The Bankie’s Guide to Fly Fishing the Delta

bass bass
Although the majority of smallmouth bass in the Delta don’t get large, they are abundant and can make for a great afternoon of fly fishing.

As someone who fishes the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta from levees, rarely have I seen another angler casting a fly on these waters. And when I did see them, they were always fishing from a boat. I imagine they are surprised to see me — a lone man in a sun hoody, standing among the orchards with a Tupperware tub strapped to his hip. To casual boaters, I inevitably have to explain the stripping basket and that I don’t keep fish in it. The basket is the solution to the nagging problem of fly line getting caught in the rocks while casting, one of the many challenges of fishing the Delta from shore. Some of the other challenges, such as current and tide, are what make the Delta unique as a bass fishery. The enigma of this overwhelming maze of sloughs and the potential for great fishing are what keep me coming back, even though I don’t have a boat and thus can’t fish the way the vast majority of anglers do. Truth is, you don’t need a boat, but you likely will need to make some adjustments in how you fish. Fishing the Delta is far different from fishing a trout stream.

One way the Delta is different from a pristine trout stream is that there is quite a bit of trash along the shores. The “Dirty Delta” is not known by that name for the color of its water. You will often find yourself fishing among many forms of flotsam along unloved stretches of levee. What’s more, hiking up and down the uneven rocks of the levee system is not everybody’s idea of a good time. It’s not at all like hiking into a backcountry high-Sierra brook trout stream. So it should be mentioned that the Delta is not for everyone. However, among the abandoned shopping carts and crumbled Styrofoam there is a thriving aquatic ecosystem. Fishing from shore, it is entirely possible to catch four species of bass (largemouths, smallmouths, spotted bass, and striped bass) and several species of panfish (black crappies, bluegills, and redear sunfish), all on the same day. For someone dedicated enough, you can even have a chance at mega carp and Chinook salmon. And if you are willing to explore, it’s possible to find places without trash that you can have all to yourself. If you have a kayak or a float tube, there are also some great places to put in and spend the whole day paddling in a labyrinth of tules or throwing poppers around boat docks in the sanctuary of a protected bay. I will share a few spots, but I encourage anyone who reads this to get out and explore for themselves, either with or without a float tube. You might find that fishing the Delta without a boat is warmwater fly fishing at its finest.

Access

For such a large waterway, it can be surprisingly difficult to find good access points. Most of the Delta waters run along levees that are on private land. While most who fish the Delta are reluctant to give up their secrets, there are a few-well known access points where you can start to explore the Delta fishery.

Sherman Island can offer some decent fishing for quality largemouth bass and the occasional school of stripers. Fishing for largemouth bass there can be off the charts during the fall months. Largemouths, stripers, and smallmouths feed heavily on shad there starting in September.

At Sherman Island, expect to be fishing in the vicinity of others, but you will find accessible shoreline stretching for several miles. It can be helpful to have waders, because there is limited room for a back cast and also the occasional passersby, so being able to stand off the shore a bit is an advantage. Also, bear in mind that this is a tidal zone. The rocks will be slick along the bank at low tide, and waders help keep your feet dry. The currents around Sherman Island can be strong, and I do not recommend fishing from a float tube or kayak. During October and November, it is also possible to come across salmon during their annual spawning run, so make sure you have your salmon report card if you choose to fish there then.

Whiskey Slough is the place to try if you are looking to have more water to yourself. It’s another well-known access point, and you will see other anglers there, but it has so many miles of levee to explore that it is easy to put some distance between you and the others. Whiskey Slough is a nursery for young stripers, and while it is possible to run into larger fish there, generally the stripers are small. They can also be numerous and willing to eat top-water patterns such as Crease Flies or other floating baitfish imitations. You will also find largemouths and occasionally carp. The largemouths will hammer a well-presented frog pattern such as a Dahlberg Diver or Surface Seducer. They will also respond to a Clouser, a Game Changer, or other subsurface baitfish imitations. However, the vegetation can be very thick in the summer, and top-water flies will be your best bet. As for the carp, good luck. They are massive, but extremely spooky, and getting a good presentation is nearly impossible.

