San Francisco Bay Area Fishing Reports (59)
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Hey Sportsmen 9/1/10
Well August has been my busiest month so far. I took 3 days off other than that I worked every day. Since my last report the fishing has been good for a mixed bag of fish. Most of the trips have been out side the Golden Gate up the north side. We have had multiple species every trip. There have been mostly rockfish and halibut in the box. The worst scoring trip was up the coast with some hard core fishermen. The ocean was bumpy but fishable and we only landed around 40 rockfish. One of the good trips was a light load of 4 fishermen. We went outside the gate and tried 2 drifts but it was too bumpy so we decided to fish inside. The bay has been very tough fishing but I had a plan to hunt the areas that had signs of fish moving in. Most of the day was slow and the out come was looking grim but near the end of the day I found some fresh fish that moved in and wanted to bite. We did 4 drifts before heading to the barn. My group of 4 hooked 13 fish and we managed to box 7 of the halibut. We ended 2 fish a rod fishing the bay. I had a few fishermen land their first striped bass up to 20lbs. I also had one fishermen land a 53 inch 47 lb White Sea Bass. We had a few others that broke off. We did see some keeper Ling Cod lately and I think we will start seeing more as we get into fall. You can see all the latest fish landed in my web site photo album. The photos are dated so you can tell when they were caught. I only have this month and the first 3 weeks of October left to fish the big water then I am off to Martinez for the Sturgeon/Bass season. Most of September is booked but I do have some week days open and there are a few days left in October ( 2 weekend days left).
Enjoy the photos!
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
Well the fishing has been just about the same as the last report. If we fished the bay it is tough and if the ocean allows and we make it outside it is good. I have fished every day since the last report. On 8/11 I did a half day trip in the bay. The tides were good but the fish had lock jaw. We did scrape up a nice shark. 9 year old Brandon Hunt fought and landed a 65 inch Soup Fin shark. He was using one of my light tackle outfits, 20 lb test ! At one point I had to chase the fish like a sturgeon, it was great fun. On other trips we made the run outside up the coast and the sand bars. On those trips we came home with about 3/4 limits of rockfish, halibut up to 17 lbs and bass to 13 lbs. I have not seen my family in over 3 weeks so I took today off as they returned last night. I will be back on the water tomorrow and the weather looks good for running outside. I have 3 days left that are open for this month. Enjoy the photo of Brandon’s soup fin shark and the other catches. Click on photos.
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
Well it has been crazy for the last few weeks. New engine again and 8 days 450 miles off Baja. I returned from the Baja trip Sunday evening and Monday morning I was doing a charter at 6:00 am. The boat runs great again and the Baja trip was a great success. I just fished the last 5 days and to sum it up the bay fishing was slow but the sand bars outside the gate have been very good. One day we had 10 halibut to 15 lbs and a bass at 20 lbs with an early return to the harbor. The next day we had 9 halibut to 18 lbs and a bass at 19 lbs. I photographed the boat next to me with a 58 lb White Sea Bass. Tomorrow I plan on hitting the bay bass spots because of the increase of tides and then head to the bars for the outgoing bite. The shogun Baja trip was great, check out the photo on my web site photo page. Also you may see some of the photos of the good fishing on the bars. With the good fishing all of August is booked up except 3 weekdays and one Saturday. I have a lot of weekdays left in September but only one weekend day left. Enjoy the photos!
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
www.flashfishing.net
Here is a different report, Flash has been down for over 2 weeks and now it has another new engine. The old new engine inhaled some salt water that destroyed it. The good news is it is still under warranty. And I have to say is Cummins service has been excellent. It will be sea tested tomorrow and I leave for San Diego tomorrow. I will be on the Shogun for my 4th annual Flash/Shogun invitational long range trip. I return on August 1st and my first charter of a string of 8 is on August 2nd. We will be going as far down as Alios Rocks. I will post a report when I return. Then after a few charters I will post a report.
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
Hey Sportsmen, 7/14/10
Well it is very busy now and the fishing has been mostly good. You can sure see the halibut bite slow with the big tides, wind and muddy water. Then you can see the bite pick as the water clears and the tide slows. I hate to say it but I always give honest reports, we target halibut on the 7/3 and we got the first skunk of the season, hopefully the last! I would have rather gone out side but the ocean was not user friendly. I did not fish on the 4th of July as I was at the hospital to welcome our first grand baby. Cody Talmadge was born 4:00 am on the Forth of July! I was back on the water on the 5th and conditions improved as we had a fish a rod and a few days later we had 2 fish a rod. One of my trips allowed me to land a fish for dinner. I landed a nice bass on last years buggy whip rod. The bass are late but starting to show and we are just now starting to finds halibut out side on the bars. I expect to see a lot more bass action very soon. I have had a few trips up the coast with limit style rockfish fishing and we have had some good keeper lings so far. I will be back on the water Thursday after some work is finished on the boat. I am booked all the way through August 8th but I have some room on open loads, 7/20and 8/7. Friday August 6th is wide open due to a reschedule. I just posted a lot of dated photos on the web site. Enjoy at www.flashfishing.net.
