I can’t remember when we had our last normal winter. In fact, I had forgotten what runoff was all about. With aprox 100 billion gallons of water dumped on California in the last week, its no wonder that the Delta has turned a shade of chocolate milk. With the break in the storm track, I headed down to Sugerbarge for the day just to check on the boat and the motorhome. Its been two weeks and I was optimistic that I could find some weed free clear water somewhere around Franks Track. Someone once told me that the weeds in Franks Track can filter the water leaving areas more clear than others. I left the dock at 8 AM, The water was 54 degrees, there was a light breeze, the track was clear of Hyacinth and the tides and solonar tables all showed an ideal period from 10am to 1pm. I gave it a shot since I wanted to cast the Loomis Fly rods and test out a bunch of bucktail flies. After 4 and half hours of really tough, slow fishing, I boated 6 dinks and one keeper. The water seemed to be more clear on the east side of Frank’s, but I think it might have been wishful thinking on my part. There was very little fishing traffic on the delta but the duck hunters were out in force. It sounded like a war zone out there and I was not willing to risk crossing franks track through the duck blinds that now checker the entire track. I do feel confident that when the water clears up, I can find the fish and have some good days in the next couple months. Muddy water is definitely a deal breaker.
Tomorrow is the King Tide–the highest tide of the year. The impact on the delta is unknown to me, but i did notice that the normal areas seemed a bit higher than normal.
The boat seems to get very messy when its parked in the water for a couple weeks. Im going to order a full cover for the boat to try keep the spiders and bird crap down. The last two boats left in C Berth are mine and Dans and Dan is leaving at the end of the year.
Maybe San Luis is better when the delta gets muddy.