Posted on May 22, 2020

I met up with Koji at sunrise for an exploratory trip up the shoreline from Point Richmond to Point Orient. Eddie, Matt and Kevin were waiting for us at Point Orient with live bait and we were excited to fish new waters.

On the way out we fished on the northern side of Ferry Point Pier and I immediately connected with a halibut while trolling an anchovy behind my 77 rig. This rig has been incredibly profitable. It is still the first one I made and a few halibut ago I switched to 5/0 circle hooks which work extremely well.

We proceeded to troll over to the Chevron Pier, tried to jig up some live anchovies without success, and fished that area but had no further notable catches.

It was time to meet the gang over at Point Orient. The stretch beyond the Chevron Pier and further north was new territory to me. There were some interesting shallows and pockets with halibut characteristics. We made our way beneath the Richmond - San Rafael bridge and a short while later saw Eddie and Matt fishing The Brothers.

Eddie shared some of his live bait and soon we were all baited up and drift fishing near Point Orient. Everybody was in good spirits, it looked fishy all around and we were expecting a good catch. Unfortunately, things didn't quite play out that way. The wind picked up, it was flooding and the drift was fast, and most importantly the fish weren't in the mood for live anchovies.

On the West Coast we are experiencing Mixed Semidiurnal Tidal Cycles with two high and low tides of different amplitudes for each lunar day. On this day we happened to fish the bigger cycle which caused strong currents and murky waters. This is not ideal for halibut fishing in the bay and at least partially explains the poor results. Another contributing factor was a southern wind which amplified the drift as we were going up north on a flood.

The area north of the Richmond bridge looks promising and we probably were there at the wrong time. Matt mentioned that it is less fished than Ferry Point and generally the grade of fish would be better. I can see that and hope to give it another shot.

Distance: 13.4 miles, Duration: 7 hours