Bay Area Fishing Report: Stripers, Halibut, and Bottomfish Bite Heating Up for Fall

This is Artificial Lure with your San Francisco Bay fishing report for Saturday, October 18th, 2025.

Fall is here and the bay’s serving up some of its most exciting fishing of the season. We’ve got a high tidal coefficient today—reaching 78 by sunset according to Tides4Fishing—which means swings between deep lows and impressive highs. You can expect strong current movement throughout the day, so be sure to play those tides if you want to stay on feeding fish. Sunrise hit at 7:19 AM and sunset’s at 6:27 PM, offering over eleven hours of daylight to work those hot bites.

Weather this morning is cool and a little breezy, with a layer of marine fog rolling in early. Daytime highs should hang around the low 60s, warming a bit as the afternoon sun breaks through. Dress in layers—autumn mornings can bite harder than the striper if you’re underdressed.

Fishing action around the Bay has been fantastic all week. NorCal Fish Reports and Fish Emeryville are still flashing LIMITS OF BASS for most boats just outside the Gate and inside, with anglers routinely boxing out on schoolie striped bass and some solid keeper halibut mixed in. The best bite is still coming on the outgoing tide, especially between the Berkeley Flats and the Alcatraz/Fish Alley corridor.

Live anchovies continue to be the number one bait—either drifted or slow-trolled near the bottom. If you can’t score liveys, shiner perch are the next best thing. For folks slinging hardware, Rat-L-Trap lures in chrome and chartreuse and Yo-Zuri plugs tipped with a little plastic worm are turning heads. Plastic swimbaits with a paddle tail in white or anchovy patterns are deadly, especially near the Oakland and Richmond shoreline piers.

The bottomfish bite is staying red-hot for those running outside the Golden Gate. As reported by The Fish Sniffer, full limits of rockfish and plenty of big lingcod are rolling in for party boats heading out of Emeryville, Berkeley, and Sausalito. Focus on the Marin Coast reefs and the Farallon Islands. Drop jigs, heavy bars, or shrimp flies tipped with squid down to the 80-120 foot range. The bite is best on slack-to-swinging tides just after those morning and late afternoon highs.

A few lucky anglers are picking up the occasional white seabass on live anchovy drifts—try the southern edge of Angel Island over eelgrass beds. And for you surfcasters, things are just starting to pop for surfperch along Crissy Field and Ocean Beach, with plastic grubs, sandworms, and ghost shrimp as top producers.

If you’re after sturgeon, early storm runoff has the bite starting to wake up around the Carquinez Strait. Salmon roe and lamprey eel have been working, but don’t overlook ghost or grass shrimp, especially as those big fall tides start pulling more food off the mudflats.

For a couple hot spots today, Fisherman’s Wharf Pier 7 is a consistent striper hangout, and the Berkeley Pier area near the breakwall is firing for both bass and halibut on the outgoing tide.

Trout and salmon are still mostly off the salt, but if you fancy a change, try the local reservoirs with nightcrawlers, PowerBait, or trolling small spinners—cooler temps mean rainbow action is picking up.

That’s your October 18th update from the bay. Thanks for tuning in! If you want more tips and to stay in the know, make sure to subscribe. This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quietplease dot ai.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI