"Big bass and lots of them,” he says. “I catch them all season long fishing floating lines and topwater patterns. In my eyes it is the most consistently enjoyable fly fishing I do on the Delta . . . or anywhere for that matter. I look forward to it every year as the striper season winds down in late March. It keeps my casting sharp, my anticipation high, and to quote one of my clients: ’It's like a video game.’ There’s always a new piece of cover to cast to. It presents every enjoyable aspect of fly fishing."

Delta Access
You can get to the Delta from many major roadways. To the west are the cities of Pittsburg and Antioch, to the south Tracy and Manteca, on the east Stockton, and Sacramento on the north. Major thoroughfares include Highway 4, Highway 580, and Highway 5. Driving time from the San Francisco Bay area is less than two hours to most of the important access points.

The Delta is the West Coast version of the Louisiana bayous or the Florida Everglades. More than 750 species of plants and animals call it home. The habitat is fertile, vibrant, expansive, intricate, and loaded with bass.

The two most significant river systems feeding the Delta are the Sacramento (flowing in from the north) and the San Joaquin (entering from the south). Other feeders include the American, Mokelumne, Cosumnes, and Calaveras rivers. These waters directly affect the quality and quantity of fish populations and habitat through the year.

The Delta today is a combination of man-made structure and sheer natural beauty. The fact that settlers created a series of levees almost 200 years ago to harness these rivers is a critical part of the fishery. Back in the mid-1800s, the first levees were constructed from peat soil. In a matter of decades, around 1870, the preferred method of construction became “clamshell dredging,” and by the 1930s, farmers had cultivated more than 550,000 acres on 55 man-made islands. Anglers now travel and explore the levees of bygone days.

---

Ken Hanley is the author of several books, including most recently Fly Fishing the Pacific Inshore: Strategies for Estuaries, Bays, and Beaches (The Lyons Press, 2003). He lives in Fremont, California.

This article originally appeared in the May 2007 issue of Fly Fisherman.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next