{http://songslinger.virtualave.net/fishing.html}
 
 
 
 
 

Summary: The wind has been coming up early in recent days and the water is cold and gritty.  It's a challenge, same as it ever was.  If you want the easy way out, try Lake Safeway.
 
 

STRIPED BASS: They are moving through the system and changing locations daily.  If you hear of a hot spot, best thing to do is approach it from a couple miles down river and work your way up.  Yesterday's oasis can all too easily become today's desert.  So, for what it's worth, recent hot spots of the week:  Point Isabel on Hair Raisers; Marina Bay on Fish Traps and Rat-L-Traps; San Pablo Bay on the Marin side on Kastmasters and Hair Raisers, and on the Contra Costa side with the same lures as well as cut baits and grass shrimp.

STURGEON: No change. Montezuma Slough Bridge and the Red Barn have been productive lately on shrimp baits.  So has Cache Slough at Liberty Island.  And they are still catching diamondbacks around Mare Island in Vallejo.

PERCH: There are some gigantic black perch roaming the East bay.  The bad news is that they are seriously pregnant and it's best to let them be.  Striped perch are in small numbers on both sides of the Golden Gate.  Barred and sliver perch are scattered in the surf, but it's only worth trying when the wind and waves cooperate.

MISCELLANEOUS SPECIES:  Bat rays are present and will snatch just about any bait.  Kingfish and jacksmelt are sporadic.  Halibut fishing is going well enough at Berkeley Pier, with a smaller success rate in South Bay by Oyster Point.  Short halibut can be caught on lures at San Quentin Point.

FRESHWATER: Trout planted at Chabot, Contra Loma, and Shadow Cliffs.  Kastmasters and Rooster Tails are working, but the old standby remains PowerBait (colors change daily), followed by nightcrawlers and marshmallows.  Black bass fishing is good on worms, plastic and real.  Use white shrimp for catfish and get some large channels.
 

DELTA RUMORS:  North or South, it's the same thing: you're either really lucky or totally skunked.  Not much in-between.  Striped bass have been caught all over the Delta, with the best places being Georgiana Slough, Sherman Island, Middle River, and Downtown Stockton.  Baits vary, more out of desperation than strategy: frozen shad, frozen sardines, frozen anchovies, live jumbo minnows, pile worms, and grass shrimp--all have tricked stripers recently.  Rat-L-Traps, Broken Back Rebels, and Hair Raisers are all equally effective. If you are after the spawning black bass, the best bait has been artificial worms with the Senko style topping all others.    Sturgeon are at Cache Slough and from Sherman Island all the way into the Suisun Bay. Crappies are hitting minnows and red worms in the South.