Fished a National Bass West team tournament with Chris Zaldain at the Delta. We knew the conditions were going to be tough. In the past week we've had about 6 inches of rain, and today was a bit post frontal with partly cloudy skies. Luckily the wind was still blowing out of the south rather than the north. We launched out of Brannon Island State Park and noticed right away that the water clarity was minimal, 3 inches at best. Figuring the clearest water was going to be around Whites and Disappointment Sloughs, we headed there first. When we arrived we were shocked to find 3ft clarity. The water looked great but the fish weren't biting. We flipped jigs and Senkos, and made a few casts with spinnerbaits and crankbaits. We were hesitant to leave; thinking everywhere else might look like chocolate milk, but did anyway. As we moved west, the water became more stained. Finally we found about a foot and a half clarity and pull up on a rock bank with some deeper wood. We knew the wood was there, but couldn't see it because of an extreme high tide due to all the water run off, it probably added an extra foot to the tide. Using a hand tied 3/8 ounce brown/junebug jig with a junebug Doublewide Beaver as a trailer, I find a deeper piece of wood and get popped hard. I set the hook and there was no doubt it was a big fish. We get it in the net and weigh it right away, 9.5 pounds. It was 12:30 and we only had another two hours to fish. We hit another 8 spots that were similar, but couldn't produce another keeper. Only one fish all day, but it was good enough for 4th place out of 18 teams, as well as big fish.
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