Delta: Top-Water... Do You Have the Faith?

Do I have the faith....hmmm... when it comes to top-water stripers in November I had no faith until I fished with Kevin Doran of Delta Adventures. I had an opportunity to fish with Kevin and my good friend Mike Reymann on the Delta. Within minutes after we launched we were at our first spot... Kevin asks us, "Do you have the faith"? Mike and I said..."uuuuuhhh... what do you mean"? Kevin wanted to see if we had faith is raising stripes to the top... first spot, first few casts, WHAM, Mike got a good eat and nice schoolie. At that point Mike had the faith. I on the other hand did not have the faith yet as I had not gotten eaten. We went over to another spot and again... WHAM, Mike gets eaten, another 4-6lber. After the sun had a chance to get up we left the faith (against "guidance") and went down with clousers. Once again....WHAM, Mike gets another fish, this one was HOT, it took him for a sweet ride. Mike landed the purple-back, pink-lipped razorback and she came in around 7lbs (we were shocked how hot this fish was). We proceed to hammer on fish subsurface until the tides changed....

The afternoon was sweet, I finally found the faith... As we approached this spot Kevin asked us again." Do you have the faith"? Mike and I knew what that meant... TOP-WATER! We worked the water for a while and out of now where a nice swirl toilet-bowled my fly, Kevin walked me through the enticement process... keep popping, keep it moving, don't speed up... then like a Great White shark breaching on a seal a nice striper blasted me. I missed several others do to my awesome "trout-set". We got a nice largey on top as well.

One of the best eats of the day came on Mike's rod, this fish swirled his fly, Mike worked the fly all the way to the boat with no follow. He hucked it back in and began to work the fly back to the boat. All three of us were frozen, my heart was beating like crazy, Mike couldn't stand still and Kevin knew what was coming... right at the boat-SWOOSH, this balisitc striper ripped Mike and took him for a ride.

All in all a great day, thanks to Mike and Kevin for a much needed day on the Delta. I highly recommend Delta Adventures to anyone who is looking to spend a fulfilling day on the Delta and see what the top-water game is really all about.

A few top-water fish pics...

Mike bent

Kevin and Mike... "yup, top-water... ya gotta have faith"

Not on a clouser

Sweet boat

Where was this fish durring the tournament STARR?

Backing Up... The Trip From the Beginning

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Mexico to fish for Largemouth Bass at Lake Mateos and Lake El Salsto. For me it was one of those experiences I will not soon forget and strive to have again. In summary, BASS are RAD! Additionally, I was in the presence of some top-notch fly fisherman that shared their decades of knowledge with me. Thanks to all for a great week with some fly fishing studs... the bass that is.

Bill Carnazzo, Ken Hanley, Kevin Doran, Ryan Miller and Keith Kaneko (taking the picture)

Fishing is hard work, sometimes you just need to relax.

Mexican bass are supercharged, make sure you are ready


Keith Kaneko with a stout 6 pounder!

There are so many great things about bass fishing. I would call it hunting and fishing in the same bag. As casters, we constantly look for tight spots to toss bugs into. We constantly push the limits of the rods, lines and "weedless" bugs to get the "OH DAMN, NICE SHOT" from you buddy, and then "WAAAHOOOO, DID YOU SEE THAT EAT?" Not to mention the sets are about as far from a trout set as possible, there are not too many things better than wrenching on a bucketmouth!

I lose track of everything while casting to razor-backs...

Give me a dime-sized target and I will be occupied for hours...

Git-R-Done
8 pounds of glory

More to come, BASS ARE RAD...

Lake El Salto - Final Day

5 AM wakeup calls are usually unwelcome and dreaded,…unless you are heading out to offer trophy fish your twisted creations! By the time breakfast was over everyone was fired up and ready to hit the water. The weather we perfect, dead calm, quiet and bassy. As the truck-drawn carrier takes us to our boats (50 yards from the lodge) it is clear that we all have a green glimmer in our eyes. The glimmer of hope that a green, razor-back bucketmouth, aka the “big girl,” will be fooled for one second. One second is all we need to get the BLOW-UP evoked from a puppeteered popper…

Top water BLOW-UP

The last day of fishing could not have been better. The lake was glassed over, sky’s scattered with clouds and huge bass busting tilapia EVERYWHERE. One of the most exciting features of fishing this lake is the abundance of baitfish (shad and tilapia) that are under constant harassment by bass. There were times when I could see a 100 yards of bass blowing up bait, it looked like small landmines detonating. Fishing was good for everyone that day, Ken and Keith encouraged kamikaze bass to blow-up on poppers. Ken and Bill were the stars of the show, hooking more than 50 bass and landing 35 hogs! The afternoon session treated me well with a beautiful 8 pounder.

Five anglers, five days, camaraderie and countless supercharged Mexican Bass makes for a memorable trip. Personally, I was captivated by this place and know I will be back soon. Anglers Inn at Lake Mateos and El Salto is a spectacular place to leave reality and enter bass insanity.

Let it out Ken...

Seriously, I will fish for coy in my neighbor's pond... all fish are great but BASS ARE RAD!

Thank you for reading and stay tuned...

Mexican Bass: Part 2... El Salto

Lake El Salto in Mexico is one of the best places to fish to largemouth in the world. Currently the lake record is 18.8 pounds... that is ridiculous! We were only able to fish for a few hours today, but they were productive, all of us combined landed dozens of hogs. Our day was cut short by an awesome display of lighting, wind, rain and thunder. Most of us were ok with not fishing; it was nice to be in a storm like that. I am not sure what it is, but I always feel invigorated after being in a massive storm. All in all it lasted an hour and took us into dinner.

I do not have a ton of fish pictures for you... bass fishing for me is fast paced, after I hook one and land it I want another one, unfortunately, this leaves no time for pictures.

Here are a few photos to keep you going... way more to come soon.

The infamous Gummy Minnow, hated by some anglers, loved by fish everywhere

Tropical storms are awesome!

Here is a my first attempt at video editing...

Although I will not win any awards with this clip it was fun working on it. The shots were filmed by Kevin Doran and are of Keith "casting on water..." sometime fishing is fun :) The other shot is of Keith coming out of the downpour. That area of Mexico is just coming out of its rainy season, by primetime the weather is perfect!

More Bass on the way, stay tuned...

Blow-ups and big eats by Mexican bass...

I am currently in Mexico fishing Lake Mateos for Largemouth bass, I will be posting more photos and stories upon my return...