12-3-06 Big Break....

It was such a nice day I had to get out for a couple of hours. Launched in Big Break around 12:00, caught some blue gills in the marina then headed out to the river to make the outgoing tide. Fished the outgoing until just about dark - 3 stripers all around 20" all released. Had a lot of other hits but nothing that stuck I think the size of the fish in Big Break is getting smaller. The bite turned on almost as soon as the tide did.Talked to quite a few people that didn't do as well as us so we will count ourselves lucky or skilled  as the case may be. Boy some of those PB guys get real upset when a kayaker is doing better than they are. After looking around at the local reports for the weekend I'm calling it a pretty good day for only 3-4 hours of fishing.

I think it is about time to move deeper into the delta now though.

Jeff

Thanks for the report! how was the wind there?  It was howlin' out of the N.E. here in the N.Bay.... need to log those conditions for future reference.
It is a GREAT feeling when you got to work the food chain!......and HOOK-UP!!  yea....them PBer's see us and they start adding up the $$$$$ and thats what gets them mad....then to be outfished!!!!           keep up the reports!

Wind was nothing on Sunday. It was predicted up to about 10 mph but we didn't even get that. Did see a huge sea lion crusing down river about a 1/2 mile off of us, it was so quite we could hear him breathe even at that distance.

Thanks,Note to self:GO CHECK IT OUT!

I saw a group of 5 yaks in the Break sunday. Looked like hobie mirage guys. I was there in my bass boat.

Thanks,Note to self:GO CHECK IT OUT!

FisHunter the place I use most for this area for weather and water conditions is below: the main site is www.lauritzens.com they are located just east of the Antioch bridge, they also have a cam that is usually pointed out at the water:
http://www.lauritzens.com/Weather.asp  for weather - updated hourly
http://www.lauritzens.com/water/Water.asp  for water conditions

On the water conditions I gave up even caring about the hi and low tide at this point - what seems more important to me lately at least after the stripers is the Max. Flood and really the most important Max. Ebb. If you plan around the hi and low tide you are off by about two hours on the "window" of flow. And it's not like I am a striper expert here or anything but it is becoming obvious to me that we catch better and most productively on an outgoing tide just before the max. ebb, once the current really gets going we look for areas still in the same depth but just out of the major current, before that we are drifting right in the major current before it really picks up.

This is where is hi and low tide will mess you up; the times are listed for the highest and lowest point of the tide. If you plan on being out there based on the low tide time you already missed in my mind the best time to fish. Also because we are on a tidal river system there is more playing into all this than it seems. The Max. Ebb and Max. Flood is usually about two hours different from the Hi and low tide but you can't trust that always. The hi and low tide is still based on the tides at San Francisco Bay and given increased or decreased flows on the rivers the Max Flood and Max Ebb can be way different than the predicted hi and low tide. I have actually seen a few years back where during spring run off we got a really big hi tide on a windy day and when the low tide should have come it did not, instead the wind was blowing so bad it was holding most of the outgoing so when hi tide came back again everything started flooding because of all the water being held in the system.

What does all this mean? We (Sarah & I) seem to be more successful trying to fish from the slack tide through the Max Ebb at least for stripers. For example we only fished for about 3-4 hours Sunday for 3 fish, some of the other guys I spoke with had been out there all day for nothing of legal size anyway. We did use the flood tide to drift us out to where we wanted to fish but really only just to save energy. Once the outgoing got running we drifted the same basic area about four times, paddling back and starting another drift until the outgoing tide really picked up, then we drifted one last time and found a nice eddy at the end of an island that more or less kept us in one place.

During the summer when we fish more for black bass than anything else I don't even worry about the tides just the wind and how fast it will be blowing at least in Big Break - you can always island hop back to the marina to stay out of the majority of the wind.

ppickerell,

What time was that? We were on the water from about 2-5pm. We paddle a matched pair of yellow Cobra Tourers.

OH MY GOSH!  I never knew all that played into the current factor! I'm gonna have to take your approach and consider the WIND only! I just don't have the experience /knowledge of the Mighty Delta! thanks for the SUPER-Secret-INTEL! This is stuff that would take a few years to compile!

That was right at sunset. They were all just inside the opening that is on the eastern side of big break as it dumps into Dutch. We spooked the "lane" up big break and did quite well in the bass boat.

OH MY GOSH!  I never knew all that played into the current factor! I'm gonna have to take your approach and consider the WIND only! I just don't have the experience /knowledge of the Mighty Delta! thanks for the SUPER-Secret-INTEL! This is stuff that would take a few years to compile!

I know it sounds like a lot and I am still trying to understand it myself and sometimes getting it out in text helps me work my way through it, mostly it is because it is a tidal river. Because it is tidal the water height wants to constantly change with the tides but because it is a river the water is always flowing down river also. Now I am probably wrong here but it looks like to me that on the ocean the hi and low tide you get predicted are much closer to the max. flood and max. ebb. Which sort of makes sense because the highest point of the tide should be close to the fastest moving part of the tide also. Except that in the rivers affected by tides you always have a downstream current holding back the incoming tide and helping push the outgoing tide. I hear that some of the PB guys will catch the incoming tide at Sherman Is. then run up to Stockton and catch the incoming again a couple hours later. Which is why this is all so confusing .

For stripers:
Basically I check the winds and what the gusts are predicted to - then I try to make sure we will be out about an hour before and an hour after the Max. Flood or Max. Ebb. (Max. Ebb has been the best to us.)

For Black Bass:
I just check the winds -  if the winds are really up I will try to make sure it works out that for the return trip back the tides are helping us. The black bass don't really seem to move around much. If you catch them somewhere then come back another day and the tide is different than before just try to find similar water to what you were in before. If the first time out you were catching in 3' of water and the next time you go out and there isn't that much water right there look around for the nearest deeper hole. If the water is way up fish tighter to the structure or banks. One thing I know regarding the black bass and I don't know much is you almost cannot be fishing in to shallow of water or to thick of cover. One little secret at least in Big Break look for places most people wouldn't or couldn't take a PB. There is a lot of water out there that most people miss because it is too shallow, to obstructed or too weedy to get into.

ppickerell,

Oh okay by then we were drifting from near Jersey Is. back towards the Big Break Marina and couldn't see that end of the break.

Thanx for the DBL.Break-down! Note to self: check wind predictions,not much action during middle of tides,don't get to caught up in the current/tide levels. 
Now entering into the Master MB(memory bank)