Save
Our Stripers!
www.saveourstripers.org
We need our chamber members help to defeat proposed legislation to deregulate the striped bass. A Kern County assembly woman has introduced legislation to open them to unlimited take, no size limit, commercial fishing, etc. as retaliation to our efforts to protect our delta water. If you feel this will affect your members businesses please visit the site and sign on in opposition: www.saveourstripers.org.
If you have more questions, write or visit the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance at www.calsport.org. Note that all fishing organizations in our region and our state oppose this legislation. Our Department of Fish and Game disagrees with the premise of this legislation and is currently fighting a similar attack on our striped bass fishery in court. Your support in opposition is CRITICAL in helping to crush this legislation before it has a chance to ruin our fishery and harm your business!
FishDelta.Com - Fish Reports
FishDelta.com is a new Delta Chambers member. We will now be adding the link to their fishing reports each week on this page. Some of the reports are duplicates. CLICK HERE to read the FishDelta Reports.
Also, for those missing the old Delta Chambers Fish Forum, you can now go to FishDeltaBuzz and participate in their fishing forums. Click Here
Delta
Bank Fishing
by Roland “Innovate”
Aspiras
No report submitted this week.
Roland
“Innovate”
Aspiras
Roland's Fishing Blog
Email
Isleton
Area
by Can Nguyen -- Bob's Bait Shops
The strong wind started from yesterday and is continuing today. These are very strong wins for the entire northern California. With such strong winds, it is impossible to fish in the boat and even on the bank. Before the windy days, the weather was very good. It will be back to normal calm day but the temperature will be around mid-60 to 70 degrees.
Fishing for striped bass was improved very much after the second rain. This year, striped bass fall run starts late at least a month. It is just beginning for the fall run and it could be a short run if the rainy season kicks off early. During the week, striped bass were reported in most parts of the Delta from boat anglers and bank anglers including San Joaquin river, Mokelume rivers, Sacramento river from Sherman Island to Courtland or to Liberty Island. Striped bass were caught on different baits including grass shrimp, ghost shrimp, blood worm, pile worm, shad, sardine, anchovy, live jumbo minnow, or live mud sucker. Striped bass were also caught by boat anglers while trolling with Broken Back Rebel or Bomber lures in the Isleton area from Vieira's Resort to the Wind Mills. Most striped bass reported were different sizes from legal size up to 36” long. One of our customers reported that his wife caught a 17 lbs striped bass on mud sucker at the mouth of Georgiana Slough and Mokelumne river.
Sturgeon fishing was very hot in Cache Slough and Liberty Island during the week on grass shrimp or ghost shrimp. There were too many oversize sturgeon reported in this area last week. Many sturgeon roll on top of the water for entire week. The fishing for sturgeon in this area will continue well in the coming days.
Black bass fishing was good last week from Vieira's Resort to the Isleton Bridge on live minnow or live mud sucker.
Catfish fishing was also good in most parts of the Delta. The good baits for catfish are crawdad tail meat, anchovy, chicken liver, or clam. Good luck to you and have a nice coming weekend.
Antioch-Oakley
Area
by Chris Lauritzen -- Lauritzen Yacht Harbor
From a dollars and sense standpoint, last week may have been the peak that tells us the stripers are finally in. There were a few boats in camouflage that were launching as well brushing up their duck blinds in Sherman Lake getting ready for the Saturday opener.
Our parking lot was pretty full Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday was a little slower according to the number of cars and trailers in the parking lot.
I was somewhat surprised at all of the activity because the water flows were so slow. One day there was a 1.8 knot ebb at the gate followed by a 1.9 knot flood. Some forty miles away that is not much flow so the bite is normally pretty crappy.
The water was mirror glass all week as far as the eye could see. Great shorts weather by 10:00 am in the morning but a little cool at sunrise.
We did see the fish cleaning station get used a little this weekend mostly 5 – 10 lb stripers. Striper heads make great crab bait.
We held jet ski races out of the harbor both last Saturday and Sunday. The big day for the jet ski races was Sunday where there were about 60 skis at different time out on the race track. On Saturday there were two endurance races, one from the harbor to Broad Slough to Rio Vista and back, and then one from the harbor to Benicia and back.
I was the turn boat for both legs of the race so it gave me a chance to get out and see the water and observe where fisherman were fishing. Here are some area where I saw clusters of boats. On the San Joaquin River from the Antioch Bridge to Eddo’s between the Sherman Island shore line and buoy 17 so that the fisherman were fishing tight to the shoreline. There was another group of fisherman from West of the Antioch Bridge to Broad slough along the north side of the channel heading west towards Broad Slough.
The next cluster of boats was from Spoonbill Slough in Suisun Bay to the River Vista Bridge. In that corridor the largest concentration of boats were under the power lines and then heavy traffic from the lower end of Decker Island to across from the Three Mile Slough Bridge.
The next group of boats was in the area of the “firing line” which is just east of Middle Grounds in Suisun Bay. I was surprised that no one was fishing in the shallow water in Honker Bay. Be careful because there is a cable laying barge with a four point anchoring system that is moving its way up river from Stake Point to Pittsburg in the deep water along the southern shore line. I’m not sure how far up river or in what direction the cable laying barge is going but it is on the move.
Speaking of crab fishing if you have not heard this years crab season opens on Saturday November 7th. If we have the winds then that we have currently no one will be going out and the crabs will be safe for a while longer. My friends in the City who fish commercially say that next year will be the year to be crabbing, but we’ll see.
I attended the meeting last night in Discovery Bay over the 80 million dollar project for two proposed gates to help protect the Delta Smelt when they are running in the river system. One gate will go across Old River near Holland Riverside Marina and the other one will be in Connection Slough. The Disco Bay folks expressed lot of concerns and I don’t blame them. I do believe that because there will be no water movement in the bays after the gates are in they will have a similar problem to what I described is happening in Big Break with D/O dissolved oxygen and Ph as well as water temperature. Make no mistake our Delta is changing right before our eyes and it’s not for the better.
It’s amazing what happens when you take a day off and come back to work. It seems the West Delta Chapter of the Striper Bass Association is going to have a Sturgeon Derby Fundraiser to include lunch and raffle at Lauritzen Yacht Harbor. This events begins on November 14 at 6:00 am and ends with lunch on November 15 at high noon. The cost for CSBA members is $15.00, and $35.00 for non members. You can contact Roger Lund at 925-754-3938 for additional info. See you on the water.
Chris Lauritzen
Lauritzen's
Yacht Harbor
Website