Weights should be big at California Delta

OAKLEY, Calif. – The MLF Toyota Series is set to visit Oakley, Calif. this week for the third and final regular-season event of the 2024 Western Division schedule at the California Delta.

“This event is going to be very unique for a June tournament on the Delta,” said Elk Grove, Calif. pro Ken Mah, who has nine Top-10 finishes on the California Delta in Toyota Series competition. “Typically, this time of the year the fish are predominantly postspawn, but I feel like the system is running behind and we’re still seeing a lot of prespawn fish being caught. So the weights are going to be a little bit better – slightly higher than we normally see in June.

“There are a lot of fish biting in the system,” Mah continued. “I think guys are going to be spread out. It’ll be typical Delta fishing – catch them however you want. We’ll see vibrating jigs, squarebills, flipping, pitching, punching, throwing frogs.

“The key to doing well is going to be working the tides. We have high tide early, and it’ll pretty much go out to a minus tide at the end of each day. So the angler that develops a pattern where they can catch them during high and low tide – it’ll be low tide during most of this tournament – is going to win.”

With the fish biting well, Mah said he expects weights to be better throughout the entire field.

“There was a local team tournament last weekend that took 25 (pounds) to win, which isn’t anything crazy on the Delta, but the thing that I was most impressed with was that even 21st place had 14.98 pounds,” Mah went on to say. “I could absolutely see someone winning with 65 pounds, but I think if a guy can catch 19 pounds a day for three days, then I could see them being right there at the end with a chance to win.”

Anglers will launch at 6 a.m. PT each day from Big Break Marina, located at 100 Big Break Road in Oakley. Weigh-ins will also be held at the marina and will begin at 2 p.m. each day.

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