Early Summer Bay Bite: Stripers and Halibut on the Incoming Tide

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your San Francisco Bay fishing report. We’ve got a classic early summer pattern setting up around the Bay. Weather today is cool to mild: morning marine layer and patchy fog, then clearing to the mid‑60s to low‑70s with a light west to southwest breeze stiffening in the afternoon. Typical June stuff, so expect more chop and wind after lunch. Sunrise is right around 5:45 a.m., sunset about 8:35 p.m., giving you a big window to work the tides. Tides are running a solid mixed cycle. Early morning brings a good incoming push, with a decent high mid‑morning, then a draining outgoing through the afternoon, and another flood building into the evening. On this kind of pattern, the bite usually turns on at the start of the incoming and again on the first part of the outgoing when that water starts to move sideways off the flats and points. Striped bass are still the headliners. Anglers inside the Central Bay and around the South Bay channels have been picking up schoolie to mid‑slot fish, with a few bigger models in the mix. Shore guys tossing swimbaits and bucktail jigs along Crissy Field, Fort Point, and the rock walls near Pier 32 have been seeing steady action when the current is swinging. Boat anglers drifting live anchovies or shiners around Alcatraz, Angel Island, and the Berkeley Flats are reporting decent counts, especially early on the flood. Halibut fishing has been solid but not wide‑open. Drifters pulling live anchovies, herring, or shiners along the edges of the shipping channel, the Oyster Point area, and the Alameda Flats are putting a handful of keepers on deck when they stick with it through the tide changes. Plastics like 4–5 inch paddle tails in smelt or anchovy patterns, or white gulp‑style grubs on a dropper loop, are getting bit when the bait’s scattered. Think slow, near‑bottom, and keep that bait just ticking the mud. Leopard sharks and bat rays are making a strong showing in the usual mudflat haunts. Soaking squid, anchovies, and oily baits off Candlestick, Brisbane, and the San Mateo shoreline has been good fun, especially for folks fishing from shore. Not a bad backup plan when the bass and halibut get finicky. For lures, keep it simple: – For stripers, go with 4–6 inch white or pearl paddle‑tail swimbaits on 1/2 to 1 oz jigheads, chrome or bone topwaters at first light in calmer pockets, and bucktail jigs with a strip of squid or gulp. – For halibut, 4–5 inch glow or white swimbaits, gulp jerk shads, and slow‑rolled spoons near bottom do work when the live bait bite slows. For natural bait, live anchovy is king in the Bay right now, followed by live shiner perch or smelt if you can net them. Frozen anchovies, sardines, and squid will still produce, especially for sharks and rays, but the fresher the better. Couple of hot spots to put on your short list: – The Berkeley Flats and the edges toward the Emeryville and Richmond channel for a mixed halibut and striper shot on the drift during the incoming. – Crissy Field to Fort Point for shore‑based stripers at first light, tossing swimbaits and topwater into that current seam when the tide starts to move. Work the moving water, keep an eye on that afternoon wind, and you’ll give yourself a good shot at some quality Bay fish today. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn