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Christian's Report - September 2, 2010

For all of us avid outdoor hunting and fishing enthusiasts the month of September may be the most important moth of the year. It certainly is the kick off month for some of the best fall hunting and fishing that the world has to offer and it is right here in our back yard.

Wednesday September 1 is the official start of bird season. Years ago the folks in Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood and the Delta Island all enjoyed great dove season. Today it is more about getting your hunting dog out then about getting a few doves for dinner. Don’t be surprised to see hunters with shotguns out for the opener of dove season, it’s just part of the fall mix.

While we are talking about dates here are a couple other to follow. September 6th will be the end of ocean salmon fishing for the year. I would be very surprised if they have a season next year but we will have to wait and see what the numbers are like of fish heading up the system.

September 4th to October 3rd is the inland salmon fishing season from the Carquinez Bridge to the Knights Landing Bridge on the Sacramento River. The salmon can only be caught on the Sacramento River not the San Joaquin

October 8 – October 10 is the 63rd Rio Vista Bass Derby & Festival the oldest running fishing derby in all of California. The derby runs at the peak of our fall fishing derby and the weather is usually pretty good. Derby winners will be for the target length striped bass and target length sturgeon.

October 9th is the second Saturday in October and the official beginning of duck season for the Delta. The season will continue to one hundred and five days. It won’t be but a week or two before we start to see floating duck blinds move into Franks Tract or Sherman Lake to name a few areas. Some folks will duck hunt the Big Break area while others will try their luck in Little Break a few times.

Expect there to be good to great striper fishing from now until November 15th for those who keep track of that kind of stuff. The weather usually turns by then even if there are fish in the system to be caught. Cold foggy days keep a lot of folks away.

That is kind of a recap to what is going on in the West Delta. As far as I’m concerned this is the prettiest time of year for fishing and just enjoying the Delta. The winds will subside pretty soon. We’ll see a little more haze around just because there is a little less air movement in the bay area but that kind of goes with the fall weather pattern.

In real time striper fishing here in the West Delta couldn’t be better. Walt Compomizzo, Henri Abadie and Paul Wong went fishing this past Sunday night. They tried plug casting for stripers right in front of the harbor on the sand bar. They were fishing in 3-ft of water near the tules. They caught twenty stripers in two hours. Certainly not all of the fish were keepers but they had plenty of action at times having a triple hookup on light rods.

This school has been around the Antioch Bridge for over a week. Paul Wong was out with a buddy last Friday August 27th fishing early in the morning and not coming until way after noon just chasing the school around he had great fun and both he and his partner had a limit of fresh run stripers to take home.

Walt is heading out tonight (Tuesday night) after work to see if he can get into the school again. The bigger fish were all in the 5 – 7 – lb range Walt and Paul were using rattle traps.

The guys that are fishing for black bass in the West Delta are complaining about size since they are all pre-fishing for a tournament in a couple of weeks.

I’ve not seen a sturgeon brought in the past several months. That continues to be the same but that time is coming.

Both the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are fairly warm but I would not call it hot by any means. On the San Joaquin River at the Antioch Boat Ramp the water temperature range is 69.5 – 71.3 – degree range on the Sacramento River at the Rio Vista Bridge the water is just a little cooler at 69.0 – 69.6 – degree range.

This is the last big weekend of the year be careful out there, there will be a lot of folks using the Delta for the last time this season drive defensively when your out there.

See you on the water Chris

This report and many other fine reports can be found at the Delta Chambers fishing report page!

Check out the water and weather pages for conditions around the Delta. Research does pay off.