Email  Print

Halibut fishing improves in bay

Fishing and hunting

What has been a very slow start to the halibut season on San Francisco Bay turned quite a bit better this week. Keith Fraser, at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael, said his customers are using live shiners off Red Rock, Angel Island and South Hampton to bring in some nice halibut.

Salmon fishing off Cal City (near Tiburon) has been hot and cold.  Some days the fish are in and biting, other days they are not at home. Striper fishing in the Bay this week has only been fair.  Keith does book party boats for bay fishing. Call him at 415-456-0321.

Diane, at Leonard's Bait Shop at Port Sonoma, said that several anglers fishing near the trestle across the Petaluma River near the shop have been catching some nice sized striped bass. She also got a report from a regular who said he's caught some nice stripers in the Napa River this week.

Salmon fishing off the Sonoma coast was good late last week and into Saturday, but then the winds came up and the conditions slowed the bite. Still, salmon are there and if the wind lays down, the action should improve. Capt. Rick Powers, of Bodega Bay Sportfishing, is still taking out combo trips for salmon and rockfish and lingcod and you can always count on catching some fish with Rick. He is also looking at some longer albacore trips soon. Call Rick at 875-3344 for details and reservations.

King salmon fishing on the Sacramento River remains good this week, as does salmon action on the Klamath and Trinity rivers.

Fly-fishers have lots of good choices for good action north of us.  The lower Sacramento River between Redding and Anderson is excellent now. Also good is the upper Sacramento River, Fall River, Hat Creek and the Pit River. Access to the McCloud River remains closed by various stage fire crews mopping up the Bagley Fire in that region.

I did talk to Bob Grace, at the Ted Fay Fly Shop in Dunsmuir, on Tuesday, who said the air quality is much improved on the upper Sac, and the fishing is fair to good depending on the time of day.

I also got a report from my friend Joe Aaron that the fishing on the Big Hole River in Montana is the best he's seen in several years.  The water is lower than normal, but there are some good hatches and fishing rising to them. Joe is pretty much a dry-fly purist, so if he's happy, that means the fish are too.

Bass fishing at Clear Lake and Lake Berryessa is improving as the water temperature cools. I haven't seen a lot of reports from those waters, but the ones I have seen indicate anglers who know the good spots are finding lots of acti