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Fishing Swimbaits for Delta Stripers with Professional Angler Kenny Schmitt
| Date: |
10/06/09 |
|
Location: |
California
Delta |
|
Event Date: |
9/12/09 |
| Reviewer: |
Zander |
Introduction:
The California Delta has
long been known as an exceptional striped bass fishery and is frequented by both
conventional anglers and fly fishermen hoping to boat a monster. Armed with a
full load of swimbaits we head out with Professional Angler Kenny Schmitt in
some challenging conditions to see just how good the fishery is shaping up to be
this season.
With rain and lightning in the
distance we get started on the Delta
The Background: Kenny
Schmitt has been fishing professionally for years and is currently on the Powell
Rods Pro-Staff. He calls the Delta his home water and has logged countless hours
fishing for largemouth but unlike many other professional anglers is equally as
enthusiastic about pursuing giant striped bass. He has landed Delta stripers
just shy of 50 pounds on numerous occasions and specializes in targeting them
with an array of swimbaits. So passionate is Kenny about catching stripers that
he even admits to taking out moments during tournaments to pull out the Lunker
Punker and target striped bass.
Kenny gets the skunk off the boat
early with a Punker fish
Jonah Li the owner of Hi’s Tackle Box arranged the
trip, and it was decided that we would meet up with Kenny at the Delta to fish
for Stripers for a full day. Jonah and his son Eduardo would follow us in their
bass boat. Reports from earlier in the week were mixed, but this year coastal
surf fishermen have been catching record numbers of quality striped bass., and
many of them have started making their annual migration back into the delta
system. We hoped to intercept these fish as they moved up the river.
The clouds start rolling back
in and Cal puts down his rod...
The Stripers found on the Pacific Coast and Delta
were originally introduced in the late 1800’s and are originally native to the
Atlantic coastline from the St. Lawrence River down to the Gulf. In total there were less than five hundred striped bass introduced
between 1879 and 1882 but by 1900 the striped bass had become so successful here
in the Delta that the commercial catch alone was exceeding a million pounds a
year!
...and within minutes the sky
turned dark and our rods started buzzing!
There
are many bodies of water where Striped Bass have
been successfully introduced, and while some are landlocked in lakes, the
California Delta allows fish to run freely from the Pacific Ocean through the
Bay and up the river system. This is one of the reasons why the Delta is known
for having such large striped bass and such a big quantity of them
After the storm clouds clear Cal
and Kenny get back to fishing with a rainbow in the distance
Today, a combination of many
factors including overfishing, the construction of the California Aqueduct and
declining water levels all have impacted the fishery. It was reported that
seventy years ago the population was in the many millions, and recent numbers
are well under a million adult fish. Just imagine what it would have been like
if you had a swimbait and were fishing for stripers back in the heyday. Proper
management and catch and release practices observed by many anglers have helped
the stripers rebound. But enough history, time to go fishing!
Cal lands a nice fish
Time to go fishing, a little lightning anyone? |
