Many Days on the Delta

[Fiskadoro]

So I don't like to post reports that impact local fishing but figure I can get away with a San Joaquin Delta report.

I guess I might as well say this is not so much a big fish report more of I went fishing and had a blast report, so if your looking for specific La Jolla bite info your sadly out of luck. Still I went fish and had a good time so why not post about it.

First some background. I grew up fishing stripers in Texas and have always wanted to kayak fish the freshwater sections of the Delta where they get truly giant fish over fifty pounds. Most of it is a free anchorage so you can take a boat explore the various rivers and waterways and stay for days anchoring up each night.

My idea was to trailer up my skiff, carry along my Mini-X, launch near the Mandeville tract and then stay for a week fishing wherever I could find fish, anchoring up and essentially boat camping at night. So kind of a mini mother-ship, kayak camping trip.

Since last weekend I was invited up there for a on the water event/party figured it would be a good time to take up the skiff and try my plan.

First I had to re-power my skiff from twin 82 2-srokes to a 2006 freshwater friendly 4-stroke I picked up six months back. Since I built the original transom for two twin 16hp 2 strokes it had to be altered for a single taller four stroke.







So I had to remake or weld up a new higher transom swimstep bracket for the longer shaft of the bigger four stroke. For those looking that's one of the new design V twin Suzuki 25s, small but powerful and more then enough to push my skiff. It took a few days to work it all out but I got the new engine on the boat routed all the controls, and after I got it running, I added a kicker 2hp Honda for slow trolling and security.

I then figured out a makeshift tent structure for the bow, and I was pretty much ready to go.

I loaded up my fishing and camping gear and headed up there Saturday. A five plus hour on the 5 up through the central valley. It felt over a 100 degrees most of the trip and was a long drive. I finally launched at H&H landing just before dark in the middle of the central delta. Cool low key place with very cool friendly people.


I've never fished a Delta before and it was an interesting place. Freshwater but still susceptible to heavy tide action, currents and swings. The water quality was similar to the aqueducts, greenish with lots of free floating algae. In the main river it was deeply dredged but the back waters are shallow and filled with moss and in some places filled with reeds or tules.

Here's a birds eye view of where I was fishing:


The first night I headed over to Madaville tip maybe six miles by water in the dark. It's in the upper left hand corner of that pic, and HH is in the middle upper area back in one of the small sloughs. I had my chart plotter stowed under some camping gear so just went there by dead reckoning based on what a remembered from the charts. The main navigation channels are marked, but everything else you have to just figure out. I grew up paddling rivers before GPS and charts often in the dark so I figured I could handle it but there were lots of bars and shallows so it was a good challenge.

Got there maybe 9:00 pm and the raft party was in full rage mode. Lots of houseboats, barges, floats, food, bikinis, booze, and wild girls from Portland SF and LA. I'm not going into details but a good time was had by all.

So the first night I ended up anchoring with the flotilla and sleeping on a houseboat but after that I was on my own.

I found the Mini-x sat perfectly in the bow fully rigged. I could leave it up there and move from place to place with the skiff then pull it off to fish without to much time or effort.

It's really just the perfect size for my skiff. One thing I should of done is bring my second chart plotter for the skiff. Both the yak and the boat take the same plotter and I thought I'd trade off but after a while it was too much trouble to change it every time. Next time I'll take and rig both to save time.

So basically for the next five days I just drove around the delta dropping the yak in the water wherever it looked fishy. I'd then pull it back on when I wanted to move with the skiff to the next spot when the fish would move or when the bite slowe down.

One thing I should say is that was windy every day which I gather is normal for the area. Almost every afternoon the issued a small craft advisory with wind in the twenties. It wasn't a big deal with the enclosed waters, no swell or huge waves, and with all the canals river beds and sloughs it was easy to find areas out of the wind to fish but I definitely needed the skiff to move from place to place, or to cross the larger open areas. Also since all the islands are privately owned with limited access the only way to get in there is by boat. No camping on the local islands, so without a skiff your stuck to a few other areas with public pay campsites which is limiting. I'm no expert but I'd say the key with fishing the area is mobility, being able to follow the fish so I'd say you need a support boat to really fish it well.

Everything pretty much worked as planned, new engine and kicker set up worked great, and I actually really enjoyed the camping on the skiff. There was something cool about fishing new areas all day, anchoring up before dark and setting up the camping setup in a new place each night, then getting up at great light and doing it all again the next day.









So what about the fishing?

Well it was good and not so good.

I was fishing for stripers and the idea was to target larger fish.

Unfortunately though I found school after school of stripers I only found "shakers" smaller juvenile fish and never found any of the larger fish I wanted to target.

