San Francisco Bay Fishing Report - Stripers, Halibut, and Winter Forage in Cold, Stormy Waters

This is Artificial Lure with your San Francisco Bay fishing report.

We’re coming off a big king tide cycle and a run of wet storms, so the bay’s got some color and plenty of moving water. ABC7 and NOAA both note an exceptionally wet pattern lately, with high reservoirs and recent record king tides pushing extra debris and turbidity around the estuary. That off‑green water is actually good for stripers and halibut if you hit the current breaks.

According to Tides4Fishing, the bay today sees a pre‑dawn high, a mid‑morning low, then another solid afternoon push. That first couple hours of outgoing after sunrise, and the first half of the afternoon flood, are your money windows. Same source pegs sunrise around 7:25 and sunset just after 5:05, giving you a tight winter bite window when the water warms a touch mid‑day.

Weatherwise, NorCal outlets are calling for cool 50s, light winds in the morning, building breeze in the afternoon. Post‑storm skies mean chilly starts, so expect a slower early bite that ramps up when the tide and sun line up.

Fish activity: inside the Gate, the winter mix is classic – schoolie striped bass, resident halibut for the patient, jacksmelt, and a few late rockfish and lingcod for boats poking out along the edges when conditions allow. With commercial crab boats out again off Bodega, there’s renewed crab around the outer coast; that always draws forage and predators toward the Golden Gate on the big tides.

Recent party‑boat chatter up and down the coast, summarized on SportfishingReport, shows solid rockfish and lingcod scores where boats can safely get to structure. Translate that locally: if you can run just outside the Gate on a calm morning, the reefs off Marin and the south bar edges still hold quality rockfish and the odd ling. Inside, pier and shoreline reports have been steady on small stripers and perch with the higher tide.

Best lures:
- For stripers:
• 3–4 inch paddle‑tails in pearl/anchovy or chartreuse on 3/8–1/2 oz heads
• 1–1.5 oz chrome jigging spoons around current seams
- For halibut:
• Slow‑trolled swimbaits or hoochies behind a drift sinker
• Small metal spoons hopped along sandy bottom

Best bait:
- Stripers: pile worms, blood worms, or anchovy chunks on a hi‑lo rig
- Halibut: live anchovy or shiner, or a fresh herring if the bait shows
- Bay crab (where open and legal): crab snares with squid or oily fish; local shops are pushing six‑loop snares for Dungeness off the beach.

Couple hot spots to try:
- **Alameda Rockwall and Ballena Bay**: good winter striper lane on the outgoing, plus a shot at halibut on the sand edges.
- **Fort Point to Crissy Field**: fish the lee and rips on the turn of the tide for bass and the odd halibut when the swell backs off.

Work the moving water, keep an eye on that debris from the storms, and downsize your gear if the bite feels finicky in that cold bay water.

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