Tides and Tide Turners: Bay Area Fishing Forecast for Friday, September 26th

Morning anglers, it’s Friday, September 26th, and this is Artificial Lure bringing you your on-the-water scoop for fishing in and around San Francisco Bay. Crack of dawn was at 6:58 AM and you’ll have daylight until 7:03 PM—plenty of light to chase those tides. Speaking of, we’re riding off a waxing moon with a morning low around 5:12 AM, then the tide starts filling back in through late morning. Top water activity and bites should pick up through the flooding tide, especially as that sun edges up and brings a mild breeze with it.

Weatherwise, the fog is lingering early, burning off by midmorning with high temps settling in the mid-60s. Not a lot of wind, so smaller boats can ply the bay without worrying about a nasty chop.

Now onto the action: party boats out of Berkeley and Emeryville worked the reefs hard yesterday and absolutely killed it. According to NorCal Fish Reports and SportfishingReport dot com, the California Dawn II and others put up big numbers: the Dawn had 15 anglers bringing home 50 lingcod (some pushing 22 pounds), 250 rockfish, and a whopping 200 sanddab. Over in Emeryville, the New Huck Finn and Sea Wolf each racked up catches of 20-plus lingcod and more than 100 rockfish a piece. Lots of color in those sacks—vermilion, copper, black and blue rockfish all in the mix. Lingcod are biting aggressive if you’re working deeper reefs past Alcatraz and Point Bonita.

Not to be outdone, surf and shore anglers are seeing better numbers too. Candlestick Point Pier’s been giving up some quality striped bass for folks soaking frozen anchovies or working paddle-tail swimbaits on jig heads. If you’re wading or jetty hopping around Oyster Point or the Paradise Pier, focus on those mid-morning to afternoon hours as the tide fills in—stripes and the occasional California halibut are on the prowl.

What’s working best? For lures, local sharpies are killing it with 4 to 6 inch swimbaits in bluegill or anchovy patterns, bounced on 1 to 1.5 oz bullet or football heads. Lingcod and bigger rockfish love white or chartreuse colors, especially tipped with a strip of squid. On bait, frozen anchovies and sardines remain the go-to for both shore and boat—rockfish and stripers can’t resist a fresh chunk drifting near the reef edges.

Hot spots? If you want numbers, book a trip or bring your own rig out to the South Tower and Marin Coastline reefs—they’re putting up banner scores on mixed rockfish and quality lings. For a solid bet off the bank, Pier 7 in the city and Paradise Pier in Tiburon both offer easy access to striper and halibut action, especially through that early afternoon incoming water.

Keep in mind, you’ll want to double-check those species limits. Canary rockfish have a two-fish sub-bag statewide and you can’t keep quillback, cowcod, bronzespotted or yelloweye—so recognize your rockfish, and always carry a descending device if you’re sending fish back down offshore (NOAA Fisheries and California Fish and Game Commission set those regs just this month).

That’s your boots-on-deck report for today. Lines tight and keep that drag smooth—this is one of the best Septembers we’ve seen in a stretch. Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure, your San Francisco Bay angling expert. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss a bite-by-bite report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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

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