A week of howling 35 mph winds and big negative tides has knocked the California Delta bass bite sideways, and veteran Delta guide Joey Price says the next few sessions will be about chasing fish onto the deeper grass edges before normal patterns resume.
Speaking on In Deep on the Delta's 21 May weekly report, Price — who runs Priceless Fishing Guide Service out of Big Break Marina — described the last week of weather as a hard reset on what had been a productive shallow walking-bait and frog bite.
"Before all the wind rolled in, the walking-bait bite was really good. The frog bite was pretty — you could make it work," Price said. "And then other than that, kind of the ChatterBait and then worming at the low low tide was kind of the deal." Once a multi-day blow ripped through, that all stopped.
Price's recovery plan hinges on water clarity returning and on what local agencies have been doing to weed beds in the central Delta. "As soon as this water cleans up, the bite's going to get a lot better. I mean, most everywhere," Price said. "Not only is it dirty, not only do we have big negative tides, they also sprayed pretty much everything central. They did a good job of it the last two weeks, so all the repercussions of that are going to start to show and everything will normalise. I think, you know, two, three days, I would go right back to what you were doing beforehand."
For anglers heading out across the coming weekend, Price's three-bait short list is unchanged from what was working a fortnight ago: walking baits up shallow, worms on the slack tide, and a ChatterBait on the grass edges. He added a punching note for the bigger green clumps left after spraying. "If you find like a nice little area with really clean grass that's still around after the spray, I would spend a good hour or two punching it, seeing if you can get something out of there."
The tide story is going to dominate June. "We're still looking at negatives into the beginning of June. They're not going to go away," Price said. "But what all that's going to do is it's going to push the post-spawn into full effect. As we have all these more and more negative tides that just stay around, that's our low tide now — it's going to push all the fish kind of out island edges, offshore. So ChatterBait, walking baits, and then punching when you can on the high switches are going to be your go-tos."
In Deep host S. Cooper translated the tide call for newer Delta anglers. "We're going to have negative tides. So the flats and the shallow water are going to be really negative," he said. "Those fish will probably push out a little farther and they will be on the edges. So if you're coming out on the weekends, even at a high tide, you may want to start on the outside and then work your way in."
Price agreed and pointed straight to the giant hydrilla edges in the main river. "You'll start at the bottom of an outgo, but you're still throwing your ChatterBait all the way out on the edge of the grass lines," he said. "On the main river giant hydrilla grass lines, you can see them. You just try to stay on the edge of the grass line. And even when the tide comes back in, the hydrilla is still there and they still are kind of sitting out there floating on the grass."
Tournament weights from the past week back the diagnosis. Cooper said Wednesday's tournament was won with roughly 19 lb — "a weight that shouldn't be happening here at this time of year on the California Delta" — while the higher-profile Sunday Bass Hole event in 35 mph winds was won with only 17 lb. The Monday and Thursday tournaments came in around the 15-17 lb mark.
What Price is genuinely excited about is what comes next. "The striper stuff will kind of take a break here, but I think what's coming up is the crawfish moult. I'm really excited for it," he said. Red ChatterBaits, red punch baits and even a red buzzbait, in his view, will be the engine behind another striper window through mid-June, especially up around Liberty and across the San Joaquin.
