According to Smith, huge schools of striped bass can be seen gorging on anchovies along the Point Pinole and Rodeo shorelines. "On Saturday, we started out trolling hair raisers and Fish Traps in about 8 feet of water off Point Pinole," he explained. "We hit a big school of fish right off the bat and had 14 rods hooked up at one time. Six of those fish were keepers up to 13 pounds and the rest had to be released. We ended up with a total of 30 keeper stripers and 2 halibut for 20 anglers."

The following day, Smith found similar action. "We actually started out down by the Mothball Fleet and landed a couple stripers on bullheads fished in 30 feet of water," he said. "Once the tide was right, we ran up to Rodeo and nailed easy limits of bass for 11 anglers."

The outgoing tide has been most productive for trolling. "There's actually a small window of opportunity when it comes to trolling in San Pablo Bay," said Smith. "You need the outgoing tide and it has to be a small tide for the water to be clear enough. My favorite lures are hair raisers in chartreuse or pearl white and Fish Traps in white and channel island."

When bait fishing, Smith prefers the incoming tide. "When we start fishing on the anchor, bullheads are the top bait," he explained. "Anchovies also work very well, even upriver in Suisun Bay."

Captain Frank Miller of Fury Sportfishing has been putting his clients on near-limits to limits of striped bass for the last two weeks. "The bite really broke loose last weekend and we pulled easy limits of schoolie-sized stripers for 11 anglers," he explained. "We had extremely small tides this weekend and still pulled close to limits of quality fish."

On Saturday, October 18, Miller said they were actually struggling early in the day, but things turned around in a hurry when he noticed some bird activity back in the shallows near China Camp. "As we got closer to the birds, I could see fish breaking water underneath the birds," he explained. "I killed the engines as we slid up into the boil and just about everybody on the boat hooked up immediately."

Miller said they were able to stay on the fish for a good 15 minutes and landed 22 quality stripers in the 8 to 12 pound class for 12 anglers. "We were just a couple fish shy of limits and we broke off at least another half dozen fish," he added. "We were drifting live anchovies in about four feet of water. We'll probably run a couple more live bait trips, then switch over to trolling or fishing bullheads on the anchor."

As we head into early November, this is when the larger fish tend to show up and quality stripers in the teens and even 20 pound class will hit the decks on a regular basis. Smith says the run should hit its peak in November and will typically produce until the first big rains hit some time in December.