Bay Area Saltwater

Striper Fishing - San Pablo Bay

by Ed Hood September 05, 2013

The Stripers are in! The Stripers are in!

My buddy called me up a few days ago and told me the striper fishing has been excellent in Pinole and the tides are looking great. Of course the only times I’ve been able to get out fishing has been after work and driving up to Pinole isn’t a fun trip during rush hour from San Jose, but I managed to battle through the 2-hour drive (which is usually a 45 min. drive) to do some striper fishing from 6pm-dark. And the nice thing is, you don’t need a boat!

San Pablo Bay: the gateway to the delta

Historically, San Francisco Bay has been lined with marshes and wetlands. Unfortunately those habitats don’t remain in too many places which means if you want to fish the bay, you’re going to need a boat. However, the stretch of San Pablo Bay that is accessed in Hercules and Pinole has remained as a marsh and allows for wading… cool!

The tricky part of planning a trip to fish this region (bay/delta) is getting the wind and tides to line up well. In the afternoon in the Summer, the wind can start howling which is obviously not a good condition to fly fish in with large flies being thrown around, so be aware of that. Additionally, fish the tide swings and make sure it’s not a fast incoming or outgoing tide as it will stir up mud and fishing will be off.

Check out the SF bay 2013 tide charts here.

A night when the tides were great and there was very little wind is a great thing.

When fishing this area, make sure you’re wearing waders. I was able to give the new Orvis Silver Label Bogs Bootfoot waders a try (finally) and was very impressed with how comfortable they are. The bootfoot is a nice feature so you don’t have to worry about getting a ton of muck in your boots. Bat rays and other creatures that you don’t want to have get cuddly with you against bare skin frequent these waters. For gear, the Orvis Helios 2 10′ 8-wt. rod really makes it easy to throw shooting heads and large streamers. When striper fishing, you will get a workout, so having a rod that is lightweight and has power behind it will make life much more enjoyable when you’re out there. This was matched with the Rio Outbound Short intermediate line and 20# monofilament leader. I’ll admit, if I’m casting 50-feet, I’m having a good day. This combination made 80+ foot casts a piece of cake. Get a good rod and line for saltwater fishing is the bottom line.

A bent rod is a thing of beauty.

The stripers we were targeting were schooly stripers in the 1-5 pound range. While definitely not even close to the large striper you can catch from a boat, these fish will put a great bend in an 8-wt. Since stripers are always looking upwards, you will usually not have so sink a fly deeper than 3-feet in this particular area. Chartreuse/white and olive/white clousers will work everytime out here with either floating or intermediate line. Look for baitfish jumping and cast into them or if you don’t see any surface activity happening in a particular spot, just blind cast in all directions. The fly presentation will be rapid stripping with the occasional short pause. Make sure the fly is imitating a baitfish swimming for its life! When you feel a *thud* or weight on the end of the line, make a strip-set. Make sure you resist the urge to “trout-set” the fly by lifting the rod upwards… this will pull the fly out of the fish’s mouth.

That evening, between the 5 of us, we caught around 20 stripers with the biggest coming in at 5-pounds. Word of advice: continue to fish in the dark as this is when the big fish start getting more active.

Another word of advice: make sure you rinse your gear off immediately after fishing. Salt will corrode anything metal a lot quicker than you think it does.