Best October ever off our coast

Capt. Rick Powers, of Bodega Bay Sportfishing, said this week that he has never known salmon fishing to be as good in October as it is today.

“It’s the best I’ve ever seen,” he told me. Rick added that the lingcod fishing has also been off the charts and all of his clients are bringing home limits of rock fish, as well.

On his most recent trip out of Bodega, he had 12 clients who hooked 20 salmon, landing 12-to-28 pounds. They also caught limits, or near limits, of lingcod and full limits of rock fish.

The salmon and lingcod/rockcod combo trips are going to continue to Nov. 1, when Rick switches to Dungeness crab and lingcod/rockcod trips. He is taking reservations for that opening week. Call him at 875-3344.

Joel Sinkay and his sister, Patsy, fished off the Marin coast Tuesday on the Cal-Dawn out of Berkley and caught near limits of rockcod and of lingcod. Patsy won the jackpot with a nice 17-pound ling. She is here on vacation from Joliet, Illinois.

Inside San Francisco Bay, mediocre tides and wind kept many anglers off the water. That all changes this weekend when the tides are much better, and weather permitting the catching will be too.

Keith Fraser, at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael, said striped bass are hitting live shiners drifted off the Brothers, Sisters and Whaling Station. Anglers are also getting lots of action trolling at the top of the tide along the Marin shoreline. Keith books Bay party boats. Call him at 415-456-0321.

Largemouth bass fishing has picked up at Lake Berryessa this week, according to guide Sid Silberberg, who had several good days. He found some big balls of baitfish and trolled lures through them repeating landing 21 bass from two-and-a-half-to-four pounds. The second day this week, wind forced him and his client to fish inside one of the protected coves, where they managed to land 32 bass to five pounds. Another friend of his managed to land a 17.5-pound catfish from shore this week.

To arrange a fishing trip on Berryessa, contact Sid at bestguide@hotmail.com or 650-583-3333.

Steve Kyle finally sent me a wrap on his recent trip to the Babine River in British Columbia. It is always a challenge to edit Steve’s accounts down manageable level. Here is my edited version of his description of the trip.

“I stepped back into the Babine River and 3,000 casts and 5.5 days later, the results were nine grabs, five hooked, and three steelhead landed. That's about a fish landed every 1.5 days. It makes one wonder why anyone in their right mind would annually subject themselves to this form of financial and physical abuse.

“Steelhead.

“To those of us who invest so much time, money and energy into this sport, steelhead fishing has morphed into something that more closely resembles a religion. Reason does not apply, especially when you consider how many days each fall and winter we spend standing in cold, knee deep water, often with rain or snow swirling about our frozen fingers, casting a fly that resembles nothing edible in the known universe to a fish that has little or no interest in eating anything. We must be crazy.

“Like everyplace else on the west coast, British Columbia had another poor winter with very low snow pack to carry into the summer. Coupled with poor spring rains and hot summer days, the river was low and water quality poor with the added insult of melting glaciers dumping tons of silt into the river. All of this combined to make a menu of colored feathers a tough sell to the few fish we found but I'll be back next year. I guess I am crazy.”