Cold Water Swimbait Fishing

Late last night I received a video from a member of the Tacticalbassin community. He sent it as a follow up to “Swimbaits Part 6″. He wanted to further show the power of swimbaits on small fish. You may recognize Ryan from previous videos as he contributes to the site on a fairly regular basis.

What makes this video unique is both the size of fish (fairly small) and the water temperature in which the fish were being caught. As you’ll see he was able to produce a small limit of fish very quickly using an Osprey Swimbait on a high-speed retrieve in 44 degree water. Yes, you read that right… 44 degree water thanks to snow runoff. So for those of you in the Northern states, this ones for you:

For those of you who are curious about the bait he is using, its an Osprey 6″ Tournament Talon Swimbait. The specific color appears to be Chartreuse Shad though I’m sure he could have done it with a wide range of colors. Here is a link to the baits direct from tacklewarehouse: Osprey Tournament Talon

I hope you understand the importance of this video. These fish were caught in very similar conditions to lakes around the entire Northern half of the United States. The water was cold, the fish were small, and Ryan wasn’t trying to imitate a trout. This can translate to nearly any body of water, you can make these baits work for you.
Last but not least, as a disclaimer… I too use the Osprey from time to time. Believe me, it will produce giant bass as well as dinks so don’t feel like you don’t have a shot at a big bass. On my boat this bait has produced fish under 2 lbs and fish over 10 lbs in the last two years.

Beware: Off-Limits area in the Delta

While on a recent trip to the California Delta I found myself in the middle of an unfortunate circumstance. It appears that I unknowingly fished in an area that is closed to boat traffic. When situations of this nature happen there are two options. The first and most attractive is to hide the mistake and hope other anglers don’t hear about it.
The second option is to step out and make an example of your mistake in the hopes that other anglers can learn from it and not fall into the same situation. With this post I am choosing the later.
Let me begin by stating very clearly that the small stretch of 7 Mile Slough that parallels the East shore of Brannan Island State Park near 3 Mile Slough is closed to boat traffic.
I’m sorry to admit this came as a surprise to me when an officer met me at the Brannan Island launch ramp to discuss where I had been fishing. The officer was understandably upset and I drove home with a hefty ticket in my possession.

I was quite surprised by the situation as I had never realized this area was closed. There are marked buoys at the mouth of the slough but they appear to clearly define a seperation between the swim beach and a boat lane. No other signage is present but that does not change the fact that despite the appearance, the entire slough is closed.
It seems that if I choose to fish this area again in the future it will be from shore. I hope my error finds each of you before you make a similar mistake.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter. Were you already aware of this off-limits area or does it come as a surprise to you? I hope that through this post we are able to have improved signage placed at the confluence of 3 and 7 mile sloughs to help prevent similar occurances in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving from Tacticalbassin! We are so thankful for each one of our readers. You are what makes this blog a success and we are so greatful to have you here. We wish the best for you and your family on this holiday weekend. Be safe if you’re traveling and best of luck catching the fish of a lifetime on your next outing!

Take a kid fishing

I spent the last week scoping out water, talking to friends, watching the weather, and anything else I could think of so that my nephew would have a great time when we went fishing. Game day came and the weather was perfect, we practically had the lake to ourselves and there were fish all over the graph. As luck would have it, the bite had shut down. One nice smallmouth to the side of the boat was all we had to show for a full day on the water.

As you can imagine I was a little bummed out. That is, until I started listening to what he was saying. He didn’t care that we didn’t catch fish. He got to see an eagle, run around on shore (track mud all over the boat), and throw his brand new crankbait. Sure, catching fish would have been nice but it wasn’t what made or broke his day.
The point of this story is that you need to take a kid fishing. Don’t have kids? Me either! Ask a family member or friend if their kids would like to spend a day on the water. They don’t care if you’re on fish or not and a day away from the tv, computer, and classroom will do them some good!
There will always be good reasons not to go but before you know it those kids will be grown up and won’t share our love for the outdoors. Stop your busy schedule for a day and head to a lake, stream, or river near you so that the little ones can fall in love with this sport we all love so much.