Fall fishing begins now

Bay Area anglers are happy to see the long, hot summer fade into early fall, which is our best local season for fishing close to home. The waters are usually calmer and the weather generally mild. A cruise on the Bay or off the coast becomes a pleasant experience rather than an ordeal.

South of us the wide expanse of San Francisco Bay is teeming with striped bass that are hitting drifted shiners on the changing tides near Red Rock, Alcatraz, the Sisters and Angel Island. At the top of the tide, trolling along the Marin Shoreline provides lots of action on smaller, but still keeper-sized, stripers.

Halibut are also present and should keep biting into October. They can be found in generally the same area as you drift for stripers.

Finally, salmon continue to migrate through the Golden Gate on their way upstream, and several big ones have been caught off Cal City.

If you don’t have a boat that can handle Bay waters, call Keith Fraser, at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael. Keith can set you up on a variety of part boats. The best is probably a “six-pack” which holds a maximum of six anglers. Cost is approximately $150 an angler per day and you’ll get to fish for stripers, halibut and salmon depending on the tide and what’s biting. Even if you are not an avid angler, these little boats are comfortable (with a bathroom). You can bring lunch or dinner, and if you catch something, they’ll clean and filet it for you to take home in your ice chest. Call Keith at 415-456-0321.

If you want a virtual guarantee of catching lots of fish, then book a party boat with Capt. Rick Powers, of Bodega Bay Sportsfihing, for a day of action a few miles off Sonoma County’s coast. Right now Rick said his clients are getting full limits of rock fish every trip, plus lots of lingcod, and some king salmon. His combo trips cost $110 an angler per day and will be running until the Dungeness crab season opens in November, at which time he will run rock fish and crab combos.

Rick is also waiting for the first sightings of albacore tuna further out. As soon as they show up, Rick will run his boats out after them. His newest boat, the Surf Scooter,” is a fully equipped, overnight boat that usually goes out for two days. He will also be offering day trips for albacore, but be mindful that they are long days.

Call Rick at 875-3344 for more details.

If you just don’t want to go out in a boat, you can still find some striped bass in the Napa River at various spots along Cuttings Wharf Road, and at the mouth of Sonoma Creek near the Highway 37 Bridge. Live bullheads are the best bait, but the fish will also hit cut sardines, anchovies and live shrimp.

Freshwater action has been hampered in California by our drought, but Casey Rollig, of Leland Fly Fishing Ranch, caught four rainbows at Putah Creek this week. Check in with Casey for more details. The ranch is still offering fly-fishing lessons and equipment demos on the lawn at its retail shop on Arnold Drive.

Further north, there are some excellent places to fly fish this month, including the upper Sacramento River near Dunsmuir. Bob Grace, at the Ted Fay Fly Shop, said there are lots of fish in the river, especially through town.

Other good action can be found on the McCloud, Fall and Pit rivers and Hat Creek.

Shorter days and cooler nights means that the trout are getting more active, even if the water is low.