Halibut, sturgeon and striped bass are all biting in San Francisco and San Pablo bays right now. Having a boat, or booking a place on a party boat is the best way to catch them, but there are some good places to fish from shore also.
Keith Fraser at Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael says the halibut fishing has been particularly good the last week or so drifting shiners off Paradise, Red Rock, Berkeley Flats, South Hampton and Angel Island. Anglers are also getting nice sturgeon and striped bass action near the Pump House in San Pablo Bay.
Keith books party boats for bay fishing. You can call him at 415-456-4321.
If you want to fish from shore, I suggest McNear Park Pier in Marin. Keith can give you the location of some other shore-fishing locations.
Rock and lingcod season opened off the Sonoma Coast last weekend, but I haven’t gotten any reports yet how it went.
Local anglers who want to fish for salmon in the ocean this year will have to wait until June 17. The season will close Oct. 31. The minimum size is 20 inches. This represents about a 40 percent reduction in fishing days and it’s due to the estimates by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council that draughts has adversely effected the salmon spawn in previous years.
The regular trout season for most coastal and mountain streams open next Saturday, April 28. But many streams have special regulations regarding season dates and fish limits. Go to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website, wildlife.ca.gov, to download the regs and check out your favorite waters.
Most lakes are open all year. In fact the DFW has been planting rainbow trout in Santa Rosa’s Lake Ralphine and Marin’s Bon Tempe Lake for the last several months.
Stream fishing for trout near Sonoma is very limited. Except for a very small part of Sonoma Creek above the seasonal falls in Sugarloaf State Park, virtually all of Sonoma Creek and its tributaries are closed to trout fishing.
The Russian River is open to trout fishing, but it’s not very good. The East Branch of the Russia River, above Lake Mendocino, is also planted by DFW and can be good at times.
Depending on the weather, snowmelt and other factors, the place I choose for trout fishing is the upper Sacramento River near Dunsmuir, nearly a four-hour drive north on Interstate 5.
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