Black Dog Bait Co.

Can You believe it, Black Bass fishing in the Delta now draws the attention of anglers across the country as weights soar here so do the techniques used to catch them. It seems that just a few years a go 5 pound delta bass were big news. Now the Delta this time of year has become like many of the lakes that have made the Western Swimbait fishing so spectacular. Excitement of FLW Stren series coming here this month combined with the knowledge of Swimbait fishing could again shatter records that National organizations held tight for years.

The Stren Series coming back to the Delta, It’s great to see the FLW Series schedule committed to the West and give western become more of a national spotlight. It’s hard to predict what it might take to win on the Delta, but I think it’ll be about 80 pounds or so. It’s a tremendous fishery and seems to be getting stronger and stronger every year. One thing’s for sure, we’re hitting it at a prime time, and the sky’s the limit. In the pre-spawn, there’s a strong jig, spinnerbait and Rat-L-Trap bite on the Delta. I’ve several around 10 on the ShellCracker, and you can bet that will be my primary weapon when the Stren get’s started.”

It seems like just yesterday that Byron Velvick and Aaron Martens brought Swimbait fishing to the National Spotlight at Clear Lake actually in ‘99. Then over the years more and more lake fisherman had to have that “Swimbait” kicker to get a check in the spring. Now with more and more anglers relying on the swimbaits to get that big bite on the Delta weights could be huge.

While I am old school and rely on the jig quite often with teachers over the years like Dave Glibe and Dee Thomas I to have had to try the Swimbait thing due to the success of many anglers. While I am still learning there are still some top choices of Delta swim baits I have to share.

1. Weed Slinger, finally a swim bait that we can fish on the Delta. It’s weedless design has made it a number one pick for anglers fishing weed lines in the Popular areas of Big Break, Franks Tract and Mildred Island. The Weed Slinger is the bait that started it all. This weedless swimbait, it was released in 2007 after 2 years of research and development. The Weed Slinger was designed to allow anglers to put big baits in places where big baits had never gone before. With it’s weedless design, you can fire the Weed Slinger back in the tullies, work it over and through tree branches, or shake the bait through heavy grass beds. The three factors of; big bait, slow presentation, and heavy cover make the Weed Slinger a big bass catching machine.
2. Wake baits, One of the Local favorites designed by Black Dog Bait company “the Shell Cracker” Is getting tons of praise by anglers here. Explosive strikes and heart stopping monsters love this bait.
3. Top Water baits as Lunker Punkers There Walking design are favorites of striper anglers but now Black Bass anglers are finding the effectiveness of these baits superb when walking in open water weed points, to stay over structure like rock piles, deep wood shaded docks.

These are just a few of the baits that will play into this months exciting return of this huge event that promise to bring the Delta more recognition as the top bass fishery in the country. Enjoy!