When I first started fly fishing the California Delta for striped bass in 1992,
there were fewer than a handful of fly anglers fishing it, and there were no fly-fishing guides. Today there are hundreds of f ly f ishers plying the Delta for striped bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and panfish, and there are now more than a dozen licensed guides, with more getting into the business each year. Indeed, the popularity of the California Delta as a fly-fishing venue and destination has boomed since the day Nick Curcione and I first wet a line on Franks Tract, the hub of the Delta estuary, in September 1992. It’s been my home water ever since. Interest continues to grow each season, with anglers wanting to know how to get started and how to outfit themselves properly with gear and flies for this amazing fishery.
In this article I will detail the basic outfits and flies needed to be successful. Of course, there are many options when it comes to selecting equipment and flies. I’m not going to attempt to name them all, but will suggest the most practical and functional in each category, based on my and my associates’ experiences. Remember, there is always more than one “right” way to do things, more than one functional tool for the job.
I would also note, perhaps as a caveat, that if you already have, for example, steelhead, bass, and trout gear generations older than today’s advanced tackle, it will work, but not nearly as well, nor will it be as enjoyable for most to use. Modern fly rods and fly lines have profoundly improved in terms of performance, particularly when it comes to casting heavy lines and weighted, often bulky flies and poppers hundreds of times a day. There is no doubt that modern-generation gear makes doing the job much easier and considerably more enjoyable, especially for a beginner whose casting skills may not be fully developed.
Rod Selection: Striped Bass
The most popular rod for Delta striped bass today is a single-handed graphite 9-foot 8-weight with medium-fast to fast action — a fairly stiff rod, so it can handle heavy sinking lines, fat floating and intermediate density lines, and large, weighted flies and bulky, air-resistant poppers. As my longtime pal Lefty Kreh often says, “You can’t find a really bad rod today at any price.” I certainly agree. The worst of today’s graphite rods are remarkably better than the best glass and generation one or two graphite sticks of years past.
If you’ve got the coin and want to spring for a big-name, $800-plus rod, go for it. Most are fantastic! However, if you don’t have the bucks or inclination, you can get a high-performance rod for under $400, often for less. You do want a stick that does have some lifting capability, since big fish tend to bulldog deep, most often under the boat at the close of the fight. High-sticking is never a good idea, but you will have to pull hard into the butt at times in order to turn and lift a tough fish to hand or net. There are both high-cost and low-cost rods that cast brilliantly, but are too fragile for the strenuous fighting tasks often required of them, and they won’t tolerate a fly striking them. I shy away from those rods. How do you know which to avoid? Ask questions, especially on respected Internet fly-fishing forums.
Another good reason to choose a less pricey, but high-performance stick is that most vets will have at least three rods rigged and ready with three different line types and sink rates in order to adjust promptly to changing conditions. You can purchase two or three value-priced rods for the price of one high-ender. Trust me, if you really get into the Delta fly-fishing game, you’ll have more than one rod rigged and ready in order to cover varied conditions. That said, if you can afford only one rod, line it with a fast-sinking line, since it will be the line used the majority of the time. More on fly lines later.
I’ve suggested a 9-foot 8-weight rod for all-round use, but what about lighter or heavier sticks or two-handed rods? While an 8-weight rod lined properly will toss some pretty big surface bugs, a 9-weight or even a 10-weight stick will do a better job with large, air-resistant poppers such as a big Pole Dancer or Crease Fly, so keep this in mind. Conversely, in the early fall, September and October, there are large schools of small stripers just about everywhere in the system — catchable fish ranging in size from 10 to 18 inches. Many Delta regulars carry a 6-weight for nonstop action on these “dinks,” as we call them. The dinks usually prefer a small, sparser fly in the range of size 1 to 1/0 and from 2-1/2 to 3 inches long, which is easily delivered with a light rod. But double-digit fish often feed with or on dinks, and hooking a bruiser is a definite possibility. Many tales have been told about the 25-pounder that followed a hooked 10-incher to the boat and tried to eat it. I’ve caught lots of large stripers from schools of small fish. Accordingly, I never pursue striped bass with a rod lighter than a strong 7-weight. Again, I suggest the 8-weight as best for all-round duty, regardless of the line type being used. If you do go with a trout-sized stick, match it with a high-quality reel with a good drag and lots of backing — just in case.