The sheer number of fish there is unbelievable. I found schools of small stripers boiling over fifty yards across. They'd literally blot out my meter. Huge schools deep shallow, in the channels and in the tules they were everywhere. I've never fished a area where stripers had access to salt water and were actively spawning. The closest thing to it I've seen is schooling bluefish or mackerel. There were huge schools everywhere constantly on the move constantly feeding.

I probably caught more then fifty fish all on lures mostly on rattletraps and swimbaits but I did not get a single fish over 18 inches. I did see some five to eight pound fish boil, mixed in with smaller fish but nothing large or over ten pounds. I did almost all my fishing from the yak, and didn't bother pics, I was to busy just trying to shake the small fish off my hook so I could hook up a larger fish. Where I grew up a striper under five pounds isn't even worth talking about. I didn't even take a single fish picture and left my good camera on the skiff. With the various boils and schools I metered I just kept thinking I was going to get one worth paddling back to the boat. I hindsight I maybe should of been fishing other areas possibly further west toward the Bay, but the area was full of fish, it was pretty wide open, I had a blast, and will be going there again.

So I figure I covered a good forty miles of waterways in the Eastern Delta and didn't even dent it. So the trip was long on adventure short on quality fish, but definitely a great time was had. The people were friendly, no crowds on the water, miles and miles of secluded places to fish, and tons of fish even if I did not find the ones I was looking for. I'll definitely be doing more of this in the future.

Here's some random pics from the trip.

[bigbarrels]

looks like an awesome trip! thanks for the great post

[GHOSTHUNTR]

1000 miles of waterways, if your not a local it can be like finding a needle in a haystack. There are plenty of big stripers in there at certain times, sometimes even in schools. I used to work at H&H landing(Herman and Helens) when I was a kid, blast from the past for sure.

[Amish Ed]

Great report. Thanks for posting.

[YakMedic]

Awesome trip Jim, nice mods on the skiff.

I did a trip up there with a few buddies 3 years ago. We fished Frank's tract and the false river. It's an amazing place but we didn't get any fish over 18" either. The next trip I do I plan to fish from Rio Vista to Antioch and see if I can find the bigger models.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by GHOSTHUNTR

1000 miles of waterways, if your not a local it can be like finding a needle in a haystack. There are plenty of big stripers in there at certain times, sometimes even in schools. I used to work at H&H landing(Herman and Helens) when I was a kid, blast from the past for sure.

Yeah I totally get that. It was fun but also frustrating because I knew there were probably bigger fish around but with so much area to cover and with so many small fish around it was hard to find them. Like looking for a larger needle in a stack of needles.

It could take years to learn that place, maybe I'll head up there when I retire ha hah ha...

[FlyFishinYakr]

Thanks for the post! A good read and some fun!
Now that my medical issues are being addressed and my claims are being closed (or want to be before going to court). I should be able to drive for more than a couple hours and kayak without too much discomfort.
My ex-girlfriend, her son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren live up near Santa Rosa and have been inviting me to visit since they moved.
After a trip to SD for some Tuna, I plan on packing up the yak and visiting them to bringing them some Tuna and visiting the grandchildren before they really start to get big!
Then heading for the Delta to Fly fish for the bigger models that you were searching for.
Have heard stories to whet my appetite about the "Frank's tract" area. I could have fun catching small jailbirds on the fly all day long! Then after that gets old head down towards the sea to search for the bigger models.
Again thanks for the post!
FFY

[easyday]

Great post. I would love ro do a trip like that one day.

[vincentek9]

that is a wicked skiff!!! i want it!!

[Kelp Cutter]

I'm headed out to tidelands Park right now to meet with easy day, if anyone is interested please come out.

[Baitman]

All sorts of wierd whacky vessels on the Delta ( people too )

20 + years living in Stockton allowed me a lifetime worth of fishing the area.
Loved seeing the photos and knowing it hasn't changed any since last time I was there.

This caught just off Franks Track. Trolling the tule edges

[Baja_Traveler]

I tried fishing the Rio Vista area a month ago on my way up to Lake Shasta. The wind was blowing so hard I could not make any headway on it in the Yak, so I gave up and headed north early. I sure would like to try that area again though (when it isn't 106 and blowing like a blast furnace).
It would be nice to have a mothership option to move around though - I was stuck at the Brannan Island campground, so everything centered around there.

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by Baitman

All sorts of wierd whacky vessels on the Delta ( people too )

20 + years living in Stockton allowed me a lifetime worth of fishing the area.
Loved seeing the photos and knowing it hasn't changed any since last time I was there.

This caught just off Franks Track. Trolling the tule edges

Nice!!!!