Salmon season opens Sunday

Have a father who likes to fish? Then celebrate Father’s Day by taking him out for the day on the “New Sea Angler,” the party boat captained by Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sportsfishing. Sunday, June 17, is opening day for salmon season.

Rick reports the ocean waters off the Sonoma coast are teeming with krill, a favorite food of king salmon, and conditions are excellent for a good salmon opener. Rick has been having very successful rock and lingcod fishing trips this week, with the added plus of limits of Dungeness crab.

With the salmon opener, he will be offering combo salmon and rockfish trips. The cost is $130 per person for a full day of fishing. Call Rick at 875-3344 to book a trip.

Action inside San Francisco Bay is also excellent right now with halibut and striped bass caught in large numbers. If you don’t own a boat, fishing on the Paradise Park Pier in Marin County is a good place.

You can also book a party boat to go fishing on the Bay. That would allow you to move around depending on the tides and other conditions to catch both stripers and halibut on the same trip.

Keith Fraser of Loch Lomond Bait Shop in San Rafael is the guy to call to book a party boat, buy bait and get information about the best places to fish. Call Keith at 415-456-0321.

If you want to move further inland to fish and like using flies, guide Hogan Brown will take you on a grand adventure fishing for striped bass in the Sacramento River near Chico. At this time of year, the bass like to hide in the weeds on the edge of the main current and then attack small bait fish that might swim buy.

Hogan rigs you up with flies that look like these minnows and directs you to cast them near the edge of the weeds. If one of those big bad stripers hits the fly, you will enjoy a good fight. Call Hogan at 530-514-2453 or go to his website, hgbflyfishing.com.

Largemouth bass anglers who don’t mind hot water can still find lots of bass at Clear Lake and Lake Berryessa. The trip is finding days with the recreation boats and skiers are not buzzing around where you’re fishing. One of the guides who knows those lakes is Larry Hemphill. His website is lunkerlarry.com.

Another good source for fishing in our area is Off the Hook Flyfishing and Travel based in Napa. Check out their website at offthehookflyfishing.com. They offering guided trips all over Northern California. Local phone is 287-2939.