SF Fishing Report

[Wahoo!]

Golden Gate: Ten party boats made the day Wednesday, under the Golden Gate
for the ride down past Montara, and they all caught salmon and they all made
it home, safely. Suddenly, and unfortunately, that's worth mentioning. The
fleet is pulled along by the bite, which, truth be written, is just a scale
short of fantastic. Days the weather's allowed -- which has been every day,
going back to early last week -- it's mostly been easy limits, with the
boats getting business done almost in time to make the office job. Not that
you would, but the opportunity has presented itself. The salmon are schooled
thick in the ocean off Half Moon Bay, from 4 to 11 miles out. There's krill
there, and shortbelly rockfish, a few balls of sardine, most of the briney
goodness a salmonid craves.
Fishing-wise, it's all still trolling. Until more hard bait shows and
tightens up, the drifting likely will wait. But the trolling ... The Huli
Cat, acting on the salmon-skipper's mantra of "Go where you got them
the day before, " went to where they got them the day before, only the
fish didn't seem to have heard that particular axiom. So Capt. Tom Mattusch
pushed offshore, tacking south, and he found the salmon out at 37-26-122-43,
if you go by GPS. It was 8 a.m. when he called up the lines. They had seven
limits, all "quality" fish, the largest to 22 pounds. All the
rest: Wacky Jacky 14 limits to 22 pounds, Butchie B 14 limits to 22 pounds,
New El Dorado III 16 limits to 26 pounds, El Dorado 17 limits to 19 pounds,
New Seeker 11 limits to 27 pounds, Salty Lady 18 limits to 25 pounds, Hog
Heaven eight limits to 18 pounds, Flying Fish 11 limits to 24 pounds, New
Rayann 13 limits to 24 pounds, and the Outer Limits called it with 42 salmon
to 28 pounds for its 22 anglers.
Bodega Bay: The reports are mixed, caught between the luxury of needing a
handful of fish for a private boat and the 12 or 60 needed to sustain one of
the big boats. So we have a little of both, but not enough to really satisfy
either. The six-pack charter Calico, on Tuesday, trolled at the Whistle Buoy
for two keeper salmon, the pig of which went 30 pounds. Outside the buoy, at
38-18-123-12, two guys fishing in a Farallon trolled up their limit, four
fish to -- yep -- 30 pounds, dressed. Wednesday, the Calico, for the day,
threw back two undersize salmon and a shaker lingcod (that's a joke, by the
way), one other party boat landed a keeper-size king and most everyone else
rolled a goose egg. Two factors: Wind and scant little in the way of bait.
Putting on the krill-tinted glasses: The wind has the ocean set to Active
Upwelling, dropping the surface temp to 48 degrees and all but ensuring
there will be bait in the area soon.
Monterey: "Up and down," says Chris' Sportfishing Center
(831-375-5951) owner Sonny Arcoleo, by which it's possible he means up and
back down the coast, which is what the fleet has been doing. Monday, hearing
the commercial fleet was filling the boxes off Pigeon Point, Sonny's boat
ran up, trolled, and basically whiffed. Tuesday, they followed the
commercial call down to Cypress Point, whiffed again and ran back north and
east for Three Trees, where the Checkmate, for one, had 20 kings for 14
anglers. The Wild Wave, right there, reportedly had 11 limits. Wednesday,
following the krill and looking for salmon, the Checkmate managed only six
for 12.
About Saturday: Little has surfaced in the way of news since the Contender
went down off Ocean Beach. There has, however, been rampant speculation
mixed with nervous rumor. Never good, but it's what people do. The only sure
thing out there is that more will be known if the boat is salvaged, which is
supposed to happen next week. However it plays out, and before anyone
condemns the party-boat fleets as a whole, keep in mind: Twenty-eight people
went in the drink that day, and 28 were pulled out. All by party boats that
arrived on the scene before the Contender sank and long before the Coast
Guard even arrived. Let's hope they never have to risk the chance again.


The bays
San Francisco: Getting back to fishing, which is what we do here, the
potluck critters finally are back where they should be -- on the flats and
along the shorelines and, even better, on the business end of fishing lines.
The potluck boats and skiffs ("side-dishes"?) are working the
flats and coming away with both halibut and striped bass. Latest scores come
from Wednesday, with two within the Family Smith reporting. James Smith's
California Dawn, fighting the murk in the water and big tides like everyone
else, put in four bass to 18 pounds and four halibut to 15 pounds. Papa
Smith's Happy Hooker bagged 13 halibut and three bass. Both were drifting
the Berkeley Flats, between E and M buoys, with live anchovy and sardine.
Off Oyster Point, the trollers, commercial and private, still are working
their gear, either bait (frozen anchovy and sardine) or plastic (squid
skirts and plugs) for one to four halibut a day.
San Pablo: Going back to the weekend and somewhat punier tides, James Smith
said the California Dawn did "really well" for bass drifting
between buoys 2 and 4. The boat also caught fish on that time-honored drift
that splits the Brothers Islands. Bouncing ahead to Wednesday, sage of all
skiff fishing Tommy Glasser and his onetime deckhand Ryan Grisso did some
trolling along San Quentin (four striped bass each) and then at the
Brickyard (four total). No consistency to the fishing, Glasser concluded,
but he did have plans to drift the Brothers today ... The better action, all
tell, is off Pinole, where the bass are being caught from shore (Hair
Raiser-type lures, swimbaits, Kastmasters, Rapalas) and then from boats,
trolling and plugging.
Suisun-Delta: Suddenly, it's gone cold. Not in a chill-in-the-bones sense,
but more in the fish-won't-bite sense, which will chill your calcium just as
well. Skipper Barry Canevaro heard of some small-ish striped bass caught by
trollers up around Rio Vista, and then some even smaller bass caught on shad
in the same area. He also heard tell of two sturgeon wrestled from the water
off Decker Island over the weekend. Beyond that, there isn't much, unless
you're after black bass. Local legend Bobby Barrack keeps winning Delta
tournaments, and he'll forever rave about the fishing. He starts at Frank's
Tract most days, and lets the tide and honed knowledge take him.