Delta Turkey Shoot, July 24

Time to sign up (email to Chris with front and back seats) and map out your strategy for this event. Launch is out of Brannan State Park. If you have never been there, a Google Maps link is on our details page here.

Please notice we have added an interesting twist to our weigh-in process. To minimize stress on livewell fish, there will be two weigh-ins: one at 10:30am and the final one at 3:00pm. Here's a detail you need to consider: you can only weigh in a combined total of 5 fish at both weigh-ins. For example, if you weigh 3 fish in at 10:30am, then you can only weigh in 2 fish at the 3:00pm weigh-in. So strategy counts!

Any other questions, fire away!

July 21 update: Now we're up to 9 boats signed up. If you're going to fish this one let's hear from you!

Original plan was to launch out of Brannon State Park but when everyone got there it was too windy. So we decided to launch out of Tower Park Marina (Ray and Linda Stevens launched out of Wimpy's). So we launched a little late and changed the format to best 5 fish and a 2pm weigh-in.

Here's the field and the results:

Glenn Underwood and Shasta Underwood -- 12.88lb, 5.42lb big fish NICE WORK GLENN & SHASTA! Glenn won the big fish pot.
Dave Roper and new member Gil Machado -- 8.7lb total, 5.2lb big fish
Mark Hughes and Ryan Hughes -- 2.75lb

Jerry Mountjoy and new member Jim Crane -- 0 keepers
Chris Bajorek -- 0 keepers
Ray Stevens and Linda Stevens -- did not weigh
Denny Welch and Gail Miller -- did not weigh
Ryan Stoddard and Josh Stoddard -- did not weigh

Members, feel free to post details on the outing.

Thanks for organizing everything Chris!

Shasta and I started in White Slough and she picked up the first fish right away dropshotting. A little later, I caught the first keeper on a wake bait. We caught a few more dropshotting, but no keepers.

We ran over to Disappointment Slough and didn't even get bit. Ran down to the San Joaquin and started punching and over the course of about four hours we picked up a small limit punching (beavers, Yum Woolly Craw Bug and a 10.5 inch curly tail worm). Surprisingly, the worm picked up the most bites.

The bite was very light and I missed a ton of fish. I reeled in half a worm several times. We used the colors California 420 and watermelon with red and black.

We stopped off at a couple of spots in Little Potato Slough as we worked our way back to Tower Park Marina. Right at H and H Marina, I hooked a nice one. It got stuck in the Periwinkle and I couldn't get it out. At one point I wasn't sure if the fish was still there. I thought I saw some white in the weeds, so we decided to go in after it. I leaned out over the bow of the boat and Shasta drove the boat into the weeds with the big motor. I stretched out and grabbed its lip and pulled it out! It was kind of an adventure and Shasta enjoyed it. That was our best fish.

It was nice seeing everyone out there and meeting some new members.

Well Josh and I had an interesting day. We fished Whites Slough just about all day. We caught lots of short fish and just could not get very many keepers. We seen Glenn and early in the day and he said he got one on a wake bait. We had been using frogs and spooks first thing without a blow up. So I tied on a wake bait and got a 3 pounder right away. Josh caught one 1.5 # on a red crankbait and that was it for keepers. We caught fish on senkos, crankbaits, wake baits, punching and brush hogs but could not find good fish? At about 11:00 am we dicided to spend the rest of the day fishing closer to Tower park and I am glad we did because my starter started giving me trouble. When we got close to the covered slips to fish the dock my boat would not start because the starter. All we had was the trolling motor. At about 1:30pm we just decided to let our keepers go and put the boat on the trailer. I am glad that I had a feeling we needed to be closer to the launch. Things could have been much worse for we could have ended up stranded deep in Whites with only a trolling motor to get up back to the ramp. Glad to see a good turn out.

Gail Miller and I put in at Wimpy's and immediately had breakfast. We had already missed that "magic hour" before sunrise so we figured what the heck, fishing on a full stomach is much better than fishing on an empty one.

We started fishing about 7:00 a.m.on the Mo within a hundred feet of the bridge. Got about 7 - 8 fish right away on crankbaits. Nothing big, no keepers.

Ran down to Beaver and stayed in there for about an hour or so. Did some punching, cranking, flipping and pitching. Got another five fish or so, but no size to them. No keepers.

Another run down to Hog. Went all the way back and started punching. I was using a 1 oz. tungsten weight with a double wide Beaver. Nothing but a sore arm. (We fished on Friday and I was throwing a 1 1/2 oz tungsten weight. I thought it was a little too much so I downsized on fish day.) We picked up a few more small fish cranking, but no size to them. No keepers.

We then bypassed Sycamore and ran to Whites. We started picking up fish right away on Senko's, both wackey rigged and Texas rigged. Had a nice 3 - 4 pound fish right to the boat and lost it. Gail had a good keeper on as well, but he lost his too. Fished jigs and Senko's in the tules and crankbaits on the rip rap. No keepers.

By the time we got back to Tower Park we probably had close to 30 fish. The biggest one was only 12 1/2 inches. For us, it was a great day for catching small fish.

We hung around Tower until about 1:55 and then headed back to Wimpy's to get out of the heat.

Well we only caught fish on frogs. We fished the red colored mattes and had more blow ups than fish caught. I missed a big one, waited too long to set hook. Gil was the man on our team accounted for every fish at weigh-in. But had a great day it was nice seeing everyone out there on the water. It will be nice to see everyone at the next meeting. I personally cannot wait until the August Turkey Shoot. See Ya Soon, Dave

Sounds like everyone had a good time. I wish we could have made it but me and the partner were fishing poo poo lagoon. Maybe we will make the next one, not sure yet.