Stripers on Fire, Lingcod Limits, and Solunar Secrets: Your Bay Fishing Report for October 19th, 2025

Good morning Bay anglers, Artificial Lure here with your Sunday, October 19th, 2025 San Francisco Bay fishing report.

First light hit the water at 7:22 a.m., and we’ll see sunset at 6:25 p.m. Today brings us a classic mid-October combo: cool marine air in the 50s warming into the mid-60s by midday, with a light westerly breeze—prime fishing weather. High tidal activity is the story right now, with a robust tidal coefficient of 83. We started the morning with a 1.1 ft low tide at 4:25 am, rising to a solid 5.7 ft high at 11:01 am, before easing down to a smaller .7 ft low at 5:07 pm and a midnight high right under 5 feet according to Tides4Fishing. These strong, moving tides mean lively fish and plenty of current working in your favor today.

Let’s talk fish counts—here’s the pulse on your favorite Bay species, straight off the party boat docks:
- Stripers are hot this weekend. The Oakland Anglers II checked in with 44 striped bass on a half-day trip, while the Pacific Pearl put up 24 linesiders and 13 halibut for 12 anglers on a full-day. The Lovely Martha reported 20 stripers and 6 halibut out of San Francisco.
- If rockfish and lingcod are your game, it’s flat-out limits across the boats. The Sea Wolf out of Emeryville tallied up 46 lingcod and 230 rockfish for 23 anglers, and the big ling bite continues with the California Dawn’s 30 lingcod (some up to 23 pounds) and a whopping 150 rockfish. New Rayann in Sausalito decked 34 lingcod and 170 rockfish—and those are just the highlights from Nor Cal Fish Reports and Sportfishing Report.

Most action is centered around the deeper structure and bridge pilings. Use swimbaits and bucktail jigs for both striped bass and halibut—chartreuse and white are perennial favorites. The stripers are slamming topwater plugs and soft plastics early, especially during strong outgoing flows. The halibut are picking up live anchovies and herring, but frozen tray bait is taking its share as well. Don’t overlook drifting shiner perch if you can net them.

For rockfish and lingcod, break out the shrimp flies paired with squid or herring strips. Large paddle-tail plastics or heavy iron jigs bounced off the bottom on the Marin side reefs are triggering some impressive lingcod. Color tip: It’s been a “motor oil” or root beer day for plastics, and salmon-belly or whole squid will up your odds for bigger lings.

If you’re boatless, get on the action from the shorelines at Crissy Field or the San Mateo Bridge—stripers are busting bait in the surf and around the pilings on top of the tide, particularly at dawn and dusk. The Berkeley Flats and Angel Island are the go-tos for live bait halibut drifts. For structure hounds, the Marin Coast and South Channel are kicking out steady rockfish limits to those working deeper water and rocky ledges.

Conditions are prime for a big bite window with all this tidal movement; look for the major peaks in solunar activity to coincide with your best chance at that trophy catch. The wind is light, the current is right, and bait is thick—October in the Bay doesn’t get much better.

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