January has brought us the sunny weather the summer seemed to have missed. With the good weather, fishing and outdoor activities abound aplenty.
While our local streams are suffering from low flows, the rivers of Northern California are in perfect shape for steelhead. The beaches have perch, and Monterey continues to kick out sea bass.
The San Lorenzo River, at this time, is flowing only 75 cubic feet per second. The best flows for steelheading on the San Lorenzo are usually around 100 to 200 cubic feet per second. To the north, rivers like the Russian, Eel, Smith and Chetco are all in perfect shape for steelhead.
The redwood coast usually gets so much rain that anglers wait for the rain to subside to allow the rivers to drop to manageable flows for optimal fishing. At this time, though, they are all in great shape, with emerald green flows and nice-sized steelhead. Anglers are catching steelhead from the bank and from boats.
Monterey Bay has been a great spot for local ocean fishing. Crabs continue to climb into traps for sport and commercial fishermen. The beaches have been producing nice catches of barred surfperch. Outside Monterey, squid continue to spawn, and while the commercial season is over for squid, sport boats are catching nice-sized market squid. Sea bass have a sweet tooth for squid, too, and persistent fishermen are still catching a few.
San Francisco Bay is experiencing a fantastic herring spawn. As the herring spawn, they lay their eggs on any object they can find. The rocks and pilings are covered with roe along San Francisco piers 50 through 60 on the waterfront. This is good for herring and other fish in the bay. Sturgeon love to eat herring roe, and sturgeon fishing in San Pablo Bay has been fantastic. Many boats are catching multiple sturgeon per day, as most fish are released. Be aware that this area of the bay is shallow, and with large tides and fog, this can be a dangerous area to navigate.
The sunny weather has been nice, but rain is also needed. Remember to enjoy the outdoors when the weather is good.
Mike Baxter has fished in the Monterey Bay Area since he was a boy and has been a licensed charter boat captain for more than 15 years. Contact him at
ca************@ya***.com
. He also hosts a radio fishing show April through September.
