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Fishing is great in bay and ocean

 

This is the weekend to go fishing either in San Francisco Bay or in the Pacific Ocean off Sonoma County's coast. Either place will provide you with good-to-fantastic action.

I spoke to Capt. Rick Powers late Wednesday morning while he was still out with his clients trolling for salmon near Ten-mile Beach. They already had more than a salmon a rod, and still had several hours of fishing to do. As we spoke, a whale rose up just a few yards from the boat. Rick said he has been having fantastic salmon fishing all week, and also picking up some halibut and rock fish as well. Call him at 875-3344 to book a trip.

Keith Fraser, at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael, reports good to very-good striped bass fishing, good halibut action, and fantastic sturgeon tides for the weekend. This could be an opportunity for a San Francisco Bay "hat trick," which is limits of sturgeon, stripers and halibut all in the same day. Call Keith at 415-456-0321 to book a party boat or get the latest conditions.

Valerie Lightbourne, of Leonard's Bait Shop at Port Sonoma, also reports good fishing on the Petaluma River, where anglers are catching stripers right off the bank near the bait shop and also hooking some large sturgeon upstream on the Petaluma River. She has plenty of live shrimp, bullheads and other live bait available. Call her at 762-7818 for the latest fishing and bait reports.

Clear Lake is starting to "bloom" with summer algae, which is not usually good for the fishing. Lake Sonoma reports indicate fair action, while Berryessa is a busy place for boats, but anglers can still find some decent fishing in the coves.

Fly-fishing on the upper Sacramento River is very good right now. The Pit River, McCloud River and Hat Creek are all fishing fair to good. Larry Murphy returned recently from a fly-fishing trip on the Walker River and had some good days and not so good. He did report landing one monster fish. Ask him to hold his hands up and show you just how big it was.