Pro angler Ryan Hall of Orangevale, Calif. junk-fished his way to the top of the Day One leaderboard at BAM Tournament Trail’s 3rd Pro/Am stop of the 2024 season at the California Delta with a five-fish limit that weighed 27.90, anchored by a 7.63 Big Bass. Hall’s bag boosted his standings more than six-pounds over his nearest competitor and currently has him holding the biggest bass of the event.
Fishing the 1000 miles of waterways of the tidal water fishery, Hall covered a lot of water and narrowed his areas by breaking them into zones that he described as five square miles. He didn’t specifically consider tide changes. “I bounced around those big zones,” he shared. “I could be in one spot for 15 minutes or five minutes or 20 minutes. I didn’t have a game plan, just a few areas that I felt I could catch them in, and I didn’t really chase the tide. I just fished what was in front of me, but when the tide dropped out it did get tougher.”
With his weigh fish in the box by noon, Hall stopped fishing and looked for new grass and mats to use for the next two days of fishing.
“I threw a Senko, a bladed jig, punched, got some frog fish; it was a little bit of everything,” said Hall about his first day. “Mostly it was about areas rather than baits. I ran around a bunch, and I caught three punchin’. I didn’t get a ton of bites that way, but the ones that I caught were good.”
His theory on nothing specific regarding types of baits, continued through to the colors that he found most productive “When I was flippin’, I had craw colors, the Senko was Green Pumpkin, and the ChatterBait was bluegill,” he explained. “There was a lot of bluegill in the areas I was in, but mostly I don’t think color mattered that much.”
Dobyns Rods and P-Line were the tools for his techniques. “I had everything out from an 8’ Dobyns punchin’ rod to a 7’3” casting rod,” he shared. “I got some new P-Line braid the other day at Fisherman’s Warehouse (the BAM TT Conservation Partner) and I was punchin’ with it and throwin my Senko with it – 80-pound for punchin’ and 40-pound to a 17-pound leader for my Senko.”
The big bass in Hall’s bag fell to a frog. “It was a spawn fish,” he added. “I just threw the frog in an area that she was in. Everything else was pre or post spawn. Their tails were really clean, so they were either really far after their spawn or before.”
Target areas for Hall focused on Delta vegetation. “A lot of places had grass and the kind of grass didn’t really matter, just any grass that’s healthy was good,” he stated.
According to hall, the gusty winds of Day One weren’t a factor. “I fished in howling wind and areas that were flat calm and caught fish in both,” he said. “I just had to change the tactics I was using.”
With his biggest bass from the six-pound class, Phil Tilbury of Escalon, Calif. ended Day One with 21.67 and hot off his recent Major League Fishing win from Clear Lake, Ken Mah of Elk Grove, Calif. rounded out the top-three with 20.88 and no recorded big fish weight. Of the 78 anglers, these were the only sacks that broke the 20-pound mark.
Rodney Brown Leads The Co-Angler Field On Day One
Leading the co-angler side and gapping the next co more than four-pounds is Rodney Brown of Sacramento, Calif. with a full limit that went 17.51 and included a 6.07 kicker. Brown was paired to draw-partner Steve Frick. Frick a Redding, Calif. pro sits in 15th place on his respective side of the non-shared weight event with 13.78, including his biggest at 5.17.
The morning bite was the sweet spot for Frick and Brown’s bite and Brown had all his weigh fish in the livewell by 8 a.m. thanks to undisclosed down bait presentations. He believed the windy conditions helped.
“I caught them all on slow baits,” said Brown. Steve was great and gave me plenty of water to fish.”
Launching out of Big Break Marin at safelight, the three-day Delta bass battle will continue through Sunday, April 28. Weigh-ins begin at 3 p.m. each day at the same Marina. Boaters are fighting it out for a pro purse north of $22,000 and the non-boaters for over $10,000.
Full pro and co-angler results can be seen here.
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