Fished another bass tournament out of the California Delta this past Sunday. I fished my first event with the Bass-N-Tubes club. The day started nice with mild winds (8mph) and very little boat traffic. Temps were cool with at temps around 50 degrees and water temps being right at 60 degrees. I started throwing soft plastics and lipless cranks along a channel edge with lots of tules, SAV, and current. I couldn't buy a strike! At 11 oclock I didn't have a keeper in the boat and started getting worried.
Then out of nowhere the winds kicked up to 25mph and the waves started stacking up with whitecaps. Normally this would be a terrible sign for fishing but I used it to my advantage. I headed for the far side of a wind blown bay and got right in the thick of the rough water. Smelt are coming up the San Joaquin river right now and I was hoping that all that wind had pushed them to the back of the bay with the bass following close behind. The grass was patchy against the tule edge and with the heavy winds the only real lure option was a spinnerbait. I threw a 1/2oz three blade Strike King Scorcher spinnerbait in Sexy Shad and started drawing a few strikes.
I stuck with this technique for the rest of the day and landed 8 fish with only two of them measuring. The wind lasted for about two hours and without a pedal kayak I never would have been able to sit out there fighting the wind while still being able to cast and retrieve my spinnerbait.
Once the wind died so did my bite and I was back to grinding it out the rest of the day with soft plastics. I never did pick up any more keepers and headed into the weigh in at 3 oclock hoping for te best with only two fish in the livewell. Upon arriving at the dock I began hearing others talk about how tough the bite was. Only 5 livewells were staged and ready at the scales out of 12 anglers that fished.
When it was all said and done my two fished managed to place me third in the event with 5.47lbs. It only took 9.88lbs to win and that was with three fish including a 7.47lb kicker. Only one limit of five fish was brought to the scales or a total weight of 6.86lbs. Needless to say I wasn't the only one that struggled!!