies and warm temperatures about high 50 degrees.

Fishing for sturgeon has picked up in most parts of the Delta including Sherman Island, Decker Island, Liberty Island, Isleton Bridge, Cache Slough, and San Joaquin River. Sturgeon reported very well in the San Joaquin River up to the Mokelumne Rivers, catching on grass shrimp, ghost shrimp, pile worms, and lamprey eel.

Bank anglers on the North Mokelumne River got a 62” sturgeon on ghost shrimp last weekend just after the rain. Many good size sturgeon were reported in Cache slough by bank anglers who used grass shrimp, pile worms or lamprey eel for bait. At the Dump gate in Isleton a 52” and a 50” sturgeon were caught by bank anglers at night on grass shrimp and on pile worms. There were also some keeper striped bass reported on grass shrimp or pile worm bait.

Fishing for striped bass has improved after the rain when the water temperature is a bit higher. Mainly, most striped bass reported along the deep channel from the ferry down to Decker Island. Most striped bass caught at the water depth about 25 feet on either mud suckers or on frozen baits such as sardines, anchovies, or shad.

The water is not very muddy yet, so fishing for striped bass is still good in the big Sacramento River. At the Isleton public fishing pier, one angler got a 24” striped bass on pile worms on 01/22/12.

This week, it will be foggy in the morning but it not very cold as last couple weeks. Fishing for striped bass should be good along with sturgeon fishing in the Delta now.

Fishing for catfish has been good in the Mokelumne Rivers. Bank anglers used jumbo red worm sto fish for catfish on the North Mokelumne River and they mostly ended up with a dozen catfish per day. 

Black bass fishing has been slow and some large mouth were reported in Seven Miles Slough. Good luck to you and have a nice coming weekend.

Can
Email & Website

Antioch-Oakley Area
by Chris Lauritzen -- Lauritzen Yacht Harbor

What a difference a couple of days make. It was stormy and rainy this past weekend here at the harbor. It really dumped buckets of water at Bodega Bay. Not as much wind or rain as we need but at least it’s a start. The good news is it is reported to be 67 degrees or higher later this week according to the weather gods and goddesses. That could mean that by Friday we are all going to be in shorts for the Diamond Classic this coming weekend.

Average rainfall for us here at the harbor is 1.90 inches of rain for the month of January. So far this month we have recorded 1.30 inches of rain. For the months of November, December and January combined we have recorded 2.44 inches of rain.  It's one thing not to have a lot of rainfall at sea level but when there are no inflows to the dams so that they are rising and not enough snow pack to stick until June or July of each year we really are back in a drought again or could be.

This time of year in a normal wet weather pattern, the Sacramento River water level at the I Street Bridge in Sacramento should be in the 24 foot range and we should be flowing 60,000 – 70,000 cfs (cubic feet per second). Instead the water level at the I Street Bridge in Sacramento is only 8.76 feet. On the Feather River at Verona (the junction of the Sacramento River and the Feather River) the water is flowing at the rate of 29,300cfs. The water is flowing at that rate due to all of the rain runoff from last weeks storms.

Based on the water models I have been following, the crest of water coming down the Sacramento River is at the Sacramento River and the Fremont Weir. The crest of water should be near the Rio Vista Bridge in the next 24 – 36 hours.  With that in mind, if you are fishing the Diamond Classic this coming Saturday, expect faster moving water than you have seen the last month or more. Which means you will want to have a short leader instead of a long one. Expect to have problems keeping your leader on the bottom due to increased water flows.

The San Joaquin River at the Antioch Bridge is not all that muddy. I would speculate that most of the muddy water was caused by wind and wave action versus heavy rain runoff. I’m not seeing as many water hyacinths drifting with the current as I have seen the past month or so out in front of the harbor. I believe a lot of them were blown out of the nursery areas with the wind storms the past two weeks.

The weather folks on Tuesday morning suggested that many areas would have fog due to the amount of water on the ground and the warmer days. At this point, that is not the case, at least at the Antioch Bridge. We had clear skies today and would expect that to be the case the next couple of days.

Water temperatures are pretty warm for this time of year.  Currently at the Antioch Boat Ramp on the San Joaquin River, the range is 47.26 – 47.79 degrees. At the Rio Vista Bridge on the Sacramento River, the range is 46.2 – 46.9 degrees and at the Martinez Bridge, the range is 48.07 – 49.48 degrees.

If you are planning on fishing for sturgeon this weekend whether you are fishing a derby or not, make sure that your bait shop has plenty of bait.  This weekend it will be a madhouse looking for bait -- grass and ghost shrimp. I’ve not heard if the rains this past weekend have impacted the shrimp boats or not.

The only fishing report I have came from Marv Bartlett late on Tuesday. He and his brother Scott were fishing in their usual spot in the Antioch Lumber Company building in Antioch in that 50 foot of water area where it is nice and flat.  Marv said they had some pretty fast moving water caused by runoff. He had one take down and one small striper that he caught for about six hours of fishing.  Enjoy this great winter weather see you at the seminar in Martinez this coming Friday.

Chris Lauritzen
Lauritzen's Yacht Harbor
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