Welcome to Catch Happy weekly fishing adventures and education. Our goal is to help more people enjoy amazing experiences outdoors. You can find top-notch fishing guides, gear kits, and follow our weekly fishing expeditions at CachHappy.co
I am going to start off by saying we don't recommend taking your small boats to the Bay unless you know exactly what you are doing. The weather had to be perfect and constantly monitored. Austin has years of guiding experience behind his belt and he captained his own boat. Still, we had moments where waves splashed into the boat and the bait run to SF harbor was Rough. Take a look and see for yourself what it's like.
Alex and I (Austin) headed out to San Francisco bay to target the halibut. We Watched the weather for several days to make sure it was a nice calm day to take my river sled out in the bay. As a Napa fishing guide, I usually stick to lakes and rivers, but with the red hot Halibut bite and excellent weather, we've decided to fish in San Francisco Bay.
Our plan was to launch in Berkeley marina and make the run to San Francisco and get live bait, then run back towards Berkeley flats area in that 30 to 20 foot of water and start drifting. It didn’t take long to get hooked on our first fish. We lost some fish and got some really nice halibut and stripers in the boat along with some shakers.
We were using a few different rods, Alex and my father-in-law were using Phenix 808 and 807 rods and I was using a lighter rod I normally use for back bouncing plugs for salmon and it felt and worked great out there. Our reels were spooled up with 65LB power pro and for our leader material, we were using 20LB P-line to a 1/0 owner hook.
It was a great day out in the bay, the weather started out beautiful and calm and then around 11 the wind picked up, and then we started heading back into the ramp. The boat handled great for its first time out there and I'll definitely be taking it back out there again on a nice day. We just stayed in the general area where we were getting bit and it kept producing fish so there was no reason to leave. Tight Lines and we'll see you on next week's adventure.