| __________________________________________________ May 13, 2003 - Vol. 4 No. 19 __________________________________________________ DOZER ON THE DELTA I've just returned home from a great five days on the California Delta with friends Mark Mendez, Alton Forthe and Long Nguyen, principals of U.S. Angler's Choice, one of the world's largest team fishing tournament organizations. I shared the boat one day with Alton, one day with Long, two days with Mark. It all led up to the fifth and final day when we staged a two boat tournament. I drew Long as my partner. The highlight of the week was kicking Mark's and Alton's cans in this mini tournament. I'm not sure they knew what hit 'em. According to Long, they're still licking their wounds. Accustomed to pitching and flipping five-inch size Senkos, a pleasant surprise was the gusto with which the Delta bass devoured the larger six-inch 9L Senkos and the lengthy seven-inch 7X Cut Tails I flipped into the tules. Rather than be thankful, Mark, Long and Alton blamed me for using the six-inch 9L's and seven-inch 7X's so effectively on the Delta. They're miffed since now they'll always have to carry a supply of 9L's and 7X's in addition to their customary five-inch Senkos. As we fished together and our time together drew to an end, huge seals swam crisscrossing patterns in the slough channels at sundown, seeking to intercept salmon or striped bass they'd bite then head-toss up into the air to keep their meal from swimming too far away between bites. As we drifted down the berms, pudgy brown beavers tanned like Delta kings on straw beds they fashioned in the tules, us flipping and pitching Cut Tails all around the unworried fellows' lairs, and raccoons light-toed trails barely wide enough for them to travel the shoreline edge in the overhanging underbrush of the place the northern California bassmen call their Delta home. A solid Snag Proof frog bite developed during the hotter windless afternoon moments. In high school many of us may have dissected frogs in bio lab class, but Delta frog doctors perform advanced procedures to surgically alter their frogs. Read how to frog-doctor from Long Nguyen, plus catch the inside pitch on how to Delta-dip in the tall tules when you join the... DOZER ON THE DELTA http://www.insideline.net/articles/delta.htm Regards, Russ Bassdozer __________________________________________________
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