A young Capt.Kev back in the day at Clearlake
Wow! what happened to Spring?...when i was a kid it was one of my favorite times...you know the one that slowly creeps into our lives with the cozy feeling that comes with the warming days and mellow afternoons of Springtime? For me, Springtime is when i start shifting gears. The cold of winter typically fading away at a snail's pace. Chasing Stripers throughout the winter can be arduous at times and leaves me anxious for the sunshine and warmth of the coming months. By April i am ready to start chasing another Delta species...LmBass! The thought of shorts, t-shirts and sandals starts to fill my head... I can't wait! It takes me all the way back to my youth.
By April I was and am ready to put away the heavy sinking lines, the extra clothing layers, gloves, beanies, and heavy pac boots in storage for the next 6-7months. I have had enough of that by end of March. I've seen my share of great client fish over the past fall and winter season, Stripers are awesome, but now I am wanting something else. In all honesty, this past Striper season was less than stellar. The larger fish were just not showing up in numbers. Sure there were some around and many clients caught some nice ones, but finding them was not an easy task most of the time. All of this made my yearning for the start of Spring and my topwater LmBass season even more intense. It couldn't start soon enough as far as I was concerned.
Lou with a nice topwater Bass in April
A few weeks in late April was when we started getting some topwater LmBass. Some nice fish were caught and then it seemed the LmBass train came to a screeching halt! The never ending wind, water temps started to drop, the rains, more rain and constant wind. What the...? I was wearing my winter clothes in May! Double layers, thermal underwear, the whole bit! Wow! I can't remember a May this cold.
It may or may not be widely known that good numbers of LmBass will move to the banks during big moon phases in late April. They start pairing up and start setting up camp for the spawn. We saw that process on track in mid-late April and we caught some nice fish during a week long, nice weather, window. These fish were feeding well prior to the spawn. Some really good sized fish can be had during this time and they eat topwater! Yes!...what i have been waiting for all winter long is finally here!....i thought.
Renee with a big 6.25lb Delta Topwater LmBass
About that time, May seemed to change it's name to Feburary, and i wasn't sure if April was really April, and where was March? I was totally confused as if i had just woken up from some long strange nap. Was i Rip Van Winkle?....i took a look into the mirror just to be sure.
Well, if i was feeling that way those LmBass must be feeling about the same. The typical pattern of a big push of fish to the banks in late April just didn't happen. A couple here, a couple there, many pulled back and probably have decided to wait it out a month. The Delta is a huge place. Spawning can take place as early as Feb and continue throughout July. These are the extremes. May is usually when staging, prespawn and even post spawn fish start becoming available to the topwater flyfisher. The season started up with a bang and then almost within days, ran out of gas with the lousy weather pattern.
June is now the May i have been waiting for. I expect some fantastic fishing over the next month. I hope Spring has finally sprung or is it Summer?...whatever...i am ready, shorts and all!
