Bass without Gas
In modern parlance, striper fishing from a canoe or float tube is a “value-added” experience. Silently riding the tide or gliding through mats of hyacinths and lilies, the angler becomes a part of the environment, rather than a visitor or intruder. Raccoons, herons, and otters commonly feed less than a cast away. Turtles frequently surface next to your craft and paddle about without the least concern. Most importantly, striped bass will feed with abandon in your presence.
I’ve had stripers slam flies inches from a churning motor, but that was the exception rather than the rule. Even electric trolling motors can put fish down, and whenever possible, it’s worth the effort to use a push pole rather than spin the electric. While big boats can push fish away or at least put them on guard, they seem to always ignore a float tube or canoe.
The Delta is formed where the tides of the Pacific Ocean meld with the flow of the mighty Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. Bounded by the cities of Sacramento to the north, Stockton to the south, and Benicia to the west, the Delta is a vast network of nearly 1,000 miles of interconnected creeks, sloughs, and lakes. It nurtures the largest saltwater estuary on the continent and there is probably no other place in the world where so many species of gamefish reside in the proximity of so many anglers.
The Delta angler might hook black bass, salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, crappie, or an assortment of weird things like mitten crabs, clams, and old shoes. I think I’ve landed them all, but my favorite tug is from a striped bass. In the fall when the bass are at their peak numbers, there is no place I’d rather be than in the Sacramento Delta. Unlike salmon migrating on a predictably tight calendar, the striped bass move to their own schedule. The “fall” run might start in September, or in some years (like 2000) when the bait is thick along the Pacific coast, they may wait until November.
In the spring, the bulk of the striped bass population migrates to freshwater reaches of the rivers to spawn. By midsummer most of the fish have moved into the San Francisco Bay and along the California coast to fatten on the bounty of the Pacific. Fishable numbers of stripers swim in the Delta all year long, but fall and winter provide the best fishing. By mid-October the fishing is predictably decent, most of the jet skis are gone, and the Delta “breezes” are beginning to lie down.
October mornings are often chilly with a damp tule fog that cuts to the bone. By midmorning the sun has burned off the fog and the air is filled with the musk of humid peat and the licorice scent of wild anise. The afternoons can be in the 80s. The savvy Delta angler will come dressed for all seasons.
Things to Keep in Mind
Punching casts to structure in a canoe floating at the current’s mercy, knowing that at any second a double-digit linesider might blast your fly, and simply pretending you have total control over the events about to unfold is the life of a Delta drifter. Experiences spiced with the unexpected are often the most rewarding. Keep an eye open to potentially dangerous changes in your environment and anticipate the unexpected.
Delta conditions are dependably undependable. Wind and fog can spring unannounced; tide tables are a good guess at best; and currents can be influenced by changes in barometric pressure, wind, upstream water releases, and the massive Delta pumps that send water to orchards, lawns, and swimming pools to other parts of California. Stay within casting distance of shore (this is where the fish are anyway), and always have an exit strategy that gets you back to shore safely. Keep a pair of sneakers in the float tube if you have to walk home.
Wind. Wind is the Delta fly fisher’s nemesis—anything over ten knots is not much fun. The most predictable winds are formed when the hot interior valleys push air aloft and cold air streams inland from the Pacific and through the Golden Gate. You can roughly predict the Delta wind velocity by subtracting the temperature in San Francisco from the temperature in Sacramento. If it is 78 degrees in the capital and 72 in San Francisco, Delta breezes will run approximately six knots.
The eastbound winds fighting an outgoing tide, especially a tide backed by the Sacramento River’s flow, can create a maelstrom best avoided by all but the largest craft. As a rule it is most windy where the rivers meet at Sherman Island and the winds gradually decrease as you head upriver and deeper into the Delta. Gusty winds are not an excuse to stop fishing; they simply limit your options. With an easily transported float tube, kick boat, canoe, or other small boat, you can quickly get back to shore, hop in your vehicle, and go fish a sheltered area such as Snug Harbor or Westgate Park.
Tides. Like wind, tides are important to the Delta angler. On a flat tide (when the water sleeps at its ebb or peak), the fish scatter and are harder to find than on a rolling tide whose currents tend to localize fish into specific feeding areas. Bass continue to feed regardless of the tide; it is just faster fishing when they are bunched together.
Currents. Tides and wind aren’t the only factors that govern water movement on the Delta. The rivers flow ceaselessly toward the ocean, and bass make full use of the bait-herding current. An incoming tide will slow the flow; an outgoing tide will increase it. The state and federal pumps at Tracy can even reverse the flow of the natural currents for miles away. Since it is moving water that largely defines where stripers congregate, the nonmotorized angler should study currents and use them to his advantage. Another reason to study Delta currents is because they are frequently your motor.
Other boaters. Stay out of intersecting sloughs and tight channels with blind turns. Jet skis and motorboaters go recklessly fast at times and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of their insanity. According to the U.S. Coast Guard squadron at Rio Vista, there has never been a logged incident where a canoe or float tube needed assistance. Do your part to keep it that way.
Fog. Fog (and darkness) create exceedingly dangerous conditions for hard-to-see craft. Swamp fog can develop in minutes but is often thin or spotty enough to give a false sense of security to the operator of a speeding bass boat. These same conditions will all but hide the float tuber from view. Get off the water before visibility, and your safety, becomes compromised.
Safety Gear. A life jacket is mandatory equipment. Consider the bright orange ones with radar-reflective patches that can be seen for miles. I also carry a set of aerial flares, smoke bombs, a whistle, an air horn, a GPS, a strobe, a strong flashlight, a cell phone, and a hand-held marine radio. It sounds like a lot of stuff, but it all fits neatly in a water-tight, one-gallon ziplock bag that gets stuffed into a float-tube pocket. Mosquito repellent, sunscreen, a spare fin, and a bottle of water are handy to have.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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