26 April 25, 2025 VOL. 44 • ISS. 4

BODEGA BAY / TOMALES BAY

Deep Water Rockfish and Lingcod Action Sizzles

BODEGA BAY – Rockfish and lingcod action has been superb in the deep water on the days that the New Sea Angler has been out since the April 1 groundfish opener,“ Today we fished the deep water at Rittenberg Bank,” said Captain Rick Powers on April 15, the last day he was out.“ The weather was beautiful with flat, glassy conditions. We experienced a hot rockcod bite and really good lingcod action The 16 anglers caught full limits of mainly red rockfish, with a lot of big canaries, bocaccio and vermilions in the sacks. They also landed 26 lingcod to 14 pounds. It was a great day on the ocean.” On his previous trip offshore, the 19 anglers bagged 190 rockfish and 38 lingcod up to up to 22 pounds.“ The fishing was phenomenal, with full limits of rockfish and limits of lingcod,” he reported. All of his other trips have produced limits of quality red rockfish and good numbers of lingcod. The recreational groundfish regulations in the San Francisco Management Area( from Point Arena to Pigeon Point) are available here: https:// nrm. dfg. ca. gov / FileHandler. ashx? DocumentID = 185056 & inline Halibut fishing is still tough on Tomales Bay, but that is expected to change soon.“ Gage and I trolled eight lines for three hours for two halibut, one of them a keeper,” reported.. That’ s 24 hook / hours per fish. The water is warming and there’ s the start of some bait schools in Marshall and Inverness but it’ s not quite go time.”“ It will be two weeks, maybe three weeks,” he observed.“ By that time shallow water rockfish will be open as well. It’ s all coming. The things that are going strong back in Inverness are leopard sharks and bat rays. We saw several of both while tacking around and watched the lines bounce off of several fish.”“ It looked like we were bumping into jellyfish, but there were no jellies,” he stated.“ Two baby bat rays ended up getting snagged as we trolled. They were tiny and precious and really, really wanted to poke multiple holes in Gage. To be fair, I’ ve had my moments too.”“ No holes were poked and the bambinos were released intact. Another boat from here has caught quite a few sharks and rays back there this week in 4 to 8 feet of water. They’ re there if you want them,” he advised.

“ Crabbing has been not good, still, but it seems that it is starting to slightly pick up. Shore snarers are getting a few keeper Dungeness here and there. The guys I know working traps in the outer bay have been catching limits on long soaks, but none of their crab have been large or pretty. But, hey, sport-legal mudders are better than no crab at all,” Vogler concluded.

FISHERMAN’ S WHARF / BERKELEY MARINA

Trollers Target Stripers and Halibut

SAN FRANCISCO – Charter boat anglers are catching good numbers of striped bass and a few halibut on trolling adventures on San Pablo Bay. Fishing in the south and central bays has been tough so far this season.“ We’ ve been trolling with anchovies 6 to 20 feet off Pinole,” said Captain Mike Rescino of the Lovely Martha.“ The stripers have ranged from 18 to 25 inches, with a few in the 9 to 10 lb. range. The halibut have been averaging around 26 inches long.” On his best trip to date, the 9 anglers aboard the boat landed limits of stripers and 2 halibut. On his latest trip, the 10 anglers finished up with 6 bass.“ We’ ve seen the fish scores increase today with the early arrival of spring.,” reported James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing after his trip on March 21.“ We ended up with over a fish per rod and a handful of halibut. The score was 17

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Big sturgeon are still being caught for those anglers putting in their time in the bay. Photo courtesy of Feeding Frenzy Sportfishing

striped bass and 5 halibut for 15 anglers.” A previous trip by Smith yielded 26 striped bass to 10 pounds and 1 halibut to 10 pounds for 18 anglers. Smith has also been trolling for the stripers and halibut.

- Dan Bacher

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