What about switch or two-handed Spey rods? I know a few Delta vets, including Noel de Guzman, who use them for tossing big surface flies. Noel likes his because he can cast farther, easier, with an obese bug if he wants to cover a lot of water. He also likes to stop the retrieve about 40 or so feet from the boat, lift the line, and recast to keep from drawing a “follower” too close to the boat and spooking it. This is specialized fishing, though, and I don’t recommend a two-hander to anyone new to the game. Landing a big fish from a skiff with a long rod becomes more problematic, too.
Rods: Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, and Panfish
Honestly, I’ve caught the vast majority of my Delta largemouth bass incidentally, while fishing for striped bass using my favorite 8-weight rods and lines. Many exceeded five pounds, with the largest a nine-pounder. They eat the same things, of course. Accordingly, an 8-weight rod is perfect for the black bass species, especially if tossing large, air-resistant hair bugs and poppers into heavy structure or to weedy banks and rock walls, when you are likely to hook a big, heavy fish that wants to burrow into the weeds or crochet your line and leader through the sticks. You’ll need some butt to wrestle such a fish out of it, often landing it along with a few pounds of weeds.
I like 9-foot rods best because I can do a better job of casting with them with less effort. That said, some of the best bass flyrodders use a shorter stick, from 7-1/2 to 8 feet, which allows them to deliver a fly more easily under low-hanging brush and trees. Among these rods are those specifically designed for competitive bass tournaments that do not allow rods over a certain length; I have one that throws a 290-grain weight-forward floater brilliantly. Of course, any decent rod in your favorite length that will cast a fairly heavy floating and sinking line will do. I suggest uplining one size with floaters and at least one or two sizes with sinking lines for quicker loading and ease of delivering bulky flies. Most casts to banks and structure won’t be that long for black bass fishing — 50 feet or less.
Many pursue Delta smallmouth bass with 6-weight and 7-weight rods in order to get the most enjoyment from these feisty fish. They will eat smaller flies and poppers, and a lighter stick will get the job done and provide much enjoyment. So if you are a trout fly fisher, you probably already have gear suitable for smallies and smaller largemouth bass. But don’t be astonished if you happen to hook a toad bass or striper working the same water. This is just one of many reasons I love fishing the California Delta — you never know. . . .
Trout-sized rods and lines are also perfect for targeting Delta crappies, redears, and other panfish, some of which can be quite large.
Fly-line Selection: The Most Useful and the Most Popular
I mentioned earlier that if you have only one rod, it would be best to line it with a very-fast-sinking line, since it would cover the majority of the most productive water. There are a lot of sinking lines offered by the leading fly-line companies that will work, but the most popular used today are the custom-cut T-14 and T-11 integrated sinking lines — lines with tungsten heads weighted at 14 and 11 grains per foot. These tungsten lines are currently available from only a few manufacturers. Both Scientific Anglers and RIO offer custom-cut tungsten-head sinking lines with an intermediate running line. RIO calls theirs the Outbound Custom Cut, and the head is a level length of T-14 or T-11 35 feet long. Scientific Anglers offers their Sonar Custom Tip in T-14 with a similar head length and running line. For an 8-weight and 9-weight rod I’ve found the best length with T-14 to be 28 feet, 30 feet for 10-weights, and 30 feet for T-11 (6-weight and 7-weight rods). The backing end of the line comes with a welded loop for attaching backing, but you’ll have to affix a braided mono loop on the leader end after you’ve cut the line to the desired length. These lines will allow you to fish water depths to 20 feet or so effectively in fast currents and are perfect for working most of the rock walls, where depths quickly range from a few feet to 15 or more. You can get by with less dense lines, but for optimum deep-water results you want a line that sinks from seven to nine inches per second.
