California Delta (Tower Park) WKBS Open Results and Recaps

The California Delta is a vast waterway with thousands of miles of navigable shorelines.  It is a fisherman's paradise, but many times it can be stingy and a difficult place to catch fish.  Unlike a typical river or lake the California Delta has an additional factor, the tides, which can weigh heavily on ones ablilty to catch fish.
The weather was fair, as was the fishing.  It wasn't a spectacular day of catching for the anglers, but it wasn't as tough as it could have been.  Of the 27 anglers that participated in the event, 13 did not submit a scoreable fish.  Of those 13 anglers many of them were having trouble catching fish that were over the 13 inch minimum.
In 5th place Jake Arbuckle ended the day with 42.25 inches and had a 15 inch big fish which was good for $50.  Jake said that he caught his fish on both a buzzbait and dropshot.

Ryan Goman came in 4th place with his 43.5 inch catch and a 17 inch big fish which netted him $120.  Ryan said, "I fished between the docks and shore, slowly fishing, long casting down shoreline. I caught most of all my fish on a texas rigged senko with a 1/4 oz brass bullet weight, but I also caught about 5 fishing a weightless texas rig. After the wind picked up I decided to stick with the docks for the day. I caught around 20 fish total, but never got the big bite that I needed to move up the board and hold on to the top spot. Overall it was a good day. Had alot of fun on my new feelfree."

With a catch of 44.5 inches and a 17 inch big fish, Joe Arbuckle took home the 3rd place position and $165.  Joe said, "I fished the rock banks early working the area between the rocks and weed line with a shad crank bait. Only had about 4' before heavy weeds but it was productive. Just took a lot of time clearing weeds. When the tide went out I worked the outside edge of the weeds in about 8-10' deep along flat ledge water still on crank bait. Deeper water is where the 17" was caught.  I tried multiple different senkos, but only caught a hand full of 13" but nothing more.
 
Blake Abbey ended his day with 46.75 inches and a 16 inch big fish which netted him $355 and 2nd place.  Blake was quoted as saying, "I moved around a lot and changed up my baits a lot. My biggest fish came  around noon. I never usually throw a spinnerbait but the water was so muddy, I figured I'd give it a go. I landed 7-10 fish in an hour on one rock wall on my spinnerbait. I went to 'devil island' and got my final keeper on a senko in the inside of the docks. The best part of the entire day was the generosity of fellow kayakers, who gave me baits when I realized I left my bag in sacramento. I fished slower than I usually do but the long boat rides payed off because I was fishing with no one around for at least 3-4 hours. I noticed everyone was staying close to the launch. It was slow for everyone. I was shocked I even placed with a small bag like that in the delta. Best part, like I said, was super cool people in a small group having fun in friendly competition. I was super nervous I was gonna get made fun of because of my kayak. I do fish the delta a lot and I study the tides so I think that was my advantage. I pre fished on Thursday and got frog blow ups that made me excited but today my frog didn't produce." 

The Top Spot (1st Place) went to Matthew Brannon, who beat the entire field with 50 inches of Bass.  Not only did Matthew have the longest 3 fish total, he also had the big fish of the event which netted him the big fish prize pool as well, for a total of $880!  Matthew had this to say about his day, "My prefishing pattern was a frog bite in flooded areas that had clean water on the low tide late in the day.  When I got to that area this morning the tide was still high but it was obvious that the water had gotten muddy overnight.  I stayed in that same area because I knew the fish were there but I switched over to punching gear and worked the edges of mats where they had clumps of tules mixed in. The frog bite never took off but I did get a few on a frog as well as a good number of spinnerbait fish on the rock walls."

Next month on July 12th we will have our second Open of the season on Lodi Lake/Mokelumne River.    This is going to be our first river event and is looking to be a good one!