Cal Delta Rayovac Midday Update Day 1
Fishing a “little funky” in California
A brisk, stiff wind blew across the California Delta this morning when 127 boats left Russo’s Marina on Bethel Island for the start of the Rayovac FLW Series Western Division tournament presented by Ranger. You might call the early action good, but not quite “Delta good.”
Translation: Pros and co-anglers are yanking on tons of fish, but it’s been a bit challenging to find the California giants that everyone expected to see this week. A recent onslaught of strong winds, especially today’s north wind, is partly to blame. It’s resulted in a water temperature drop of a few degrees – down to the mid- to upper-60s.
FLW’s On The Water team caught up with Ken Mah first thing this morning. He had a limit of about 15 pounds by 8 a.m. and saw an uptick in action when the high tide switch occurred soon after that.
Around lunchtime, the crew checked in with tackle maker Bub Tosh, owner of Paycheck Baits, and he says he thinks the cooldown has done two things. It’s slowed down a wave of spawners that was pushing to the banks, and it’s forced some of the postspawn fish back out into deeper areas washed with river current a little sooner than normal.
Pro Bill Brown was chucking around a frog and had several fish come up and bump it without eating. He was hoping for some sunshine to kick off his frog bite a little better, but he was also planning to bug out at low tide and run to a secret spot where he saw several giants cruising in practice. Brown hopes they’re on beds today and that he can see them well enough to pester them into biting.
At this point, it looks like the afternoon low switch and low-tide bite, what little of it pros will get to fish today, could become a critical time period for making a run at the top 10.
Almost every pro encountered today was casting and winding with reaction baits – Whopper Ploppers, buzzbaits and frogs on top, and crankbaits and ChatterBaits subsurface. A few flipped or pitched soft plastics to key patches of cover or when a fish missed a moving bait.
Weigh-in for day one begins at 2 p.m. PT, with the final flight checking it at about 3:30. Tune in to FLW Live at FLWFishing.com to watch the weigh-in.