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Hot-Bites Fishing Report By the Fish Sniffer Staff	October 7, 2008 Updated Regularly

MARIN COAST ROCKFISH/S.F. BAY HALIBUT ... After an exciting summer when seemingly everyone capable of holding a fishing rod was catching halibut, things have quieted down at East Bay ports. The fishing is still red hot, but with kids now back in school and the days growing shorter, the crowds have gotten light.

If you enjoy charter boat fishing but don’t like crowds, now is the time to sign up for a trip whether you want to target halibut within the confines of the bay or head out of the gate in search of rockfish and lingcod.

“The rockfish fishing has been really hot along the Marin County Coast and the halibut fishing in the bay is pretty darn good too,” disclosed Captain James Smith of the California Dawn.

“On our last two trips we did really well. On Wednesday, September 24 we had 28 full limits of rockfish, 6 lingcod and 6 halibut. Yesterday we got 15 limits of rockfish, 8 halibut and 6 lings. Today my brother Captain Chris ran my boat and scored 30 limits of rockfish, 16 lings to 15 pounds and a surprise 23 pound Pacific halibut,” said Smith.

Captain Jim Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing has been vacationing in Alaska and returned just before press time. “We had 13 limits of rockfish on the boat today,” related Jim Smith on September 28. “The anglers also caught 9 lingcod.”

Smith is planning on moving the Happy Hooker to the Martinez Marina by the last week of October where he will spend the winter pursuing stripers and sturgeon. There are a lot of stripers holding in Suisun Bay these days, so it might be a good idea to give Smith a call to reserve your spot on one of his early November trips.

Frank Salazar at the Emeryville Sportfishing Center reported excellent rockfish fishing over the weekend of September 27. “All of our boats targeted rockfish over the weekend and they all ended up with full limits. In addition to the rockfish they added from a half to 1.5 lingcod per rod and picked up some halibut inside the bay too,” said Salazar.

“With good fishing both inside and outside the bay, we’ve been doing different things just about everyday. Sometimes our fleet stays in the bay and fishes for halibut, but at other times they go out on the ocean after bottomfish,” added Salazar.

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Area Fishing Maps Anderson Reservoir Coyote Lake Lake Del Valle Lexington Reservoir San Pablo Bay Shadow Cliffs Pt. Reyes

Hi, my name is Robert Perez. I'm from San Jose ca. My wife, Denise, and I went sturgeon fishing with the Sturgeon General of eastside San Jose. We launched out of Redwood City headed for some hot spots. We were near the Dumbarton bridge railroad trestles. I talked the sturgeon general into taking us out to his number 1 favorite spot for catching monster sturgeon. To my surprise it was only 35 min. from our home. I was beginning to have my doubts about this professional sturgeon guide, when all the sudden my wife thought she had a major snag. The so-called snag pulled her from the front of the boat to the rear were I was sitting. I grabbed her & told her to hold on for the fight of her life. Lucky for us we had 3 helping hands to land the giant sturgeon, because we could have never done it by ourselves. When we finally dragged it aboard, it was the biggest sturgeon we had ever seen. The Sturgeon General said that people fish their whole life trying to catch that 72in 100lb + sturgeon & only a hand full ever end up doing it. Well my wife Denise on her third time out sturgeon fishing landed the ultimate keeper sturgeon, 72in. 100+lbs. Now I have to call her the sturgeon queen for the rest of my life because I can never take 1st place away from her. I can only tie her and that could take a few lifetimes to happen, if ever. That's my story and thank you very much. A Special thanks to our guide, the Sturgeon General. We were able to experience the ultimate experience of sturgeon fishing.

The San Francisco bay offers a wide variety of fishing opportunities. All the anadromous species pass through the Golden Gate during their migrations. In the bay you will find California halibut, leopard shark, sturgeon, and striped bass. The sportfishing fleet frequents the Cordell Banks and the Farallon Islands. Both are excellent rock fisheries and during the season you will also find salmon. The local reservoirs provide warm water fresh fishing with the most notable being San Pablo Reservoir. Every once and a while you hear of a bass pushing 10 lbs. If you're in the Bay Area and you just have to fish, this might be the spot. Pier fishing is available at Pacifica and Berkeley.