Awesome Day Bass Fishing on the California Delta!

Last Friday I hooked up with Mark Lassagne, Professional Tournament Angler/Guide & Publisher/Editor of Bass Anglers Guide Magazine for a day of fishing on the California Delta. This was probably one of my best days Bass fishing in a LONG time. What an awesome day!

Earlier that week while talking with Mark and planning the trip for Friday, he asked if I had a “Punching Rod”? Nope! “How about a flippin’ stick?” No not really, not what would be considered a flippin’ stick on the delta! “Ok, he says, I’ll bring ya one. But ya might want to pick up a 1.5oz Tungsten flippin’ weight.” So I stopped by Fisherman’s Warehouse only to find all of the pegs were EMPTY! At least the 1 & 1.5 oz versions. Ya know that really bothers me. This time of year, Bass fishing, popular technique, and the tackle store has empty pegs! No excuse! But that’s another story! So I picked a couple 3/4 oz anyways. (Edit: I just went by again today and was told they re-stocked Sat and now they are all gone again. Nice!)

This was going to be my first time fishing the delta and I was really looking forward to it. I met Mark around 9:30 with awesome sunny weather, cool breeze, and the temp around 70ish. Before leaving the doc, Mark mentioned he did not bring his other punching rod for me and said were going to do something different anyways. He handed me a chrome lipless crankbait to tie on and also handed me one of his Frog rods already rigged. Cool! We headed out and ran for probably less than ten minutes. The light wind provided a great drift with what seemed to be minimal correction by Mark on the trolling motor. We started out with some frogs,.. Mark fishing a Secret Lures Chubby frog while I was fishing the Snag Proof type. Although we fished them throughout the day and Mark did get a couple small blow ups, the fish did not seem really interested or committed.

After a few more casts and nothing, Mark set down the frog rod. He grabbed his Crawdad colored lipless crankbait and was the first to get bit! After watching him catch and land a couple more, I set the frog rod down as well and started fishing the chrome lipless crankbait he had given me earlier. I think it was my second cast and I was also on! We caught fish like this off & on for the next couple of hours with probably up to 10 fish an hour at times and all of them were healthy 2.5 – 3lbrs with a couple maybe up to 4.5lbs. Mark tried a Bass colored crank-bait as well and it did not seem to matter what color we used. I was even able to get a couple nice fish on a white spinner bait. It was awesome! We would move up to a new spot, and the fish were right were they were supposed to be. First cast on a few spots! We did this on several drifts with only a couple short moves for most of the day.

Sometime later that afternoon, Mark said, “alright, lets get outta hear and go check out some ares I know of for Smallmouths.” It was a nice run at speed (accept the 5mph zones) for what seemed like maybe 15-20 mins. Since I had caught fish all morning on crank-baits and spinnerbaits, I thought I would give something else a try. So I tied on a Senko, Texas rigged with a small weight. Second cast I caught a little rat Largemouth. Mark fished the crank-bait and plastics etc. He may have got a couple on the crank-bait, but most of those fish were all caught on plastics. We moved pretty quick only fishing small sections where I kept getting bit and catching a few. But they were all little guys, a couple Smallmouths, and hybrid Smally/Spotted Bass. Without any success on fish of any size and it was getting kinda late, we decided to call it a day.

Thanks again Mark for a great day on the Delta!

If your looking for a awesome guide for the Delta, contact Mark and book a trip now!
Mark Lassagne

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Here’s a small gallery to recap the day!