2010 Bassmaster Tournament California Delta Hydrilla Fishing

Hi, Mike Iaconelli, want to talk about the first regular Elite season tournament of the year, California Delta. We showed up, high expectations. What did we get? Cold weather again. Another really, really tough tournament. I found the fish in deep hydrilla, and that's one pattern in the pre-spawn you can always really rely on, is hydrilla.

There's hydrilla all over. What I found was, if you could find the right mix of current, clear water, deeper hydrilla and flats nearby. That's the kind of spot you wanted to fish. Without a doubt, almost all of my fish came flipping that hyrdrilla. Especially with one bait, and I know you've heard about it, it's the Berkley Chigger Craw.

When you talk about flipping matted vegetation, flipping that kind of stuff. This really is the perfect bait to throw. It's small, it's compact, it's got some appendages, not a lot and it's got vibration as it falls, and that was the real key. I fished it with a 1/2 oz. or 3/4 oz. Tru-Tungsten weight. I fished it with a Mihatchii 4/0 flipping hook, nice solid hook. I just did the normal Texas rig. I Texas rigged that thing on there.

When you look at it, it's such a compact package. That's really what I needed, I needed something that when those fish hit it, it was all hook, and they were going to get it. One of the other keys to my success there at the Delta, was not flipping this bait on braid, but flipping it on fluorocarbon, real heavy fluorocarbon, 25 lb. test Berkley Trilene fluorocarbon, was absolutely key. Not only because of the high pressure and lethargic fish, but because fluorocarbon lets the bait [unintelligible], that's what you want when you're flipping.

Finally, the rod and reel, I used the new Vendetta rod by Abu Garcia, the 7'6" flipping rod. I used the Abu Revo, with the really fast ratio, a 7:1 ratio, to help pick up that line.

In tough tournaments, when you've got grass. Slow down, fish a little compact bait, like a Chigger Craw, fish it on fluorocarbon, and you're going to get more bites.