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Fishing great at coast and bay

Fishing and hunting

We’re in that special time of year when the fishing is good almost anywhere you choose, and especially in San Francisco Bay and in the Pacific Ocean off the Sonoma-Marin coast.

Capt. Rick Powers, of Bodega Bay Sportfishing, is having great success providing his clients with lots of action on rockcod, lingcod and albacore. Salmon are also biting off Ten Mile Beach, and he is taking parties there, too.

Rick reports the albacore tuna are only 35 miles out and are numerous. He has also had near-limits of lingcod and full rockcod limits virtually every trip. Also, mark your calendars for the Nov. 3, opening of sport Dungeness crab season. Rick will be hosting combo trips for crab and rockfish starting then. Call him at 875-3344 to book a trip.

Halibut and striped bass are making anglers smile this week inside the Bay, reports Keith Fraser, at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael. Keith had one pair of fishermen report Tuesday that they drifted shiners off Angel Island and caught six halibut from eight-to-30 pounds. Other good live-bait drifting spots include the Brothers, Whaling Station and Red Rock. Striped bass are also hitting the live shiners in those locations and trollers are finding lots of action along the Marin shoreline at the top of the tide. Keith added that there are some excellent sturgeon tides coming up this weekend and beyond, and there are still a few salmon being caught in the Bay. Keith books party boats for Bay fishing. Call him at 415-456-0321.

Moving north, Diane Mowery, of Leonard’s Bait Shop at Port Sonoma, said anglers are catching lots of stripers on bullheads in the Napa River, Sonoma-Napa sloughs and in the Petaluma River from the flats upstream to the Sheraton Hotel in Petaluma.

Waters in the north state are starting to get very interesting now that fall has begun.

Bob Grace, at the Ted Fay Fly Shop in Dunsmuir, reports gorgeous weather and good fishing on both the upper Sacramento River and the McCloud River, which is now open after being closed for several weeks.

The fall caddis hatch is on, and there is very little pressure, so if you go, you will find lots of water with virtually no other anglers around. The Pit River is also fishing well now.

Steelhead are in the Klamath and Trinity rivers. Trout fishing is outstanding on the lower Sacramento between Redding and Anderson.

My friend, Tom Culligan, just got back again from Montana where he fished the upper Clark Fork for several days. The weather made action a little unpredictable, but he did have one half day when the guide tied on a San Juan Worm and Tom and his fishing buddy landed two 18-inch rainbows each plus another 20 or so rainbows and cutthroat trout from 12-to-15 inches.