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
Fellow Fishermen 6/30/10
I made it back on the water today after 2 days off. I was not looking forward to this trip because of the reports I received the last two days. It has been very poor fishing in the bay and the ocean was not user friendly so the ocean was out of the question. My plan was to hit the bay and start from scratch, most likely hit a lot of spots and try to find some new fish. My goal was not to get skunked! I called my charter last night and gave them the bad news and hinted that if they wanted to reschedule it was all right with me. They decided to go fishing any way so off we went. I got a new load of bait so we could be very selective which might help the bite. The water was still not that clear but at least it was not muddy brown. Well after trying a few spots I found some halibut that wanted to play. We worked them until the end of the ebb tide and then we started looking again. We found some more halibut and a nice bass. Overall it was a good day of fishing. We hooked 9 fish, lost 2 unseen, lost 2 nice halibut right at the boat, boxed 4 halibut and 1 bass. 3 of the halibut were 14 to 15lbs and the bass was 10 to 12lbs. I was sure glad my charter decided to go fishing instead of rescheduling! We fished the central and south bay as the north bay still has some brown water. The water is starting to clear and the tides are slowing which means the bite should continue to improve. I also got a report of a fair bass bite today. I was not going to run tomorrow with a light load of 3 but due to today’s results I will be running tomorrow. We will be checking out the bass bite first thing in the morning and then back hunting the spots I fished today. The bay is looking good the next few days but even better the ocean is coming down and I think Friday’s charter might go outside. Saturday I have room for 3 and most likely will going back out in the ocean for all the options out there but if the bay turns on big time we may stay inside or do both. Check out today’s photos at www.flashfishing.net. Click on fishing reports.
Enjoy
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
Hey Sportsmen 6/28/10
I am sorry about the delay in reports, as I have been fishing almost everyday for the last 2 weeks. The weekend before last I fish the Coastside derby in the main and south bay on Saturday and it was very tough as we only checked in one fish. The next day I heard about a bite up north and fished there Sunday for about 25 to 30 fish. We boxed 2 fish per rod for 6 anglers, halibut and bass. The next 4 days we fished north and every day the scores dropped a little until it was very tough, due to the big tides and wind. So last weekend the weather improved in the ocean and that is were I went. Up the coast was good fishing for large browns and lingcod. Normally we don’t see good lings until late summer, early fall. I have today and tomorrow off and then I am back on the water for six trips in a row. The bay tides are coming down so things should improve daily. I got a report of 5 bass for 6 anglers yesterday. The bass are late this year but there are signs that they are starting to show in better numbers. I had a cancellation on the 4th so it is now available. I am offering a special fishing, BBQ and fireworks on the water trip. You may bring 6 on the fishing trip and then more may join the group for the BBQ and fireworks on the water. If you are interested give me a call. I posted a lot more photos on the photo page. One more thing a young boy Jesse broke my buggy rod fighting a 14lb halibut! Check out the photo.
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
510 851-2500
I am sorry for the break in reports during my web site change but I think the site is much better and I will post the trip photos with the report now! You still can go back and see all the dated photos from earlier and prior years.
Well I just finished 4 trips in a row and things have changed a lot. Sunday we went outside up the coast for the ground fish opener. We drifted live bait on barbless circle hooks like I always do. I do this for two reasons, it is great to deal with when unhooking rockfish ( keeping or releasing) and if you land a salmon you are legal. The bait was small which is good for the rockfish. We had limit style fishing with a lot of undersize lings. We had some very large browns, one went between 6 and 7 lbs. The big surprise was a first time salt water fisherman landed a 16 lb king!!!! The first king landed at Fisherman’s Wharf!!! The next day the ocean started to pick up and the fishing up the coast slowed and we ended up with 3/4 limits. The last two days, due to the ocean conditions, I was back in the bay and fished the not so great colored water. Tuesday I had a group from back east that wanted a good time. They did not want to start early (the beauty of charting a boat) so we started fishing around 10:00 am. The fishing was slow for halibut and bass and being the honest report person I am I hate to say we got skunked! But we did, it happens. They did catch a few sharks for some action and had a trip around Alcatraz. I hated coming in with a dry box but they were very happy with the trip to the point of a $200.00 tip. Yesterday it was still tough fishing but we did box two halibut to 12lbs. The water is getting better and we did find more green water. The bait in SF was great and should help as the tides slow and the water clears. I think this weekend the counts will be up again.
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
I just wrapped up 5 trips in a row and I have to say the fishing has improved a bit. We had a fish a rod in the box with some dropped fish and quite a few shakers. On one of the trips we were one fish under a fish a rod and the last trip we were just under 2 fish a rod. The grade of halibut has been good and the bass grade continues to grow. We have had bass to 16 lbs. I still like the light wire hook with light tackle on the size bait we are getting. Most of our fish have been coming from the central bay now with South Hampton and Alcatraz being the hot spots. I am back on the water Saturday. I had a reschedule on Saturday so I started an open load, there is room for 4. Other than that the whole rest of the month is booked except for 3 days.
I just posted a lot of photos on the photo page. There you can see the grade of fish. Enjoy.
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
Hey Fishermen
A quick up date as I have to get back on the water. There has been some good sturgeon fishing the last few days. Monday we had 4 sturgeon and one was a 49 inch keeper, a limit of bass and about 15 flounders. Tuesday we had some missed bites, one good fish broke off (fishermen’s own gear) and a pair of 63 inch sturgeon for 4 fishermen. They looked like bookends. Check out the photos. Yesterday we had a small keeper bass and 2 shaker sturgeon before we got blown off the water early. The best bait is eel/grass and I have been staying close to the harbor in deeper water. We have a 11:30 meet time today so I will be on my way and I hope the weather allows us to get some night fishing in, Big Bass!
Captain Steve Talmadge
Flash Sport Fishing
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