It had been a week since our last bass trip into San Pablo Bay. A week of rain, wind and big tides. “Surely the bass have scattered by now” we mused, as we headed out Saturday (November 12) armed with a tank full of bullheads and mud suckers.

Sure enough – there had been a change – the fish were bigger! Though we caught nothing suitable for hanging over the fireplace (do people still do that?), most of the fish we caught were between 8 and 10 pounds with a few bigger…and a few smaller fish in the mix.

Even though we had several shark baits out as well, only 2 leopard sharks were caught.

Bottom line; 30 bass to 14 pounds and 2 leopard sharks for 15 anglers. Good fishing, Gordon Hough

Commercial crab season opens this week!

Been a few trips since the last fish report – so in an effort to catch up – here’s the week in review.

Sunday, October 30. Expectations were running high after Friday’s bass limits as we headed West to the edge of the channel in San Pablo Bay. The bass were there waiting, and by noon we had limits for all aboard. With all the bass we could keep, we re-rigged and re-baited in hopes of catching a few leopard sharks.

Contrary to rumors spread by our competitors, we do not use baby kittens for shark bait.

The sharks were biting, but we lost as many to broken lines, broken leaders and straightened out hooks as we caught. Sharks really fight.

Bottom Line; 24 bass to 13 pounds and 6 leopard sharks for 12 anglers.

Friday November 4. Is it possible those dumb bass were still in town after a week? We headed down bay to the same spot with the same bait and withing a few hours, the same results. There was a pretty good outgoing tide in the afternoon, so we switched to shrimp and headed for the flats. In a matter of minutes we had our first sturgeon of the season, a spunky 51 incher. We had a couple more sturgeon opportunities too, but you can’t catch them all. There were also so many bass eating our shrimp baits we nearly limited out on bass again! Between the bass, sharks, sturgeon and bat rays, the day ended with lots of action for all aboard.

Bottom line; 22 bass (kept) to 14 pounds, 2 leopard sharks, 1 sturgeon (51 inches), 4000 sand sharks (estimate) 1 seven gill shark and 5 bat rays (Chuck’s personal favorite).

Saturday November 4. With the first real storm of the season on its way, we headed out in hopes of catching some fish before the wind and rain’s arrival. There seems to be bass everywhere! Limits were aboard before noon, so we took our shrimp and headed north in hopes of finding another sturgeon or two. By then the nasty weather was well on its way, and after a half dozen or so more bass and a few sharks it was just too rough to see a bite.

Bottom line; 18 bass (kept), 4 leopard sharks and 1500 sand sharks (estimate).

Good fishing, Gordon Hough

We headed out Friday (October 28) morning armed with bullheads and grass shrimp bound for San Pablo Bay for a day of bass (and we hoped) sturgeon fishing in San Pablo Bay. Though the tides for sturgeon fishing were poor, everything was just right for the bass.

First stop, all lines were rigged with bullheads in the deep (40 feet) water near buoy 7. Before the last line was cast out, the first was already hooked up! The bass were really biting.

By 10:30 we had our bass limits along with a few leopards sharks.

We re-rigged for sturgeon and headed for the flats. Everything looked fishy, but the only sturgeon action was from the one I saw jump. Still, there was constant action from bass (they like shrimp too), bat rays, skates and far too many sand sharks.

Last stop was near the channel at buoy 11. More of the same, bass, rays and sharks,

Bottom line; 9 limits of bass (kept), 3 leopard sharks, 7 bat rays, 15 thousand sand sharks (estimate) and 1 rarely seen Thornback Guitarfish (see below) caught by Tom Gee of Berkeley on a bullhead.

Battleship Iowa leaving the Mothball Fleet bound for a maritime museum in Los Angeles.

I read in this morning’s Chronicle that tomorrow (Friday) is the end of the world.

Guess I never will prefect my typing skills…

Our first anchor trip of the season (Wednesday October 19) began with 20 knots of westerly howling through Carquinez Straits. That much wind combined with a puny one foot outgoing tide pretty much ruled out San Pablo Bay as a viable option, so we headed east to Suisun Bay armed with bullheads and grass shrimp. Rumors floating about suggest there are bass and sturgeon aplenty east of the last row of the Mothball fleet, but by the time we got to the Benicia bridge it was obvious the weather was not user friendly there either.

But the weather was calm and there were fish on the meter near the bridge, so we anchored up a couple hundred yards east of the Benicia bridge and cast out the bullheads. The action was immediate and constant through the last trickle of the incoming, and all through the aforementioned wimpy outgoing as well.

Towards the end of the day Tom Gee of Berkeley decided to give the grass shrimp a try. Three casts – three bass.

Which begs the question; Did we really need to spend a million dollars on bullheads, or could we have been sturgeon and bass fishing at the same time with the shrimp?

Hindsight in the fishing business is usually pretty good…

Bottom line; Twenty bass to twelve pounds for ten anglers. Good fishing, Gordon Hough

We have wrapped up our 2011 Potluck Season departing from the Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael.

After brief stop at the shipyard, we’ll be returning to the Crockett Marina on Monday October 17th for sturgeon, bass and shark fishing. Hope to see you soon! Good fishing, Gordon Hough

Fall was in the air on the first weekend of October as we headed out Saturday morning. Most aboard had rent rods (a sure sign of first timers), so we stopped at Paradise Cove for some practice. There were some fish to be had too, we caught a few halibut and a few bass while explaining the use of the rental equipment and what to do when a fish happens by.