The current along Whiskey Slough is generally weaker than at Sherman Island — it’s a dead-end slough far from the main river channels, and the current toward the back end of the slough is minimal. The tide gently moves in and out, and the top-water bite is best at high tide and during late evenings. However, there are stretches that have quite a bit more current. If you find a stretch with some current, fish the eddies. The eddies often will hold stripers and some largemouths.

striped-bass
Although striped bass are present in the Delta year round, spring and autumn are the best seasons for finding large fish.

Discovery Bay is the place I recommend for launching float tubes or kayaks. The marina welcomes kayakers, as well as boaters. There is minimal current, and boaters are restricted to a five-mile-per-hour speed limit. The launch fee is five dollars, paid at the office along the gangway — an attendant usually will greet you and collect the fee as you drive up, or you can pop into the office to pay. You can park just outside the gate.

This is where I first fell in love with the Delta. Discovery Bay is a safe place to explore by kayak and offers excellent fishing for largemouth bass and some sizable redear sunfish. This is also another nursery for striped bass. In the fall, you may even see them boiling on schools of baitfish. In the spring and early summer, you can cruise around the docks or walk the shoreline and spot carp over ten pounds cruising the shore and massive largemouths fanning their spawning beds. The spawning fish tend to be easily spooked, so I prefer instead to blind cast along the docks with a mouse pattern or a frog imitation. Don’t be surprised to catch a big redear sunfish on a mouse pattern. I often mistake them for a bass because of their aggressive take and strong fight. The trick to fishing a mouse at Discovery Bay is getting your cast to land within a few inches of the bank. The bite always comes within about three feet from the shore and often on the very first strip. I make a cast and allow the fly to sit for before I strip. I often count as high as 30 seconds before I put my first twitch into the fly. When throwing poppers and mouse patterns along the shore for bass, I use a 9-foot leader tapered to 2X to be sure I can get the hooked bass away from structure.

The best fishing often occurs as the sun is going down. This is a great way to spend a summer afternoon. Once you are done fishing, there’s even a bar and grill where you can dock your kayak and grab a burger and a cold beverage.

The north Delta is the place to go if you are looking for spotted and smallmouth bass. During the heat of summer, this is one of my favorite fisheries. I’m not going to give away any secrets — just drive around and try different spots. Google Maps is a great resource. Try using the satellite mode for extra detail. You can also use Google Maps to find marinas that will allow you to launch a kayak. Five dollars is the standard launch fee. Look for marinas in a cove or at the back of a slough and avoid launching in the main channels where the current is heavy. Plan on fishing in the immediate area of the marina.

Fishing Levees

Fishing from a levee poses a unique challenge to the fly fisher. The bank of the levee behind you will generally be steep and tall enough to make an overhead cast difficult. The good news is that you generally don’t have to cast that far to find fish. Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass will generally be found within a few feet of the shore. The best approach is to cast along the bank and cover lots of ground. Casting along the bank also will keep your fly in the strike zone longer. And I highly recommend using a stripping basket when fishing levees. This will save you a lot of frustration and help protect the coating on your fly line by keeping it out of the rocks.

When using subsurface flies, I recommend casting downstream (with the tide) at an angle and making a big upstream mend with your line, which then puts the line parallel with the shore. I usually count down about ten seconds before I start stripping. Keep in mind, this is not a trout strip. A proper strip for largemouth bass and striped bass should be aggressive. It’s not necessarily a fast strip so much as a hard strip. Make the pattern erratic and unpredictable. Add some long pauses and be ready to make a strip set. The fish will often eat on the pause.

To locate fish along the levee, start by thinking of the levee itself as structure that holds fish. Baitfish hide in the rocks, making the whole levee a large reef. To narrow things down, target structure that breaks up the current and creates an eddy or some reprieve from the constant pull of the tide. Boat docks, large patches of tule, weed lines, and turns in the bank can provide cover for bass to use as an ambush point.

Locating structure is the best way to locate most species of bass, but stripers are migratory by nature, and being opportunistic, they are drawn to bait more than to structure, so they can be a challenge to find. Where you find them one day you might not find them the next. To corral baitfish, stripers use breaks in the current or walls where the current pushes directly into the structure. Birds targeting baitfish are often a good indicator that striped bass are doing the same.

