San Francisco Bay Area fishing report for the week of September 17, 2026. Fall on the bay is under way. The halibut have been steady on the flats and around the islands, the salmon boats are making the most of the last weeks of the ocean season off the Marin coast, and the stripers have started their fall feed on the bait in the bay and the Delta. The weather has been about as good as it gets.
What’s Hitting
What’s hot this week is California halibut in the bay. Fish from 8 to 20 pounds are on the flats around Alcatraz, Angel Island, the Berkeley flats, and the Alameda rock wall, with the live-bait drift the most productive method. Striped bass are on the fall feed, with fish from schoolie size to the upper teens working the bait in the central bay, along the Marin shoreline, and around the Carquinez Strait and the Delta. Chinook salmon are in the final weeks of the ocean season off Duxbury, Muir Beach, and the Marin coast in 40 to 90 feet, with a mixed grade of fish. Rockfish and lingcod are steady along the Marin coast and at the Farallon Islands, and sturgeon are beginning to show in San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay. Leopard sharks are thick on the flats for the shore crowd.
Where to Find Them
Halibut are on the flats around Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Berkeley flats in 15 to 40 feet on the moving tide. Stripers are on the bait along the Marin shoreline from Paradise Cay to the Richmond Bridge, in the Carquinez Strait, and around the Delta rivers. Salmon are off Duxbury Reef and Muir Beach in 40 to 90 feet. Rockfish and lingcod are along the Marin coast rocks and at the Farallons. Sturgeon are in San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay on the moving tide.
Tides & Conditions
Moderate tides this week between the moons, which on the bay means a more manageable drift for the halibut and a longer fishable window on each tide. Bay water is in the low 60s and the ocean off the Marin coast in the upper 50s. Winds have been light in the mornings with the afternoon westerly building as usual, and the ocean has been fishable most days with a 3 to 5-foot swell. The morning fog has been burning off by mid-morning.
Tackle & Tactics
For halibut, a live anchovy or shiner perch on a three-way rig with a sliding sinker, drifted along the flats with the tide, on a 7-foot medium rod with 30-pound braid. Trolling a hoochie and anchovy behind a flasher also works on the flats. Stripers want a live bait, a swimbait, or a topwater cast to breaking fish, or a trolled plug along the shoreline. Salmon want a mooched or trolled anchovy behind a flasher in the top 60 feet. Rockfish and lingcod want a swimbait or a jig on the rocks. Sturgeon want grass shrimp, ghost shrimp, or eel on a sliding sinker rig on a heavy rod.
Local Intel This Week
The Berkeley Marina ramp, the Richmond Marina Bay ramp, the Loch Lomond ramp in San Rafael, and the Oyster Point ramp in South San Francisco are the main public launches for the bay, with the Fort Baker and Sausalito ramps serving the Marin coast salmon grounds and the Martinez and Benicia ramps covering the Carquinez Strait and Suisun Bay. Shore anglers are catching halibut, stripers, and sharks from the Berkeley pier area and the Alameda rock wall, and stripers from the Marin and Richmond shorelines. Fish are concentrating on the central bay flats on the moving tide. Halibut have a size limit and the salmon season has strict dates and limits; check current CDFW regulations before keeping fish.
This Week’s Tip
On the halibut drift, keep your sinker ticking bottom the entire time and let out line as the depth changes. A bait that lifts three feet off the bottom is out of the strike zone, and the halibut sitting on the sand will not come up for it. When you feel the take, give the fish a few seconds before lifting.
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