Dee Thomas
TIDAL SUMMER BASS
The Three Keys To Summer Fishing
 

THE 3 Basics : The most important thing to understand initially, is that fish in the summertime are mostly post spawn fish. Of course there are fish that spawned early in the season, but the majority are post spawn. These fish are working their way back out to deeper water to spend the summer on breaks and edges. Tulle clumps, trees, docks etc….. all can being holding stations. I say you only need 3 baits in your boat, to catch all the fish you want in the summer.

You will want to start your morning with a top water bait and I will typically fish it until about 10 am each morning and then fish either the Chatter bait and Senko the balance of the day. You want to concentrate on edges or real deep into any cover or point. It is critical to understand that the fish want to put out the least amount of effort for food as possible. They will use the current as a conveyor belt to bring them the morsels of the day. Find your slow current and breaks adjacent to deep water or weed edge’s and points. Main river flats or dead end sloughs where they just got done spawning, all the deeper water around these areas is where they are going to be. I key on the extreme outside edges of cover. Big fish always will be located nearest to the quickest exit route to deep water or in the heaviest cover you can find, buried inside.

Fishing outgoing or incoming Tide: In a high tide situation fish adjacent deep water, some fish will be up roaming the flats with the high water, but the majority are seasonally backing out and setting on current back eddies and ambush spots to feed. The bass are strictly creatures of habit and opportunity.

For me, tide does not make any difference. For the weekend angler he should fish the last half of the outgoing tide to the first half of incoming, approx 6-7 hours. You will then be able to see all the cover and any weed beds. Just picture that the fish will move up and down in these areas, travelling from the deeper breaks and back up to the edges of cover during the tidal movements. Any drain out or any place the current carries small fry into back eddies or slow current will become a feeding zone. Fry and any baby fish is a major food supply during these times. Bass fry are of huge importance in the current delta, since we do not have a large population of shad. Bluegill, crappie and golden shiner, small stripers and of course crawdad are all being used as lunch.

What to do at Slack Tide: Boy, that is kind of the beauty of the tidal waters. A lot of guys just give up and do not know what to do and they just lose a bunch of fishing time. But it is real easy, Just move. You can start at Franks Tract or any location with the tide going slack at 9am and you would still buy yourself another 2 hours be moving south. Upon slack tide in the south head back to Franks and fish the entire incoming. Just have your tide book and make use of it. As you perfect this moving , you will be able to create the most favorable tide situation for your type of fishing. If you are catching good top water with 1 foot of water above the weed beds and they stop biting when it drops out, just move 20 minutes away and get that foot of water back. A lot of very successful tidal fishermen do that all day and create their own optimum fishing conditions all day. It is a proven strategy and won lots of events.

Important Details: Good water temp will point you in the right direction. 67-68 is the magic range in the California delta top water. The Senko bite is still going on all summer, but you need to pull your bait into deeper water. If you are having a problem getting your bait down, peg it with a 1/32 weight. A Chatter bait in a dark color will effectively cover lots of water for you. On your Rico’s, change out your hooks to #2 Owner needle points. Do not set with your rod, use your reel to set and let the rod load up. Line should be braided for us old guys, 12-15lbs mono for top water, on senko’s use 10lb -15lb fluorocarbon.

Depth of water: 3-8 feet in summertime, in the morning it’s all about surface fishing, make sure you stay on top or use a wake bait first thing or at end of the day. Just don’t confuse yourself and stick with those 3 baits. Understand and to start catching a quantity of 2-3 lbs and then you will be able to find the larger fish thru experience.

Fish positioning : The fish will always be in the fresh green weeds with higher concentration of oxygen. You add current to the weeds and you have a buffet line with the fish. Be aware that the fish do not want a hard current, they want a slow moving current that brings any type of bait across their path. Corners and bends are key areas holding fish. Corners being your shallow water points and your inside bends having your deeper water. Do not spend a great deal of time on the flats in the summertime in the middle of the day. With most of the good matte being gone in the delta, a frog is going to wind up being an open water tool to fish and needs to be fished in shade. Any type of shade from tulles, docks, weeds, trees to boats will all work. A lot of the expert frog fishermen have had much less success on the California Delta without the weed growth. A Jig bite will always be there and if you fish a lot, you will have a route you build up over time. A jig pattern is more a location sensitive. So just keep it simple, fish these 3 baits and you will be amazed on how consistent your catch rate goes up. You will then be able to say you went catching and not just fishing! Dee

Top 3 Arsenal

1. Top water Rio Rico or popper, White Belly or All Red in off colored water.
2. Chatter bait 1/2 -5/8 oz Black Blue, Green pumpkin, Bluegill , Shad,
3. Senko 6” Blk Blue, Watermelon Red Blk Flake, Green Pumpkin Blk Flake