THE WEEKLY SHORELINER'S REPORT
 Summary: The winds continue to be the main obstacle to decent fishing.  The good news is that the water is much cleaner than it was a week ago.  But the fish aren't too active right now in the Bay Area.  The Delta, however, remains excellent in both the north and south.  Trout fishing is very good everywhere in the local lakes.

STRIPED BASS: There are too many little stripers in the Richmond area, and very little else except for a small number of legal schoolies taken on Kastmasters near the Golden Gate Fields.  The winds have been high and the angling low.  Better get to the Delta while they're still slamming lines.

STURGEON: Still an outside chance of catching a sturgeon from shore.  Two areas seem to have large lingering schools.  Carquinez Strait, concentrated around the Ozol Pier, has been productive on herring baits and shrimp.  Try anywhere between Eckley Pier and Martinez Pier, with the best hope being along the railroad tracks just east of Port Costa.  Another spot where the big diamondbacks remain is between Rio Vista and Isleton, if you can stand the current.  Use shrimp baits there.

PERCH: There are smallish perch on the Marin side, a little larger fish off the ocean shore, and nothing else over this way.  When the tides start coming back and clearing up the water, look for good sizes in black perch here and striped perch by the sea if the winds ever calm down.

FLATFISH: Halibut still haven't arrived on this side of the bay--or for that matter, inside the Bay System in any appreciable numbers.  Some stragglers have been caught near Angel Island and Paradise Cove, but nothing much from the shore.  They've stayed outside the Gate.

MISCELLANEOUS SPECIES: Plenty of smelt between Emeryville and Richmond, especially on the outgoing tide.  Cut anchovy is the top bait.  Sharks and bat rays have slowed somewhat, with only a few caught this past week at the Berkeley Marina, Point Isabel--and Butler's Beach, including a nice 50-pounder on blood worms.  No one's tried the Golden Gate Fields, especially the cove between the racetrack and Chavez Park, and that may be an ideal spot right now for bat rays.

FRESHWATER: Trout plants at the following lakes: Lafayette, Temescal, San Pablo, Chabot, Shadow Cliffs, Del Valle, and Phoenix.  Trout are hitting small spoons and power baits, especially chartreuse and the new corn-flavored yellow bait.  A good yield of large fish in most local lakes due to successive plantings.  Black bass fishing is fair to good on top water lures or worms,  plastic or real.
 

DELTA RUMORS: Big stripers are hitting fish-like lures and any number of fishy baits, as well as pile worms and blood worms, in both the north and the south.  In North Delta, the waterways from the Mokelumne to the San Joaquin rivers are the most productive, with the area south of Isleton also very good.  In South Delta, the Middle River and tributaries are top spots.  Black bass angling is still good with lures and plastic worms fished near weeds and tules.  Though the catfish spawn is over, there are some large channel cats caught all over South Delta on mackerels, chicken livers, nightcrawlers, and clams.  Crappie fishing is good.
 

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