Overcome the visual monotony of riprap by identifying small, unique features that cause certain spots to stand out as possible bass hangouts. (Shutterstock photo)
May 28, 2025
By David A. Brown
Blake Dyer calls March 7, 2024, his son Brock’s birthdate, the biggest day of his life. Close second: September 28, 2019. That’s when Dyer won the FLW Costa Series tournament on his beloved California Delta home waters. He did so by fishing what he considers one of the most dependable bass habitats.
“Riprap was definitely the key to my success in that tournament. Especially on the Delta, it’s something I’m always going to fish,” says Dyer, who makes his home in Discovery Bay, Calif. “Those rocks hold heat well, and there’s always a lot of food around them.”
Generally defined as manmade lines of stacked rock, riprap forms breakwater boundaries, protecting everything from marina walls to residential banks to the tall levees bordering navigational routes crisscrossing the Delta’s vastness.
Mark Lassagne, of Dixon, Calif. has caught his share of Delta bass, but also plies the waters of California reservoirs like Oroville, Camanche and Shasta. No matter the body of water, riprap is one of his favorite bass habitats.
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“Riprap is one of those places you always need to check,” he says. “Many times, I’ll lower the Aqua-Vu and see them. Riprap also offers good transitions. On the Delta it’s rock to grass, but on lakes it might be rock to sand. Fish will position on those transitions, making it easy for you to target them.”
Riprap’s benefits to human property are clear, while the appeal to fish and fishermen stands equally distinct.
Nick Cloutier shares Dyer’s appreciation for riprap as bass habitat, noting the structure’s immediacy.
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“It’s very easy to visually find riprap, as opposed to offshore habitat,” the Oakley, Calif. pro says. “Anytime I go to a new lake, it’s a good starting point because there’s always fish around riprap. The main appeal is the abundance of craws that live in riprap banks. It gives them good breeding grounds and places to hide. In turn, you get a lot of bass hanging around.” Beyond crawdads, bass favorites like shiners, bluegills and shad also gravitate to riprap.
FIND THE SWEET SPOTS Whether it’s publicly accessible sections of a dam structure or those extensive Delta levees, long riprap stretches offer plenty of opportunity. On the upside, that means bass could be just about anywhere. The downside … ditto.
“There’s so much riprap and it all looks the same, so you have to find the irregularities,” Dyer says. “Some areas have tules growing into them or wood pushed up into it, and some areas have old dock pilings built into the riprap. Some areas have pumps and drains. All of this gives the bass more cover to hide in, while the pumps stir things up.”
Dyer’s a puncher at heart, so his love for driving heavily weighted Texas-rigged baits through matted grass and hyacinth rafts spurs him to find turns and oxbows, which tend to collect vegetation masses. Similarly, Cloutier likes finding tule patches 4 to 5 feet out from the rocks. This setup gives fish the option of hugging the rocks or venturing a little farther out and still feeling safe.
As Dyer notes, certain riprap banks, especially in the Delta, see significant submersed grass growth. This increases habitat for bass and forage, but the ideal scenario occurs when a distinct trough separates the rock and the grass. Particularly popular during the spring spawning season, this inner lane offers some of the most consistent bass habitat imaginable. “With the grass growing up close to a turn or bend, that’s money,” Dyer says. “If you can find a combination of a current break and healthy grass, that is the ideal combination.”
Boat positioning, Dyer says, is always important, but riprap makes this particularly relevant. While simply working the rocks with moving baits makes a 45-degree presentation sensible, Dyer likes to get up close and personal for those inner lanes.
“If there’s a trough between the riprap and the grass, you might want to get right up near the rocks and go down the trough with grass on one side and rocks on the other side,” he says. “If you stay off the rocks and cast in and out, you don’t have a strike zone. But if you find the right area, it’s game over.”
ATTACK PLAN On the Delta’s tidal waters, Dyer typically breaks down his riprap attack based on depth.
“I like a ChatterBait on high tide, a square-bill on the middle to low and a topwater frog or buzzbait on low tide—and I punch whenever I can” he says. “Some of the best mats blow into bends and oxbows. The fish have warm rocks and the cover from hyacinth. That’s the ideal scenario.”
Areas where vegetation is adjacent to riprap are bass magnets, offering both cover and radiant warmth. (David Brown photo) Dyer’s punching setup comprises a 1 1/4-ounce tungsten weight with a Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog on a 4/0 Owner Jungle Beast hook. Taking a no-nonsense approach to separating big fish from cover, Dyer punches with a 7-foot 11-inch iRod heavy punching rod and a 7.1:1 Daiwa Tatula Elite Pitch/Flip casting reel with 65-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid.