Gear for Delta Fish

In most cases, a single-handed 6weight rod with a floating line is a good all-around choice for this kind of fishing. When targeting largemouths, spotted bass, and smallmouths near the shore, there is not much need for a sinking line. However, if you plan to use a Clouser or other subsurface flies, I recommend an intermediate or a Type 3 full sinking line. If you use a sinking line much faster than Type 3 while fishing from the shore, you will lose a lot of flies.

night
You may find fish actively feeding near the surface during the low-light periods of early morning and before nightfall.

That said, lately, I have preferred to fish a switch rod along the levees — it opens more water by eliminating the need for a back cast. A Switch Chucker line on an 11-foot 4-weight or 5-weight, paired with a light MOW tip is a great way to cover ground while fishing for smallmouths and largemouths. If you are hunting stripers, a 6-weight or 7-weight switch rod may be the best option, because it can cast a bigger fly. I generally prefer a four-inch Clouser with lead eyes or lead wraps, which helps sink the fly in the current on the pause between strips, imitating a wounded baitfish. Using a medium MOW tip helps cast a larger fly more efficiently, too. For striper fishing, I use an untapered four-foot section of 15-pound or 20-pound mono for my leader. Stripers are not leader shy.

For smallmouths, I use an untapered 5-foot section of 12-pound f luorocarbon when fishing small baitfish patterns such Deceivers or Woolly Buggers. Another setup I use for smallmouths is a popper-dropper rig. I use a 7.5-foot 2X tapered leader, tie on a popper, then tie a 3-foot section of 3X off the bend of the popper and attach a small Balanced Leech or crawdad imitation as a dropper. This rig sometimes will hook two fish on one cast.

Tides, Kayaks, and Tubes

As I said, one of the things that makes the Delta unique as a bass fishery is the fact that it is tidal. The tide is the most important factor when determining where and when to fish the Delta. One spot may fish well on the outgoing tide, but not so well on the incoming tide. In most cases, I find the outgoing tide to be preferable. In the north Delta, a large incoming tide can often cause the water to become cloudy. It can have a negative impact on the fishing for several hours before the turbid water clears out.

While some tide is good, too much tide is bad. Tides will have little effect while fishing a protected cove such as Discovery Bay. However, because the tides in the Delta can be extremely strong, if your tide table shows a tidal swing greater than five feet, you may want to fish your favorite foothill reservoir instead. That’s an awful lot of moving water and can be dangerous if you plan to fish from a kayak or a float tube. Only experienced kayakers and float tubers should consider it.

If you’re going to fish from a kayak or float tube, there are a few important things to keep in mind. I would not recommend using either of them along the main channels or anywhere else that you find a very strong current. While the small backwaters and some of the sloughs can be a safe place to paddle, venturing into the main channel of the Sacramento or San Joaquin is extremely dangerous. Simply put, don’t do it. These river channels are heavily used by commercial containerships, large yachts, speedboats, and water-skiers. Even in the sloughs, the boat traffic can become so heavy during the peak summer months that you’re better off staying off the water. Too many speedboats can even make the water unfishable from shore. Also, the constant wakes created by recreational boaters can sometimes turn the water turbid and shut down the fishing for hours.

leeves
Road-topped levees provide acess to Delta waters if you don’t have a boat.

Even away from the main channels, boat traffic remains a major concern for anyone using a float tube or a kayak. It’s best to use kayaks and tubes in places where boaters are restricted to five miles an hour. Again, Discovery Bay is a good example. Although some sloughs restrict boaters to five miles an hour, most do not. To avoid colliding with a boater in a slough, do not allow yourself to drift in open water. Stay close to the bank or obvious structure such as a dock or an island.

If you do choose to fish from a float tube or kayak, be sure to time your launch so as to use the tide to your advantage. Launch either at the peak of high tide or the bottom of low tide and travel in the direction of the tide while fishing. Once the tide changes direction, fish your way back. There are plenty of websites with tide tables that you can use to plan your trip. Tides4fishing.com is a good resource.

A Special Place

Aside from the great fishing, the Delta is full of surprises. I have seen pods of porpoises working schools of stripers in Whiskey Slough. Every year, a few sea lions trek into Discovery Bay to snatch largemouth bass off their spawning beds. Large container ships will actually change the direction of the tide as they pass. If you’re lucky, you may see a breaching sturgeon. It’s not just schools of stripers blitzing balls of bait. It’s a unique fly-fishing experience, and with a little research, planning, and initiative, you can experience it all without a boat.

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