San Francisco Bay halibut and striped bass on huge pendulum of action

The past week brought a series of minus tides, and the scores dipped to around a fish per rod inside the bay. However, when ocean conditions allowed the California Dawn 2 to head outside the Gate, they picked up 40 big halibut on a few drifts at the North Bar after scratching 10 halibut inside the bay. Their 25 limits on Tuesday was the highlight of the week to be followed by 47 halibut to 25 pounds on Friday along with 3 striped bass to 24 pounds on Friday. Saturday’s weather brought more challenging conditions, and since it was too rough to head outside, most boats stayed in the bay to scratch out a few halibut along with easy limits of striped bass. In the bay, most boats have been drifting around F Buoy between Berkeley and Angel Island, and Captain Bill Clapp of Bill’s Sport Fishing out of Richmond found great recent action, limiting out within a few drifts.