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San Francisco Bay Fishing Report: Tides, Targets, and Techniques for Winter Angling
Artificial Lure here with your San Francisco Bay fishing report.
We’re sliding into a classic winter Bay pattern: cool mornings, light winds, and softer tides. Tides4Fishing shows an average tide cycle today with an early morning high around 7:20 a.m. and an afternoon low just after 2 p.m., so you’ve got good moving water on the morning flood and the early afternoon ebb. General Blue and Timeanddate list sunrise at 7:17 a.m. and sunset about 4:51 p.m., giving you a tight winter window but solid low‑light bites at both ends.
MarineWeather.net and the National Weather Service have the Bay sitting in the upper 50s to low 60s with light south to southwest breeze and 4–5 ft swell outside the Gate, a little tamer once you’re inside. That means easy drifting for halibut and stripers and comfortable jigging for rockfish if you push out along the edges.
Nor Cal Fish Reports is still showing strong crab‑combo scores out of Emeryville: the C Gull II and Lady K both checked in yesterday with full limits, roughly 10 Dungeness per angler plus limits of mixed rockfish. That tells you the outer Bay and just outside the Gate are holding plenty of life, with rockfish stacked on the usual structure and crab pots doing work on the sand.
Inside the Bay, fish activity is typical December:
- Stripers scattered but catchable around current breaks, bridge pilings, and creek mouths on the bigger tides.
- Halibut slower than spring but there are still a few nice keepers for boats dragging slow and tight to the bottom.
- Perch action improving along the cityfront rocks and East Bay shoreline as winter sets in.
Best offerings right now:
- For stripers: 4–5 inch white or chartreuse swimbaits, hair raisers in white or root beer, and bloodworms or pile worms on a hi‑lo near the rocks.
- For halibut: live anchovy or shiner, or a frozen tray anchovy on a three‑way; artificial guys should lean on 4–5 inch glow or smelt‑pattern swimbaits.
- For rockfish: 4–8 oz diamond jigs, shrimp flies tipped with squid, or small plastics in motor oil, red, or chartreuse.
- For crab: standard rings or pots baited with a mix of fish carcasses and squid; soak them a bit longer with this softer tide.
Couple of local hot spots to circle today:
- **Alcatraz to Angel Island line:** Work the edges on the morning flood for stripers and halibut; bounce swimbaits or drift bait right on the bottom along the contour lines.
- **North Bar and the edges just outside the Gate:** If the weather window holds, that’s where those Emeryville crab‑combo boats have been loading up on Dungeness and rockfish.
- **Berkeley Flats and the Alameda Rockwall:** Good winter bets for a mixed bag of schoolie stripers and the odd halibut if you grind it out on the moving water.
- **Cityfront rock piles from Crissy toward Fort Mason:** Solid for perch and the occasional bonus striper on worms, ghost shrimp, or small grubs.
Overall, think slow and subtle: lighter gear, methodical drifts, and staying glued to the tide changes. Work the morning flood and early afternoon ebb and you’ll stay in the game.
Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a Bay report.
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Published on 6 days, 5 hours ago