Solid Bay Area Fishing Ahead as Rockfish and Crab Bite Stays Strong

Artificial Lure here with your Friday, November 14 fishing report for San Francisco Bay and the surrounding coast. The fall bite keeps rolling with solid action and prospects for a mixed bag, if you’re picking your times right and matching your baits to the bite.

Sunrise hit at 6:49 a.m., with sunset set for 4:58 p.m. The weather this morning opened cool and foggy in some spots, light west winds building to around 10 knots through midday, while skies are set to clear a bit as the day goes on. Highs will barely crack 60 degrees, so layer up—especially if you’re chasing the bay breeze.

Tidewise, today we’ve got moderate swings: low tide at 12:41 a.m. (just under a foot), a solid high tide at 7:46 a.m. around 5 and a half feet, another low 1:46 p.m. at about 1.6 feet, and a final evening high at 7:40 p.m. near 4.5 feet. Plenty of moving water means hungry fish, especially at first light and in the evening window, so plan your runs and drifts to catch the flood and ebb[SanFranciscoTides.net].

The main story this week on the saltwater side has been limits of quality rockfish and robust Dungeness crab counts for those heading outside the Gate. Headboats and private skiffs working the Marin coastline, the North Bar, and as far south as the Farallones are reporting “lights out” action, especially on the combo trips where it’s a two-for-one ticket on rocks and crabs. If you want numbers, NorCal Fish Reports says several boats were back at the dock before noon with full sacks of rockfish, lingcod up to 20 pounds, and Dungeness piles stacking up on the decks[Fish Sniffer][NorCalFishReports.com].

If you’re targeting the rockfish, nothing fancy is needed: shrimp flies, small swim baits with flasher leads, and classic metal jigs (the P-Line Laser Minnow is still king out deep). For lings, switch to larger swimbaits or root beer or white scampi tails bounced tight to the bottom. Squid and mackerel strips get bit when the bigger lings are around.

Inside the Bay, striper anglers are still seeing some nice fish, especially in the South Bay channel edges and the flats of the Berkeley and Alameda shorelines on the outgoing tide. Best bets continue to be white or chartreuse swimbaits, bucktail jigs, or live anchovies if you’re able to get ‘em. For those anchoring and soaking bait, fresh cut anchovy or pile worm near the rockpiles and piers is putting keepers on stringers, especially in the early morning moving water.

Halibut action has slowed but is by no means done—try Paradise, Angel Island, or the deeper edges off Treasure Island. Drifting live bait or jigging a white curly-tail grub tipped with herring is putting the last of the season’s flatties in the box. With the recreational halibut season set to close after tomorrow, it’s your last call for local doormats[FishingTheNorthCoast].

Some of the best action this week has come from the rocky structure in the Marin Headlands and the deep water off the Pacifica Pier—both spots seeing solid numbers of crabbers and anglers, and both producing consistent rockfish scores. Berkeley Pier remains a go-to for stripers and halibut, and when the tide swings right, South San Francisco’s Oyster Point can be a sleeper for late-autumn stripers.

To wrap up, crab rings, bait cages loaded with oily fish, white bucktail jigs for stripers, and chrome or root beer swimbaits for rockfish are your best lures and baits right now. Boat or bank, you’ve got a shot—just look for the moving water, cast near structure, and hold on.

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