Summary: November looks like November--who'd have thought it?  Cold, rainy, swift outgoing tides in the evening...get yourself acclimated and geared towards wintertime fishing.  Now is the time when the true anglers are separated from the comfortable and sensible side of humanity.
 
 

STRIPED BASS: Water is chilly and the clarity is not too good.  Hair raisers and rattling lures are working by the bridges, but bait fishing will have the best results, especially live bullheads or mudsuckers.  Cut anchovies are doing nicely in the muddy flats.   Still some latecomers scattered from Tiburon to Loch Lomond and then again from Rodeo to Martinez.  South Bay has them south of the 'Stick.  Slow in the East Bay.

STURGEON:  This time of year the Mothball Fleet area is a decent gauge of the diamondback activity.  And fish are getting caught on the usual offerings, shrimp baits, eel, pile worms.  For shoreliners it is still a mystery because only in the last few days have anglers gone out and tried from the banks.  This will change.   Already some grudging admissions of fish taken from south of the Oakland Airport and along the Contra Costa side of Sablo Pablo Bay.  Stay tuned, or better yet, get out and explore for yourself.

PERCH:  Slow but steady along the rocks and pilings throughout the Bay.  Pile worms and grass shrimp will pick up some black and pile perch, with the occasional striped perch on the Marin or SF sides.  Tough prospect lately on the surf due to storm waves and reams of eel grass, but the barred and redtail are still around.  Baits and grubs.
 

MISCELLANEOUS SPECIES:  Salmon are MIA pretty much and it's just as well.  The season is over west of the I-80 Bridge on 11/09/03, Sunday.  Rumors of halibut persist in the bays but not much is confirming these rumors other than shredded tails and ghost runs.  Quiet with shark and ray activity--or at least angling--these days.  Kingfish on piers.