San Francisco Bay/Delta - The Fish
Stripped bass were introduced to the San Francisco Bay back in 1879 from the Neversink River in New Jersey. Known for their hardy nature and as a hard fighting game fish, they soon took off in their new environment and became popular with anglers. Fish and game began stocking them in the California Bay Area waters, but stocking has been eliminated in recent years. Striper like most species are migratory. They move in and out from the Ocean into the Bay/Delta region. They can be targeted with a fly rod not only in the San Francisco and San Pablo Bays and Delta region but also in the tributary rivers where they head to spawn. These include the Sacramento, San Joaquin, American, Feather, and Yuba Rivers to name a few. Although not seen in the astounding number of the 1960, 70's and 80's there are still stripers to be caught and they will most definitely eat a fly!
Striper are by nature ambush predators. Their diet consists of juvenile fish and crustaceans such as shrimp. They lie in wait along current seams and near structure to attack anything that happens to drift by and fit in their mouth. The Bay/Delta river system has smaller "schoolies" year round. These juvenile fish run up to around 18 to 20" and can be a real blast on light tackle. Larger single digit fish in the 4 to 8 lb range are caught with regularity in the Spring and Fall and fish to 20+ lbs are caught every year! Striper of any size pull hard on a fly rod and are a very worthy and beautiful adversary for fly fishers to target.
The Delta also offers opportunities throughout the year to also catch largemouth and smallmouth on a fly rod. This can be an option when the striper bite is off.
Largemouth bass are among the most sought after and fished for warm water game fish in the world. Bass are by nature ambush predators that will attack bait fish, crustaceans such as crawdads and even baby ducks and geese. The black bass variety that we have here in the Delta are hardy and love to eat poppers on the surface. They offer explosive strikes and will put a nice bend in a fly rod.
Smallmouth bass are another great fish to target with a fly rod. They love to hit poppers and are available in such great numbers that landing 50 fish is not uncommon! Most fish are in the 1 to 3 lb range however the numbers and visual aspect of fishing flies on the surface bring back beginner and world traveled anglers alike. June through September is the season for smallies and catching a striper, largemouth and smallmouth throughout the course of the day is a real possibility earlier and even late into the Fall.
