San Francisco Fishing Report

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THE FISHING REPORT

Brian Hoffman

Thursday, April 8, 2004

PACIFIC OCEAN

Golden Gate: We'll get down to the gratuitous and obligatory speculation next week,
just before our own salmon opener (April 17). Until then, cover your head, as the
Pigeon Point bite hovers over the fishing scene ...

Half Moon Bay: The Saturday salmon salute below that jutting point called Pigeon
went off like everyone hoped. Salt air, charged air, nervous laughter, and fine
weather the whole ride down. Old news now, but the big boats overran the bite, were
hailed back, landed on the fish, and caught until the law said they no longer could.
Limits, for nearly all. Sunday was slightly slower, Monday was incredible, and
Tuesday and Wednesday weren't bad, either. The bite is just below the point, maybe
7-8 miles offshore, at or near the 50-fathom line. If you're a screen-watcher,
you're aiming for 37-08-122-30 to 04-30, roughly 22 nautical miles from Pillar Point
Harbor. If you're not, scoot south from Pillar Point, tack out just below Pigeon,
and pass the guy staring intently at his chart plotter. So Wednesday: The legend,
Bill Beckett, sat in for skipper Bob Ingles, who's off at F&G Commission
meetings, and the Queen of Hearts netted 19 salmon for 23 passengers. Flat calm on
the ride d
own, Beckett said, and then the wind woke up as the tide turned, which had a breezy
hand in their losing as many as they boxed. The Huli Cat, nearby, had 19 to 20
pounds for 17 anglers.

Santa Cruz-Monterey: The here's not actually here, as the entire Monterey Bay fleet
has been working far up the line off Pigeon, with everyone else. Going by the
opening-day scores (not bad, but definitely not good), there's no possible way to
blame them. The run is 2 1/2 hours for the fastest of the party boats, a
slow-motion-like three for the rest. So is it worth it? Oh most definitely. Limits
Monday, limits Tuesday, damn near full limits Wednesday. Odd thing, though, that the
boats arrive late and seem to catch more fish. For such issues of delicate minutia
and indelicate complexity, we go to the source, to the holy one, to the man on the
mountain, even if that mountain is an office on a pier, leaning against the Pacific.
We go to sportfishing-center owner Sonny Arcoleo, who answers: "We mooch."
They mooch. Thank you, sensei. In fact, it's true. The Monterey and Santa Cruz boats
do nothing but drift dead bait for their salmon, and have for the past 10-plus years
. And, for now, they seem to be outfishing the trollers. To wit, their Wednesday:
The Star of Monterey had 46 for 25, Caroline 20 limits and Tornado 16 limits, while
the Checkmate had it tough, with 20 for 15. Out of Santa Cruz, it was 35 for 22 on
the Wild Wave and 20 limits for the Sea Stag III. Of course, the party-boat
skippers really don't want to run three hours for their fish. First chance they
get, they say, they'll fish their own water. That chance, it seems, is today.
Arcoleo heard all day Wednesday that the so-called mosquito fleet, working anywhere
from Pacific Grove to off Mulligan Hill, was sucking up salmon, in impressive
numbers. So the plan was to fish the bay today. There are two points poking the
dreamy optimism, however: 1) Are the salmon schooled in numbers sufficient to
satisfy the party boats, and 2) what about the fact the skiffs got their fish
trolling? Just something to consider.

THE BAYS

San Francisco: Mud and muck, for the most part, but an industrious few, with tides
deeply committed to memory, are working the miles of shoreline, both sides, for
striped bass. If you aim for the very top of the tide, there is that window of
green. Doesn't last long, but it does open up the chance of actually catching fish.
Where: Oyster Point to San Mateo (look for other anglers), Alameda Rockwall and Bay
Farm Island, and the end of Ashby Avenue in Berkeley. Plugging works, as does
trolling ... Still no live anchovy available, which accounts for the following
weekend-day score for an East Bay party boat, which tried it with bagged anchovy,
drifting all the usual spots: one striped bass, one halibut and a flounder. New Huck
Finn skipper Jay Yokomizo thinks/prays the bait situation is about to change,
however. May be ridiculously optimistic, but he plans to fish the salmon opener,
then load the boat's bait tanks for his first live-bait trip of the season the very
next day, Apr
il 18.

San Pablo: Leaner times this week for the bass trollers and pluggers, as the bay
starts a bottom-out each early a.m. under a moon just past full, beaming up there
like a proud idiot. Add to that a little or a lot of wind, and you've got a roiled
mess. Now if you're sturgeon fishing -- ever have or ever will -- things are not so
bad. Starting this morning, with a -0.9 at the Gate at 8:26, a dawn session, as the
bird-loving bait man says, most definitely is in order. Through the weekend, you can
actually stop for breakfast before getting to the boat, as the tidebook reads:
Friday, -0.9 at 9: 22; Saturday, -0.8 at 10:26; and Easter, -0.6 at 11:37.
Otherwise, check back late next week.

Suisun-Delta: The Barry Boat, that well-fished collection of aluminum oddly painted
in 49ers colors (the guy's a Raiders fan), remains out of commission, as does
Canevaro, give or take the occasional excursion on his wife's boat, which fishes
just as well, truth be told. Friday and Saturday, the sturgeon fishing was solid in
Montezuma Slough and in front of the ships, with at least a keeper each day. Sunday
it went tough for the Canevaros, and Wednesday ... they had a couple of chances, set
the hooks to none. Real news this week comes in the overwhelming form of water, lots
of water, being dumped out of Keswick Dam at 13,000 cubic feet per second. The idea,
from some government office somewhere, is to flush salt deposits from the Delta and
surrounding areas. The resulting reality is all that striped bass catching the boys
and girls have enjoyed the past couple weeks is soaked, belly up. Sacramento-based
guide Bob Sparre, who had a wide-open trolling bite up at Colusa for his
customers last week, managed only eight Wednesday. The bass scattered against the
bumped-up flows; nothing much to do. On the plus side: The deluge will move more
bass upstream to spawn. What they'll find, however, is water 58-59 degrees, well
chill of the 63-64 they prefer for their particular courtship. Translated: You
still have time to get up here to fish, once the river flow comes down. The Feather
River also was opened up, to an equal 13,000 CFS. Sparre's take is the increased
flows will mean a banner weekend of striped bass fishing, with trollers (Rebels,
Bombers, Cotton Cordells, and the like) and drifters/boondogglers (live minnows)
likely to catch and catch some more, from Star Bend on down

E-mail Brian Hoffman at bhoffman@sfchronicle.com .