Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3717 Aug 3-17, 2018 | Page 32

32 Aug 3- 17, 2018 VOL. 37 • ISS. 17

BERKELEY

Salmon, Halibut, Stripers, Lings & Rockfish All Provide Red Hot Action

BERKELEY- This is one of the best summers in memory for East Bay charter boat enthusiasts. It seems like everything is biting and for limits all you need to do is decide what you want to target.

Captain James Smith and his team on the California Dawn have been running true potluck live bait trips that feature fishing both inside and outside the bay and the scores have been epic.

“ The fishing is great,” exclaimed Smith.“ It’ s been very consistent every day. For example, today we had 20 anglers and they put 40 stripers in the boat this morning. With the bass in the box we headed outside for some lingcod and rockfish and ended up with a lingcod per angler and 187 rockfish. Some of those lings were jumbos.”

The New Easy Rider continues to target salmon outside the gate with and outstanding level of success. Yesterday, Captains Joe and Joey Gallia put their anglers on 20 limits of chrome bright kings to 15 pounds.

Captain Hayden Mullins of Dragon Sportfishing has been running six pack salmon trips out of the Emeryville Marina and limits have been the results on most trips with fish ranging up to 32 pounds!

Captain Jonathan Smith of the Happy Hooker has been putting his clients on great live bait potluck action both inside and outside the bay. On his most recent adventure, his 32 anglers boated full limits of stripers and added half limits of rockfish and 41 lings to 14 pounds.

Captain Quang Vo of the Goldeneye 2000 has been splitting his time between halibut drifting and salmon mooching and the results have been a fish per rod or better. The biggest fish of both species are running up to and beyond the 30 pound mark.

BODEGA BAY

Salmon Trolling Is As Good As It Gets

BODEGA BAY- Salmon trolling remains tremendous along the Sonoma coastline with schools of fish holding in several locations from Fort Ross south to Ten Mile Beach.

Captain Rick Powers of Bodega Bay Sport Fishing and the New Sea Angler said,“ Fishing is just short of phenomenal as we finally have a marine layer forming over the Sonoma coast. The past ten days have been glassy calm with no wind, and it is expected to stay this way for another week. There are salmon all over the Sonoma coast with fish north of the harbor at Fort Ross, Goat Rock, and Carmet; outside of the head at the Whistle Buoy, and south of the harbor at Tomales Point,

Pro bass angler, Ish Monroe spent the 4th of July drifting for halibut in San Francisco Bay aboard the California Dawn and rounded up a pair of quality fish for dinner.

Photo courtesy of CALIFORNIA DAWN SPORTFISHING, Berkeley.

Marisa Escareno headed outside the Golden Gate on July 4 and was rewarded with this incredible king salmon.

Photo courtesy of PACIFIC ALLIANCE SPORTFISHING, Alameda.

Bird Rock, Elephant Rock, and along Ten- Mile Beach.”

“ You can just about pick your spot, and if you put in your time, you will limit out. We have been also picking up limits of rockfish with a few lings every time we are targeting the bottom fish on our combination trips. There is a big, big showing of anchovies, and there is feed up and down the coast. Humpback whales are working the feed. The fish were plugged with krill, but now we are finding salmon loaded with hard bait.”

A typical combination trip on the New Sea Angler was on Monday with 33 limits of salmon to 18 pounds, 33 limits of rockfish, and 11 lings to 15 pounds. Powers followed this up with 35 limits of salmon to 28 pounds on Friday less than ½ hour from the dock and also on Saturday with 48 salmon to 27 pounds for 28 anglers.

He said,“ We must have hooked 80 salmon to land the 48, and a number of fish were in the high teens and into the 20’ s. The weather has been flat calm.”

The salmon bite is so good that second captain Josh Stevens of North Bay Charters took two trips on Saturday, limiting out with quality salmon on both ventures.

Out of Lawson’ s Landing in Tomales Bay, Willie Vogler reported excellent salmon action from Bird Rock to Ten Mile Beach in 60 to 120 feet of water with a better grade of salmon showing up. He added,“ With all of that beach trolling, one would think that there’ d be a few flatties in the count, but no legal ones were reported. Inside Tomales Bay, Hog Island still has a few biting halibut, and someone tried a‘ new’ spot and discovered, hey, there’ s halibut here. The Tomales Bay bar had limits of halibut to 21 pounds for one boat.”

– David Hurley

HALF MOON BAY

Salmon Limits The Rule Off San Mateo County Coast

EL GRANADA- Salmon limits remain the rule out of Half Moon Bay with the bulk of the salmon schools hugging the coastline north of the harbor. The overall grade of salmon remains on the small, legal side, and the abundance has not only drawn boats from Half Moon Bay, but the majority of the Bay Area fleet is also working the San Mateo County coastline.

Captain Dennis Baxter of the New