Lorenzo Busts 27-11 on Day 1 at the Delta
BETHEL ISLAND, Calif. — Ronald Lorenzo only got eight bites on Day 1 of the final Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Western Division event. Lucky for Lorenzo, eight bites on the California Delta can mean nearly 28 pounds of bass. At first glance, the event’s Top 10 heading into Day 2 looks like a complete slamfest. In reality, the results come with a caveat — anglers are swinging for home runs in a cloudless, windless grind to find consistency on 1,000 miles of tidal waterways.
“It was just one here, one there,” Lorenzo said. “I caught eight fish all day. I had one big one early and I sat on two until about 11 a.m. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., I caught some more big ones. There’s a lot of big ones where I am at, but they are real finicky. It’s getting them to bite. This afternoon, the tide dropped out and they got really finicky again.”
Lorenzo said he hung around three areas all day mixing up his presentation between sight fishing techniques and scrounging for the Delta’s always-on topwater bite. By weigh-in, that strategy paid off with a tremendous bag of bass.
“My plan was to take advantage of the high tide in the morning with the topwater bite, and that is what worked,” he said. “The first spot I went to, my co-angler missed a big one on a topwater. When I saw him miss that one, I knew they were going to bite it. So, I went straight to topwater and fished three or four spots to find my good ones.”
On two occasions, Lorenzo said he watched bass follow his bait back towards the boat before exploding on his bait.
“I don’t think there’s any more of an adrenaline rush than that,” he said. “The first one was in the morning while I was paralleling a dock. I saw the fish come out from under the dock and eat it. I just let it eat and then hammered it. The second one, I threw in the tules and it came halfway back to the boat. I paused the bait and then — boom, a 6-pounder.”
Lorenzo is fresh off of a Top 10 at Clear Lake but has never held pole position on the first day of a Toyota Series event. Going into what promises to be competitive Day 2, he is keeping cool by focusing on his tactics. Though most of his fish came on the topwater bite today, Lorenzo said he also boated one bass sight fishing. He is especially interested in key areas he found in practice where the entire ecosystem appeared to be present; areas with bluegill, shiners, small bass and their weigh-in worthy relatives.
After experiencing several weeks of voracious winds, the weather on the California Delta has crawled to a halt. The forecast for Day 2 calls for only slightly lower temperatures and slightly more wind. Whether that fractional change will displace bass that Lorenzo located in practice remains to be seen. If it does, his lead could be a castle built on sand. But if the California native’s fish hold, then he could be in for a wild ride this week.
“It keeps your mind working because there are not a lot of bites to be had,” Lorenzo said. “It’s fishing tough, but there are some really good fish. You might only get a few bites, but you could have 20 pounds.”
Top 10 Pros
1. Ronald Lorenzo – 27 – 11 (5)
2. Bub Tosh – 24 – 11 (5)
3. Cristian Melton – 23 – 11 (5)
4. Ken Mah – 21 – 13 (5)
5. Randy Pierson – 21 – 9 (5)
6. Phillip Dutra – 21 – 7 (5)
7. Lane Olson – 21 – 4 (5)
8. Gregg Leonard – 21 – 2 (5)
9. Nick Salvucci – 20 – 14 (5)
10. Jordan Collom – 20 – 9 (5)
Bern Leads Strike King Co-Angler Side
Scott Bern’s short trip over the San Francisco Bay from San Rafael is already paying off, as he leads the Strike King co-angler side with 15-3. Bern said he was throwing a mix of baits, including a ChatterBait, drop-shot and Senko that ultimately netted him an 8-pound kicker.
“It was a grind,” Bern said. “It wasn’t wide open by any means. My pro was throwing a buzzbait all around and he was working the spots hot and heavy. I happened to have been to a spot before and knew there was a little micro cut in the grass, maybe just a half-foot of grass in a channel that fish move into on an island. I threw across it four or five times behind the boat, hooked up and thought it was a striper.”
Bern said he enjoys the challenge of fishing from the back of the boat. Each day, he is forced to adapt to the area his pro is fishing in and he tries to catch fish using a pattern that his pro is not utilizing. With that in mind, Bern knows Day 2 could play out differently.
“I could have in my mind to go do one thing and my pro decides to do something completely different,” Bern said. “He could pull up shallow bed fishing and I would have to find something else. But I personally love the challenge. I personally like it when the pro catches a lot of fish, but I always set the bar to try to catch as much as they do.”
Top 10 Strike King Co-anglers
1. Scott Bern – 15 – 3 (5)
2. Tracy Patton – 14 – 2 (5)
3. Tyson Christman – 13 – 2 (5)
4. Seth McLain – 12 – 13 (5)
5. Ryan Matsuura – 12 – 6 (5)
6. Gabriel Diaz – 11 – 15 (5)
7. Clint Messner – 11 – 14 (5)
8. Jay Guterding – 11 – 10 (5)
9. Michael Walsh – 11 – 7 (4)
10. Aby Nazario – 10 – 13 (5)