Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3704 Feb 2-16, 2018 | Page 30

28 SALTWATER Feb 2 - 16, 2018 VOL.37 • ISS. 04 SALTWATER REPORTS BERKELEY/MARTINEZ Sturgeon, Stripers Offer Best Bite Until Halibut Start Hitting BERKELEY- With most skippers attending the Sacramento International Sportsmen’s Show at Cal Expo last weekend, there is little new news available about the sturgeon bite in San Pablo and Suisun Bays. Captains Chris and Jonathan Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing were having success chasing both sturgeon and stripers prior to the big show and they’ll be on the hunt again in the coming days. They are working out of the Martinez Marina. If you’d like to hit the water for a day of sturgeon fishing with the Happy Hooker Team, give them a call at (510) 223-5388. In the southern portion of San Francisco Bay some sturgeon have been reported. Private anglers working the extreme southern end of the South Bay have been doing the best. Herring and ghost shrimp have been the best baits. East Bay charter skippers are predicting very good early season halibut action this year. “I think the halibut fishing is going to be great. We saw massive numbers of small halibut last season and a good percentage of those fish are going to be keepers this year. It looks like we are in the middle of a surge in the halibut population,” said Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing. “I’m going to get started at some point in March this year. We’ll start off on the troll and then transition into drifting once live bait becomes available. I can’t wait to get after them.” BODEGA BAY Sonoma Coast Still Delivers Quality Crabs BODEGA BAY -  Dungeness crab remain a strong possibility during the winter months before the rockfish and salmon seasons are anticipated to open in April, and surf perch from the shorelines remain another possibility. Captain Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sport Fishing said, “We just came in from a crab-only trip on Sunday, January 21st, and our anglers returned with some big beautiful crab. We didn’t try for sanddabs with the big swell, but when the conditions are right, we will be working for sanddabs in addition to crab. I have a research trip for the University of California, Santa Cruz These anglers had a great trip with Captain Chris Smith on December 29, rounding up three keeper this week to Cordell sturgeon, a leopard shark and a seven gill shark while fishing San Pablo Bay. Banks, and we will take Photo courtesy of HAPPY HOOKER SPORTFISHING, Berkeley. out some squid jigs to see if the Humboldt squid have returned after a few years of end of February if the conditions are right. Lawson’s is taking camping reservations absence.” Captain Tom Mattusch of the Huli Cat up to 16 weeks in advance. “I plan on making a couple of drops said, “The weather has been calm when it - Dave Hurley for the big squid, and there is some was predicted to be rough, and it has been encouraging sign around with a commercial rough when it has been predicted to be black cod angler finding beak marks on the calm so we cancelled our crab/sand dab fish, straightened hooks, and fish pulled combination trips on Friday and Saturday.” HALF MOON BAY off the hooks so I am optimistic for the “It hasn’t been calm enough to try possibility of finding for petrale sole, but we are hoping the Maverick’s Big Surf Contest the squid. There are conditions develop in the coming weeks. Postponed, Swells Prevent massive amounts of There is no depth restriction for the sole. Fishing anchovies around, The commercial crabbers have been 2912 and I have never EL GRANADA - The first attempt at moving on to more productive areas or seen so many holding the Maverick’s Big Surf Contest off stacking out for the year, and the crab anchovies in my 35 of Pillar Point was postponed due to the counts have been improving. We ended up years of fishing off anticipated southerly winds arriving in the with 7 Dungeness and a few rock crab on of Bodega Bay,” he area on Monday and Tuesday, January 15 our most recent trip,” he added. Get to the fishing grounds Get fast on to our charter grounds boat in Moss fast Landing-Monterey the 50’ fishing on our 50’ Bay noted. and 16. All party boats in the area, including the “The warm water charter boat in Moss Landing - Monterey Bay The contest has been a boon for local WWW.KAHUNASPORTFISHING.COM Queen of Hearts and Rip Tide out of Half party boats who take out spectators to Moon Bay Sportf