Bay Area Bass Blitz and Lingcod Lures - Your Daily Fishing Report

Bass are still boiling in San Francisco Bay, with striped bass limits rolling in for nearly every party boat working the water yesterday. According to the Lovely Martha and Happy Hooker crews, 9/27 brought wide open action—boats saw limits of striped bass early, with plenty of catch and release, and a handful of nice halibut showing up for bonus fillets. Most of the inshore anglers around Alcatraz and Treasure Island reported much the same story: if you dropped an anchovy, sardine, or shad-pattern swimbait, you didn’t have to wait long for a hit.

Weather this morning is classic fog-to-sun transition, typical for late September around the Bay. The NOAA forecast calls for light morning fog with clearing by midday, afternoon highs peaking near 70°F, and a gentle westerly breeze building after noon. Sunrise came at 7:02 a.m., and you’ll have lines in the water until about 6:57 p.m. tonight, so get your topwater casts in during first and last light—those will be your money windows for blowups and surges.

Today’s tides are near perfect for action: an early morning high just after sunrise drawing bait up into the flats, followed by a solid outgoing tide around mid-morning. That sets up classic striper ambushes along the edges at Crissy Field, Berkeley Flats, and past the Oyster Point Channel. Don’t sleep on the South Bay, either—the outgoing flush often pushes halibut into feeding lanes just off SFO and Coyote Point, especially if you slow-drift herring or bounce ball a white swimbait with a chartreuse tail.

Rockfish and lingcod are also putting on a show outside the Gate, according to Nor Cal Fish Reports. Yesterday, the Sea Wolf out of Emeryville pulled 200 rockfish and 40 lingcod for 20 anglers, while the California Dawn II from Berkeley landed 50 lingcod (up to 22 pounds) and 250 rockfish. Lingcod are still hanging on the deep reefs off the Marin and San Mateo coasts; big paddle tail swimbaits and bars in blues, whites, and glow are top producers, but sardine or mackerel chunks will get plenty of love.

Baitwise, for stripers and halibut, herring and anchovies are the current MVPs, whether live, dead, or in scented soft plastics. Bass are still hammering on white flukes rigged weedless, as well as silver Kastmasters and mid-size SP Minnows in bone or sardine colors. If you’re chasing lings or big rockfish, don’t hesitate to rig up the heaviest jig or swimbait you can manage—there’s plenty of hungry jaws down there.

Hot spots to hit today:
- **Alcatraz and the West Side Flats** for stripers and overslot halibut during the first half of the outgoing tide.
- **Berkeley Pier and the Emeryville Channel edges**, prime for shore-bound anglers tossing swimbaits or soaking pileworms for “schoolie” stripers.
- **The Marin Coast reefs between Tennessee Cove and Rocky Point**—this stretch is loaded with lingcod and vermillion rockfish this week.

Remember, the sturgeon season reopens October 1 for catch-and-release throughout the Bay. Until then, enjoy the bass blitz and drop deep for lings while the weather window's open.

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