What a wild ride it has been this fall for the Migratory Jailbirds! There has been ZERO consistency for Stripers this fall on the Delta. “Here today…gone tomorrow”, ” here for 8 minutes….gone for 3 weeks”. Groan. The theme for this fall has been, “fish for the moment”. When someone in the boat gets bit, whether it be on a surface lure or a subsurface bait, you’d better capitalize on the “moment”. The fish from 4 to 8 lbs have been in little groups, so it is very important to saturate the area after a strike, to try and take advantage of a double or triple hookup. It may be a long drought before the next opportunity. Many of the 8 to 12 lb fish have been falling for the White G2 Punker and are usually solos, so enjoy it when you have one on.

It’s got to get better….I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed!

The Striper bite on the river is coming around. The bite isn’t wide open yet, and the size of fish will vary daily, but the best is yet to come. Topwater fish have averaged 6 to 13 lbs, with the occasional high teen fish. The subsurface baits are getting more bites, however the size averages 2 to 6 lbs, with an occasional fish in the 10 lb class.
The three key baits for me lately have been the shad colored Basstrix 5″ and 6″ swimbaits, various  1/2 oz chrome Rat-L-Trap’s and the G2 Lunker Punkers.

The Lunker Punkers have excelled during low light conditions, or when there is a breeze up to 15 mph. During minimal wind conditions, I am slow rolling the Basstrix or fan casting the Rat-L-Trap.

This was a big one!

Fishing has been slow on the river for big fish. My perfect frog and perfect buzz have been producing the occasional big fish.   A red crankbait on rock walls have been producing quantities of bass but they lack in size.

The rod of choice for frog fishing is my Perfect Frog Rod or a Cara Amistad both are made by the Falcon Rod Company.

I fished the Pro/Teen event at Russo’s today. They were short on boats, so I took two teen’s with me today. Omar Gutierrez and Tanner Sterrud were my fishing partners for this event. The wind blew 15+ most of the day, so we decided to stay with the Perfect Buzz, in the “Fred” and “white” colors, most of the day. Tanner had a nice 10 lb limit, and Omar finished in 3rd place with his 15 1/2 lb limit. I’ve attached a photo of Omar’s 5 1/4 lb “Teen Big Fish” that he caught on the Perfect Buzz. He received some great prizes for that fish, being that it was the largest caught by any of the “Teen’s” that fished the event.

I had a great time at the ICAST show in Vegas!

Bumpin’ into some old friends and sharing fish stories is definitely a huge part of the trip!

We also launched the “Bobby’s Perfect Buzz”, from Snagproof. It will be available soon at retailers.

http://www.examiner.com/fishing-in-stockton/the-bite-s-on-for-bobby-s-buzz-frog

Summer is finally here….I think. The Delta “Bass Fishing Rollercoaster” is heading down the tracks. There is one thing for sure out here right now. If you think you’re “on ‘em”, don’t hold your breath, until you’ve fished a few key areas with a variety of baits.

14 spinnerbait fish today….can’t get one to chase it tomorrow. 20 open water frog bites in 6 hours today… 5 bites tomorrow, and so on.

Keep an open mind, and have baits to cover the various water columns down to 10 feet.

Turnin ‘ Frogs Into Toads,

Bobby Barrack

The California Delta has been fishing tough. The winds and fronts coming out of the north has made fishing difficult to say the least. The reaction bite is hit and miss on any given day. Slowing down and fishing jigs, Senkos and a drop shot is currently the most productive.