Delta veteran Joey Price of Priceless Fishing Guide Service has a short message for anglers heading out on the California Delta over the coming weekend: the storm has reset the bite, and patience plus the right edge of the grass line will earn you fish.
Speaking on In Deep on the Delta's 21 May weekly report alongside host S. Cooper, Price walked through what 35 mph winds, big negative tides, and a fortnight of central-Delta weed spraying have done to the post-spawn pattern.
"Before all the wind rolled in, the walking-bait bite was really good. The frog bite was pretty — you could make it work," Price said. "And then other than that, kind of the ChatterBait and then worming at the low low tide was kind of the deal." That window slammed shut with the front, and Price has been working through what is left.
His read on recovery hinges on water clarity. "As soon as this water cleans up, the bite's going to get a lot better. I mean, most everywhere," he said. "Not only is it dirty, not only do we have big negative tides, they also sprayed pretty much everything central. They did a good job of it the last two weeks, so all the repercussions of that are going to start to show and everything will normalise."
Price's recovery timeline was tight. "I think, you know, two, three days, I would go right back to what you were doing beforehand. Throw the walking baits, throw your worms, throw your ChatterBaits."
He picked one shallow holdout pattern specifically — bass that survived the spray on the cleanest scraps of remaining grass. "If you find like a nice little area with really clean grass that's still around after the spray, I would spend a good hour or two punching it, seeing if you can get something out of there."
What is going to drive the next month, Price argued, is the tide. "We're still looking at negatives into the beginning of June. They're not going to go away," he said. "But what all that's going to do is it's going to push the post-spawn into full effect. As we have all these more and more negative tides that just stay around, that's our low tide now — it's going to push all the fish kind of out island edges, offshore."
His bait short list for that pattern is simple. "ChatterBait, walking baits, and then punching when you can on the high switches are going to be your go-tos."
Cooper translated the tide call for visiting anglers planning a Delta weekend. "Those fish will probably push out a little farther and they will be on the edges," he said. "So if you're coming out on the weekends, even at a high tide, you may want to start on the outside and then work your way in."
Price agreed and pointed straight to the hydrilla edges on the main river. "You'll start at the bottom of an outgo, but you're still throwing your ChatterBait all the way out on the edge of the grass lines," he said. "On the main river giant hydrilla grass lines, you can see them. You just try to stay on the edge of the grass line. And even when the tide comes back in, the hydrilla is still there and they still are kind of sitting out there floating on the grass."
Colour selection, in Price's view, should not be overcomplicated. "I would play with red and green pumpkin," he said. "And I would, don't over complicate it. You know, there are combos that you can find on accident you might really like. If you're coming out here and you don't have a whole lot of confidence in anything, go all green or like green pumpkin red, something like that. The bret-craw or whatever, that's a great color."
Tournament weights last week back the diagnosis. Cooper reported that the Wednesday tournament was won with around 19 lb, the high-profile Sunday Bass Hole event in 35 mph winds was won with only 17 lb, and Monday and Thursday tournaments came in around the 15-17 lb mark — all light by historical late-May Delta standards.
What Price is actually looking forward to is the next window. "The striper stuff will kind of take a break here, but I think what's coming up is the crawfish moult. I'm really excited for it," he said. Red ChatterBaits, red punch baits and red buzzbaits will, in his view, drive both a renewed bass bite and one more striper window through mid-June up around Liberty and across the San Joaquin.