I spent part of last week in the California Delta fishing for Striped bass. Overall fishing was quite good and everyone took home lots of fillets for fish tacos. I spent the majority of my days fishing the San Joaquin River because of the current water conditions on the Sacramento River side of the delta. Below the confluence with the Mokelumne River the San Joaquin is a bit stained, but above the Mokelumne, the water is fishing very well.

I have been trolling deep diving YoZuri plugs in 15-20' of water and am finding the chartreuse/orange color combinations to be the most productive for me. Boat speed has varied from 2.5-3.5 mph depending on tidal flows in the river. During slack tides or low water exchanges, 3.0 mph has been the best to get bites. Shallow diving YoZuri's can also be productive this time of the year and can be a good way to find scattered Stripers throughout the system.

If I could change one thing about the conditions right now it would be the water temperatures. The water is running a little on the cool side at 56-58 degrees and I think we should see a lot more bites once the temps jump into the low to mid 60's. It looks like we are going to continue with some wet weather ahead with cooler temps. I think there is some relief in the coming weeks in the form of warmer air temps. That should do wonders for this fishery and I am looking forward to some great Striper fishing in the weeks ahead. I will be fishing Striped bass through the first week of May. If you would like to experience some Ca. Delta Striped bass fishing, please do not hesitate to give me a call.