While he’s perfected this routine on the California Delta, Dyer’s confident his blend of moving baits and punching tactics will deliver anywhere he finds riprap. In his view, it’s a matter of blending quantity with quality.
“Going down a bank with a square-bill or a ChatterBait is a good way to get a limit, but if you get on a good punch bite, that’s when you can catch your bigger fish,” he says.
PRESENTATION TIPS Cloutier said those moving baits not only trigger aggressive fish, they also minimize snagging potential. Occasionally, he’ll slow down and throw a jig, but this requires a strategic technique.
“When they’re not active, if you can stroke a jig in there, you can catch a lot,” Cloutier said. “If I’m Livescoping and I see fish there, and my reaction baits are not working, I can show them another presentation with a jig.
When fishing a new lake, California pro Nick Cloutier’s first stop is usually riprap. He cites the abundance of crawfish in the rocks as a main draw for bass. (David Brown photo) “When I’m casting up and bringing it down the rocks, I’ll stroke the jig so it doesn’t ever come down into the rocks. Also, I might work a jig along the base of the riprap where the rocks meet the lakebed or riverbed.”
Lassagne closes with a less common, but highly effective riprap strategy—impact. When running square-bill crankbaits down the rocks, it’s assumed you want to hit the cover to cause that bite-triggering deflection, but Lassagne takes the whole concept even further.
“A lot of places, you can get right up on the riprap, so your baits are banging the rocks,” he says. “You can also do that with a topwater Spook. When you move it, you want it to actually hit the rocks. Also, a wake bait can be killer in 6 inches of water; going down just enough to bang those rocks. To a bass, it might look like a little mink or rat swimming along the riprap, but something about banging those rocks triggers them with something they don’t normally see.”
RIPRAP RUNDOWN Top lures and rigs for different scenarios. The Z-Man ChatterBait Elite EVO is a popular moving bait for triggering bites from bass relating to riprap. (Photo courtesy of Z-Man) The riprap arsenal may vary by angler, but a handful of choices generally appear on most decks. For simplicity, we’ll break it into reaction baits and targeting baits.
On the Move Probably the most widely used moving bait for a variety of shallow to mid-depth bass habitat, the bladed jig blends flash, vibration and sizable profile. Tungsten versions like Z-Man’s ChatterBait Elite EVO add a unique sound created by the blade impacting a denser head.
“I use a Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Zako when I want to imitate bluegills or shad, and the Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog when I know they are eating crawdads,” says California Delta ace Blake Dyer.
Cranking fits the riprap scene, and Dyer’s shallow-water go-to is the Bill Lewis Echo 1.75 in the red crawfish or fire craw colors. For deeper riprap, Dyer turns to a Norman DD22 crankbait .
Other productive reaction baits are topwaters. Walkers like the classic Heddon Zara Spook have a knack for fooling giants, while the sputtering River2Sea Whopper Plopper or a Bass Union Double Buzzbait won’t go unnoticed.
Another must-have—the hollow-body frog—plays multiple roles, from open-water walking to probing sparse tules to scooting across topped-out grass flanking riprap lines. Frogs also do a good job of prompting bedding bass to show themselves. Parking a frog over a bed is a good way to red-line a big mama’s aggression.
On Target When dense weed mats cram into turns and corners of riprap banks, send a craw-style bait or a creature bait like the venerable Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver through the cover, escorted by a 1- to 1 1/2-ounce weight. For open water, pitch a 3/8- to 1/2-ounce flipping jig with a craw-style trailer and keep it moving to prevent snags.
For lighter presentations to bed fish, heavily pressured bass or the ones left irritable by post-frontal conditions, try a wacky-rigged 5-inch stick worm like the Big Bite Baits Trick Stick or Berkley’s Powerbait The General . For a faster fall and greater distance and accuracy, move the finesse hook from the mid-section to the front third and add a nose weight to turn the wacky presentation into a Neko rig.
Dropshots will also produce around riprap, but use those slender cylinder weights, which hang up less often than round or teardrop weights. Adjust your leader length to the target depth and don’t hesitate to go super short—2 to 3 inches—for bed fish or any that are holding at the base of the riprap.
While those 6-inch finesse worms dominate the Western dropshot game, don’t hesitate to switch things up. A nose-hooked craw will get plenty of attention, while wacky rigging a 3- to 4-inch stick worm shows them a different look.
This article was featured in the May 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