If you love true 30-foot shooting heads, from lead-core to floaters and all in between, with a mono or a coated shooting line (and many vets do), use them. For the above-mentioned conditions, they’ll get the job done. In fact, I prefer shooting heads with a mono shooting line when fishing deep for panfish in the late summer and early fall, when the big redears are holding deeper in cooler water. The mono shooting line provides greater sensitivity for detecting soft takes and offers the least resistance against the fish, providing more tug fun.
Shallow water — flats, humps, and shoals, three to six feet deep, and slow-moving sloughs require a slower sink rate, especially during the winter, when a slower retrieve is required. Intermediate-density lines have long been the preference for skinny water on the Delta, and these lines continue to evolve, growing more versatile for meeting different conditions as well as narrower to better cut through the air (a recent example of both qualities is the Outbound Short from RIO with a type 3 sink rate).
Fishing the top with bugs, big and small, for all the bass species most often requires a floating line. Any standard weight-forward line or bass-bug taper will usually suffice, and again, I suggest uplining by one size. Your performance may improve, however (especially if you’re doing a lot of blind casting or covering a lot of water), with one of the new floating lines that are designed like shooting heads, such as Scientific Anglers’s Titan and RIO’s Coldwater Outbound Short. They are up-lined by two or more line sizes and cast like a shooting head, but better. Purchase the rated size for your rod — an 8-weight line for an 8-weight rod, and so on. For throwing big bugs, floaters like these are superior.
Reels
There is a gaggle of excellent fly reels suitable for the Delta species, from very expensive high-performance models to value-priced, equally well-performing reels. Again, it depends upon how much you want to spend and how many outfits you want to have rigged. Here are the most important considerations.
The reel must have a strong and smooth drag. And a large arbor is always better than a standard arbor for faster, easier cranking and because the larger arbor reduces line coil, especially during colder periods. A palming rim is desirable for when you really want to put some extra heat on, especially when lifting a fish to be netted or brought to hand. The reel handle size and shape are as important as the drag, as far as I am concerned. Wimpy, dinky handles are a pain. I prefer a “capstan”-style handle, large enough that I can easily grip it and it won’t slip from my fingers. I will not own a reel with a small, tapered handle.
The reel should be able to hold at least 200 yards of backing, although I’ve rarely had even 30-pound-plus fish run farther than about 170 yards. The Delta is full of obstructions — rocks, stumps, and weeds, even old sunken boats. If you let a big fish run too far, you risk your leader and line being cut or broken off on obstructions or accumulating lots of weeds. Fish a tight drag and put the heat on. Chase the fish down with the electric motor or the main motor, if you have to, especially if you are fishing with a small fly that can be pulled loose or opened up from too much line drag.
The above pertains mainly to striped bass, even though most of us usually hand strip in fish under eight pounds. For black bass and panfish, you don’t need as large a reel, and even those with click drags will usually suffice.
Leaders
When targeting striped bass and largemouth and smallmouth bass subsurface, I don’t use or recommend a tapered leader. An 8-foot leader of straight 20-pound mono — sometimes fluorocarbon (but rarely that) — works extremely well. The most popular and productive flies are usually weighted and easily turn themselves over. A tapered leader is not required. I also like using a heavy leader so I can apply a lot of pressure on a fish if needed for whatever reason. A heavy leader also remains plenty strong even with an overhand casting knot (or knots) in it — a little extra insurance. . . .
For top-water fishing for stripers and bass, it’s hard to beat a twisted mono leader with a small Spros (brand name) 50-pound swivel at the tippet end. The swivel accommodates tippet changes and helps to prevent line twist, caused when casting some types of bugs. Twisted leaders also tend to turn over large, wind-resistant flies better and offer shock absorption that you don’t get with single-strand, tapered leaders.
