Delta bass, Bodega salmon/rockfish and Don Pedro kokanee lead angling options

LA GRANGE — There are plenty of fishing options for anglers this week, topped by Delta largemouth and smallmouth bass, Don Pedro kokanee, and Bodega Bay salmon and rockfish.

Delta largemouth/smallmouth bass: Largemouth bass fishing is going strong in the sloughs of the Central Delta, while smallmouth fishing is productive in the North Delta.

Largemouth bass are hitting in the Central Delta in Disappointment, Connection and White Sloughs.

“If you catch the bite on the high tide and the beginning of the outgoing tide, the fishing can be pretty good,” said Don Paganelli of Paganelli’s Bass Fishing Experience. “The topwater bite is productive with buzzbaits, Whopper Poppers, Zara Spooks and frogs.

“On my latest solo trip in this area on Saturday, I caught and released six quality largemouths weighing up to 3 pounds,” he said. “I was fishing weedy areas with the frogs and working submerged weeds and outside weed lines with the other topwater lures."

He noted that punching the weeds with 1½ ounce tungsten weights with creature baits or throwing wacky-rigged Senkos are also productive methods for getting largemouths to strike this time of year.

“The surface water temperature was 76 to 80 degrees. I caught most of my fish while throwing out buzzfrog lures,” he added.

For smallmouth bass, Paganellis recommended tossing out top water lures and small poppers off riprap banks on Steamboat and Miner sloughs and the Sacramento River.

“Fish either the moving incoming or outgoing tide,” he said. “On my last trip to the sloughs, we caught and released around 20 smallmouths.” Information: (916) 502-3474.

Bodega Bay salmon and rockfish: Rick Powers, captain of the New Sea Angler, reported “phenomenal” salmon and rockfish action out of Bodega Bay.

The 24 anglers aboard his boat returned to the docks with full limits of salmon by 9:30 a.m. on July 24. The fish averaged 12 to 13 pounds and went up to 24 pounds.

“The whole commercial fleet has been off Bodega Bay this week,” he said.

“The salmon are 45 minutes from the harbor, out 4 miles from Bodegahead. Most trips have been salmon-rockfish combos, with full limits of both.”

Big fish honors go to 17-year-old Jason Drueger of Concord who caught a 26 pound king and limit of rockfish aboard the New Sea Angler. Frankie Newton of Oroville bagged a 32 pound king salmon on the boat. Finally, 11-year-old Rody Wodden of Santa Rosa landed a 40 pound limit of salmon and limit of rockfish.

“We set a record for both limits of rockfish and salmon by 10:30 a.m. one day this week,” he said. Information (707) 875-3495.

Salmon fishing has also been great outside of the Golden Gate.

Cap. Aaron Anfinson of the Bass Tub in San Francisco reported in with limits of salmon up to 30 pounds on Monday’s trolling adventure. “Two fish were under 20 pounds  and the rest were over 20 pounds,” said Anfinson said. Information: (415) 706-4947.

Don Pedro kokanee: The superb kokanee salmon action continues at Lake Don Pedro. Returning anglers Kevin and his dad Bud were back for a day of kokanee fishing with Monte Smith of Gold Country Sportfishing on Bud’s 80th birthday.

“The morning started off on the kind of slow side,” Smith said. “Then we had our first fish with in just a couple minutes that turned out to be a trout that was released. We started marking a few kokanee, but they were not interested in our offerings.

"Finally, we started to get a few to go and we began to get a collection of kokanee in the fish bag. By 9:45 a.m. they had nine kokanee and a single king salmon for the morning.”

The kokanee ranged from 13 to 15 inches. The fish hit Paulina Peak hardware dodgers and hoochies and platinum flutter bugs at 65 to 85 feet in Middle Bay.

On his previous trip, return clients Rick and Robert brought their buddy Mario out for a day of chasing kokanee. After arriving at the fishing grounds, it wasn’t long and the kokanee bite began.

“They started putting fish in the reliable fish bag at a pretty good pace,” Smith said. “By eight o’clock we had 8 fish with a few lost ones. We were marking good schools of fish on the Garmin sonar units and just at 10 a.m. they had their 15 kokanee and one rainbow trout.”

On that trip, the kokanee were bigger, ranging up to 18 inches and 2.2 pounds.  Information: (209) 581-4734.

Contact Stockton Record Correspondent Dan Bacher at danielbacher53@gmail.com. 

This article originally appeared on The Record: Fishing: Delta bass, Bodega Bay salmon, rockfish, Don Pedro kokanee