San Francisco Ocean Fishing Report 9/24/05

[Wahoo!]

PACIFIC OCEAN
Golden Gate: The seaweed salad days (not bad, actually, if you've never
tried it) finally are upon us, through us, infused about us and largely
responsible for the cheese-grinned skippers striding about the decks and
docks. Three bucks and change per gallon of diesel? Folly, they say, as
a reasonable means to such fine, fine fishing. Lordy yes.
The weather of the salmon days maybe hasn't been so good, all shades of
gray and wind to bedevil, if not outright capsize, the smaller boats
among us. For the big boys and girls, though, conditions have been
little more than a mild annoyance. The kind of annoyance, say, that
might emanate from the smell associated with a passenger, or 10, who
didn't quite make it to the rail. More fluff that, mates, nothing to
worry over. What we have here is the heart of the spirit of the meat of
the beast of the 2005 Salmon Run (1,600,000 strong, right?). They're
here now, schooled and willing, staging in our salty front yard before
the fresh and perilous journey home. Our endorsement: Catch them now,
before they're gone.
God, Wednesday. Yesterday. The dull overcast melted into easy blue. The
sun found the water. The wind wasn't. The boats ran and they stopped,
same as always, from a mile above the green can to a mile below, all of
them creatures of the Duxbury habit. They fished and the fish bit. There
was harmony and there was salmon slime. All the rest is scores:
The New Easy Rider with 22 limits to 30 pounds, Hog Heaven eight limits
to 28, Blue Runner seven limits to 22, Outer Limits 23 salmon to 24
pounds for 21, New Rayann 21 to 26 for 18, Salty Lady 19 to 25 for 17,
New Salmon Queen 16 to 22 for 11, New Seeker 10 to 25 for eight, El
Dorado 12 to 24 for 20, and the Wacky Jacky 12 to 22 for 20.
Tuesday, just to grind it, was all limits for nearly all the boats. The
private boaters, meanwhile, are having little trouble landing their
limits.
Other places: Just one charter out of Will's Bait and Tackle on
Wednesday, a six-pack that found bait and working birds near Bird Rock
(where else?) and trolled up four limits of salmon ... Pillar Point's
Huck Finn Sportfishing sent two boats Wednesday, the Tigerfish with
eight limits of rockfish and two lings at Martins Beach and the New
Capt. Pete with 30 limits of rockfish from Pescadero ... Santa
Cruz-Monterey: The rockfishing, much like everywhere else, is fairly
sensational, with limits for about all who try. Chris' Sportfishing had
an albacore trip on the books for this week, but scrapped the notion
when it became clear (via satellite image) that the tuna water had slid
too far offshore. Word had one party boat making a run for longfins
Monday. The catch: One.
Rocks and islands: Still absolutely wide open for rockfish and lingcod,
whether at the Farallones or Point Reyes or the Towers or -- what the
hell? -- around the North Tower of the Golden Gate, if you're that
inclined ... Ah, and this: Bonita Cove, a half moon of bliss in an often
wind-racked world, is playing host to white sea bass and halibut, as it
usually does this time of year. Both species (and several more) are
caught mainly on drifted bait (live anchovy, preferably). Drop to the
bottom, drag your bait over said sandy bottom, wait for a pull-down, and
then scream your lungs out. If it's a white sea bass, it will pull line.
And pull line. And pull more line. The Emeryville-based party boat New
Huck Finn had one on first thing yesterday morning, and 100 yards later,
the fish finally wore down the leader. In the past week, several white
sea bass to 30 pounds have been landed. Who knows how many more have
been lost.

Robert Gallia of the charter boat El Dorado said salmon fishing around
the Duxbury area continues to sizzle, with the Berkeley fleet reporting
in with fish averaging 15-25 pounds. Most of the skippers reported in
last weekend with a fish and half up to short load limits. A new wave of
salmon moved into the area during the weekend, and the fleet continued
to enjoy their arrival into Tuesday. They have been holding on the
deeper side and seem to prefer the larger bait, such as herring. The
feed that moved into the area seems to be holding between Duxbury and
Muir Beach in 70 feet of water. The last two weeks have been the best
two weeks of the entire year, and there may be more moving down from
above. For more info, visit Berkeleysportfishing.com.
James Smith had the charter boat California Dawn by the Farallon Islands
on Sunday and caught 17 limits of rock fish and 17 limits of ling cod up
to 20 pounds.
Craig Stone of Emeryville Sportfishing also said the Bay Area salmon
fleet has been finding excellent action off the Marin County coastline,
with the largest salmon of the season being taken. The salmon this week
have been averaging 18-22 pounds with larger fish taken up to 40 pounds.
Out of Emeryville on Tuesday, three boats reported in with collectively
38 salmon to 28 pounds for their combined 33 anglers aboard. Also on
Tuesday out of Emeryville, the New Huck Finn on their potluck trip,
reported in with 108 rockfish, adding limits of ling cod to 27 pounds
for their 13 anglers aboard fishing off the Marin coastline.

[Cuban_Fish]

Good read, thanks.