Some fly fishers make their own twisted leaders for use with floating or intermediate sink-rate lines, but if you don’t want to mess with that, I suggest John Quigley’s twisted leaders in the 6-foot length. Place whatever size tippet you want on the end using a loop knot such as the Kreh Nonslip Loop. Attach the fly using the same knot.
For panfish, any tapered leader will suffice, from 4-pound to 8-pound test, around 9 feet in length. Panfish flies and poppers are much smaller and lighter than striper and bass flies and need a tapered leader to help turn them over. Even with a tapered leader, I still place a 50-pound Spros swivel at the tippet end so I can change tippets without having to reduce original leader length. This works great.
Flies
There are literally dozens of productive subsurface and surface flies for the bass species. There is not enough room to detail them all here. I’ll mention only the most popular and productive of the lot.
Subsurface — Bass Species. I think I can safely state that the two most popular and productive subsurface fly styles are the Jig Hook Flashtail Clouser (called Blanton’s Jig Hook Minnow by Umpqua) and the Jig Hook Flashtail Whistler in sizes ranging from 1/0 to 3/0. Top colors: white/yellow/chartreuse with blue topping, white/pink, white/pink/purple/gray, chartreuse/black, and white/tan or gray or olive topped. They can be tied with lead eyes, but most top guides and I prefer “Reel Eyes” from 7/32 to 1/4 inch, yellow/black or red/black — I favor yellow/ black for more contrast. As I stated, there are many other productive styles that will catch all the bass species, but if you used only some version of these two, in these colors, you’d score as well as or better than anyone using something different. A point: smaller stripers can often be very size conscious, and sometimes you need to match the baitfish size. If you are not catching fish, try going smaller with the fly before switching styles.
Top-Water — Bass Species. Again, there are lots of productive styles, but the most popular and productive in my experience include the Pole Dancer, the Crease Fly, and the Gurgler in sizes from 1/0 to 4/0 for both stripers and black bass. Deer-hair divers and various cork poppers in sizes from 4 to 3/0 score well. Color is not usually as important for fishing the top as it can be with subsurface flies: white, yellow, chartreuse, black, and natural baitfish colors all work well — chartreuse/black and black/grizzly shine in low light and turbid water.
Panfish — Redears and Crappies. For subsurface action, if you are a trout fly fisher with boxes full of various buggy-looking nymphs, from Woolly Buggers to mayflies and dragonflies, in various natural colors, you’re loaded for Delta panfish. Fish them from size 14 to size 2. Smaller is sometimes better than larger — but not always. . . .
In the late spring and early summer, when the redears and bluegills are on their spawning beds in shallow water, it’s hard to beat foam spiders and beetles with rubber legs, sizes 12 to 8. Color is not too important, but size can be. Experiment.
Stripping Tub: A Very Important Accessory
Fly gear notwithstanding, one of the most important pieces of equipment you should have for Delta fly fishing from a boat is a stripping tub — a vertical line-controlling device into which you strip your fly line. They’re especially handy for keeping lines away from your feet and from tangling on seats, cleats, gear, and so on. Stripping tubs can be homemade from a lot of things (and are), but the best are built by a few pros who do it right. Fly shops can get the best for you, but they are pricey. I have three in my skiff — two for myself, so I can have two rods stripped out and ready, and one for a guest to use if they don’t have their own. Today it’s rare to see a fly fisher on the Delta not using a stripping tub for line management. I don’t fly fish from a boat without one. I heartily suggest you don’t, either.
That about covers it. But as I said, there is more than one right piece of equipment or technique for fly fishing our wonderful California Delta for these popular species. I encourage anyone who has not done so yet, but who wants to ply Delta waters, to put together an outfit or two and get out there — either on your own or, better, with a guide the first time or two. If you want to try it before you buy it — hire a guide.
