Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3612 May 26-June 9 | Page 26

22 May 26- June 9, 2017 VOL. 36 • ISS. 13

BERKELEY & EMERYVILLE

S. F. Bay Halibut Bite Amps Up!

EAST BAY- Charter boat anglers fishing within the confines of San Francisco Bay are nailing some impressive halibut that range up into the middle 30-pound class. There are also stripers in the mix. When the tides are slow, the halibut fishing is best. When the tides get larger the striper fishing tends to accelerate.

During the California Dawn’ s most recent live bait halibut adventure out of the Berkeley Marina 24 anglers rounded up 24 halibut to 25 pounds, lots of shaker halibut and 3 keeper stripers while fishing a variety of South Bay locations.

The Happy Hooker with Captains Chris and Jonathan Smith at the wheel has been experiencing similar action. On their last trip, 21 anglers boated 21 halibut and 3 bass.

Likewise, with heavy wind keeping boats off the ocean, the Goldeneye 2000 hasn’ t been able to get outside to chase rockfish and lings, so Captain Quan has remained in the bay and has been rounding up an average of one keeper halibut per rod with the largest fish pushing up to 25-pounds.

With salmon off limits for the past couple weeks, Berkeley’ s New Easy Rider has split their time between halibut fishing inside the bay and rockcod fishing beyond the Golden Gate. On the halibut front Captain Joey Gallia has been averaging about a fish per rod on halibut that range into the middle 20-pound class. His last rockfish adventure yielded limits of rockfish and lingcod to 15 pounds for 13 anglers.

Out of the Emeryville Marina the New Huck Finn worked the flats on Sunday May 14 and put 19 halibut into the box including a massive 36-pound fish!

By the time this issue of the Fish Sniffer hits newsstands the salmon season beyond the Golden Gate will be back open and fishing will continue until

October 31.

Rockfish and lingcod action outside the gate has been excellent, but most boats have been confined to the bay over the past week due to big winds and rough conditions.

BODEGA BAY

Rockfish And Lingcod Fishing Is Great When Boats Get Out

BODEGA BAY- The salmon season reopened on Monday, May 15th, and it will remain open until October 31st. In the interim period of time during the two week closure from May 1st to 14th, the ocean has been uncooperative on most days due to high northwest winds.

However, on the few days when the winds came in from the south, rockfish and lingcod action has been very good for the few boats running either north or south of the harbor. With the northwest winds stirring up the nearshore waters, there is optimism for the remainder of the salmon season.

Captain Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sport Fishing and the New Sea Angler said,“ We have been running south to Point Reyes when it is possible, and limits of big vermilion, copper, and canary rockfish are the rule along with solid ling cod action. We have also pulled the crab pots for 525 Dungeness crab on our last four trips.”

“ We are really anxious to get back out there for salmon as there are plankton-rich waters with big balls of anchovies and pelicans working the surface out there. As we say,‘ It looks juicy’ out there with all of the brown water. The northwest winds have created upwelling, and once the weather flattens out, I can’ t wait to get back out there. This was a 12-pound salmon caught and released on one of our rockfishing trips off of Bird Rock,” Powers stated.

Captain Jeff Carmella of the six-pack, Miss Anita, has been running north to Fort Ross for quality rockfish and ling cod during the salmon closure. The ocean salmon size limit drops to 20 inches, and the salmon season traditionally peaks during the months of June and July in this section of the coast.

- by David Hurley

FISHERMAN’ S WHARF

Halibut, Stripers Prowl The Shoals

SAN FRANCISCO – Halibut fishing is very good for anglers drifting live bait in south and central San Francisco Bay aboard the Bass Tub out of Fisherman’ s Wharf, although the striper fishing has tapered

“ We’ re averaging a fish per rod or over on a mixture of halibut and stripers,” reported Erik Anfinson, captain of the Bass Tub.“ Today the boat returned from a halfday trip with 14 halibut and to 18 pounds and 4 bass for 14 anglers. The halibut averaged 8 to 10 pounds each.

“ This has been a really good season so far for halibut,” said Anfinson.“ The anglers caught the fish in 15 to 20 feet of water in the Berkeley Flats in the central bay and at San Bruno Shoals in the south bay. The fish are hitting on both the incoming and outgoing tides.”

– by Dan Bacher

HALF MOON BAY

Salmon Season Reopens Off San Mateo County Coast

EL GRANADA- It will be anyone’ s guess what lies ahead for the remainder of the ocean salmon season as the season opened up once again on May 15th, this time with a 20-inch minimum size

This huge 32 lb S. F. Bay halibut hit the deck of the New Easy Rider during a May 7 live bait potluck adventure.

Photo courtesy of NEW EASY RIDER SPORTFISHING, Berkeley

limit. The constant winds along the California coastline have created upwelling and planktonrich water, but few boats have been out during the past several days of constant northwest winds. Out of Half Moon Bay Sport Fishing, the Queen of Hearts was able to make a rockfish run during the past week on one occasion, but they returned early with 3 / 4th limits of rockfish as the winds became too much to take on their latest trip.

The previous two trips out of the

Fish

ALASKA

shop yielded 27 lingcod and 250 rockfish for 25 anglers aboard the Queen of Hearts and 90 rockfish and 1 lingcod for 9 passengers aboard the Riptide.

Captain Michael Cabanas of the Huli Cat was also able to scrape up a trip for crab-only, and they pulled pots with up to 23 Dungeness crab.

Further north in Pacifica, Rob Chaney of the Rusty Hook reported excellent crabbing from the pier as a number of

CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

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Photo courtesy of CAPTAIN HOOK SPORTFISHING, Berkeley.

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