After the outgoing tide fizzled out, we headed outside the Gate for a little rock cod fishing. The red, blue and black cod were really biting, and there was plenty of action for all aboard.

As the tide back off we headed for Wednesday’s hot spot (Alcatraz) to make halibut fishing history. This was going to be good! Ninety minutes passed. Total catch; One dungenese crab and a barnacle encrusted hose.

We headed over to Southampton Shoal for our last stop, and it was obvious we should have been there much sooner! There were a few halibut, and plenty of bass caught and lost.

Bottom Line; 7 halibut to 15 pounds, 13 bass to 11 pounds, 1 ling cod, 1 kelp greenling, 1 leopard shark and 145 black, blue, and red rock fish for 18 anglers.

With a light load on Sunday and bait in the tank, we figured on the same game plan minus the previous day’s ill fated trip to Alcatraz. It was a slow pick everywhere we stopped, and a severe case of the “dropsies” didn’t help either. A number of halibut escaped. Still, there were a few in the box as we headed for home.

Bottom Line; 3 halibut to 17.5 pounds, 3 bass to 7 pounds, two lings to 10.5 pounds and 33 rock cod for 6 anglers. Good fishing, Gordon Hough

Yesterday (Sept. 28) was a beautiful Fall day, and our first stop was the bait dock.

From there a slack tide pass in the deep water just north of Treasure Island  yielded one bass and one leopard shark. There are big tides this week, so we elected to do a little rock cod fishing until the incoming tide backed off a bit. The cod bite started off slow, but by mid morning they were really biting. We could have easily limited out (and nearly did), but the tide was backing down and it was time to head for Alcatraz for some serious halibut fishing. First drift west of the island we had two Alcatraz escapees!

In fact, the first halibut caught after our arrival was by a hungry sea lion.

As the tide back off there was a steady pick of halibut and bass, hooked and lost.

Once the tide fizzled out we headed for Raccoon Straits for the first of the outgoing tide. This looked very fishy! Unfortunately the resident anchovy stealing harbor seal would not grant us permission to fish there. He stole our baits faster than we could put them on!

We finished off our day just south of Red Rock where we caught a couple more halibut just short of the mark. Sorry Chuck.

Bottom line; 6 halibut to 16.5 pounds, 4 bass to 7 pounds and 85 rock cod kept for 10 anglers.

Good fishing, Gordon Hough

Week in review

I’ve been shirking my blogging responsibilities lately, so here’s what’s happened the last three days;

Friday while fishing near Red Rock and just outside the Gate we caught 11 halibut to ten pounds, 1 seven pound bass and 25 assorted rock cod for 9 anglers.

Saturday while fishing near Southampton Shoal and the rocks just outside the Gate we caught 11 halibut to 14 pounds, 4 seven pound bass, 4 ling cod and 65 rock cod for 20 anglers.

Sunday while again fishing near Southampton Shoal and the rocks just inside the Gate we caught 12 halibut to 10 pounds, 3 ling cod, one 15 pound salmon (released) and 85 rock cod for 14 anglers.

This is a nice time of year for “Potluck” fishing in our bay. The weather is beautiful most days, and though there have been very few big halibut (this is normally when we catch bigger fish) and very few bass (there’s normally a lot of bass in the Fall) the halibut fishing has improved a bit, and there’s plenty of action.

Good fishing, Gordon Hough

What a boat ride!

We started out Wednesday morning (September 14) with just enough bait left in the tank for the last trickle of outgoing tide near the channel a couple miles south of Red Rock. Just enough tide and bait for one halibut and a couple shakers.

After restocking the bait tank, we headed for Alcatraz/Mel’s Reef. Three drifts and not so much as a nibble later we headed out the Gate to fish the rocks around Mile Light for cod, and Baker Beach for halibutzilla.

It was windy, nasty and not fishable!

However, the north side was flat calm. There we found a steady pick of rock fish and dozens of shaker lings near Pt. Diablo while waiting for the tide to back down.

Next stop was the west side of Angel Island. One long drift and no bites later we tried again to see if the resident bait stealing harbor seal in Raccoon Straits might permit us to fish. He would not.                            Our first (and only) drift the seal snatched every bait in the water but one, which caught a bass.

By now, the tide was backing down and we headed back to Hot Spot # 1 for the tide change.                     Finally, the halibut started to nibble.

Bottom line; 6 halibut to 12 pounds, 1 seven pound bass, 1 nine pound ling cod and 25 assorted rock cod kept (and an equal amount of smaller cod released) for 8 anglers. Good fishing, Gordon Hough

As we left the harbor Saturday (Sept. 10) morning it looked breezy but nice. As we headed south the weather progressed from breezy to windy to sloppy to “shameless money grab” in many areas of the central bay. Still, it was nice at Southampton Light and we stopped and caught a bass.

From Southampton Shoal we moved to Richardson Bay which was windy/sloppy but fish-able.

However, all we caught for our effort was a bat ray the size of a Mazda.

A glance across the bay made it obvious that Alcatraz, Angel Island or most any other unprotected area was just too rough and sloppy to fish, so we tucked back behind Angel Island.

One o’clock in the afternoon and one fish in the box, this was not looking good…

Finally, when the tide started going out the fish started to bite a bit in spite of the weather. It was pretty steady action, and a number of fish were lost and released along with the fish we kept.

Bottom line; 7 halibut and three 3 bass for nine wind blown anglers. James Williams of San Francisco caught his limit of halibut and donated one to a less fortunate angler, so all aboard had a fish dinner at day’s end.

Nicely done James! Good fishing, Gordon Hough