On Friday, November 29, Harbarth fished with a small group of customers. "We started out trolling hair raisers in five feet of water between the mouth of the Sonoma River and Round Mountain," he explained. "Once the tide turned and started coming in, the bite really heated up. We landed limits of fish averaging 20 to 25 inches and the largest fish of the day was a 12 pounder landed by Bob Richards of Placerville."

Keith Fraser of Loch Lomond Live Bait in San Rafael confirmed the steady striper action. "San Pablo Bay is producing good fishing for striped bass," he said. "Trollers continue to catch fish with wormtail jigs at the Marin islands, Rat Rock, China Camp, the Brickyard and San Quentin. Most of the fish go 4 to 6 pounds, with an occasional larger fish. Drifting is also excellent for anglers fishing shiners and bullheads from the Sisters to Buoy #5."

Here's another option for anglers fishing San Pablo Bay - leopard sharks! While the shark bite is normally long gone by the month of December, anglers are taking a surprising number or quality leopard sharks throughout the bay. The 6 anglers fishing aboard the Bass Tub on the last trip by Captain Erik Anfinson landed 7 leopard sharks measuring 36 to 48 inches long and one keeper striper. They fooled the fish with squid near Buoy #5 in 30 feet of water on the outgoing tide.

Further up river, the bite has been equally productive. "The Suisun Bay striper bite has been running hot and heavy for two weeks now," exclaimed Captain James Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing. "I was out yesterday aboard the Baywatch and we nailed full limits of stripers to 15 pounds for 11 anglers. We probably had 10 fish over 10 pounds and the rest were schoolie-sized."

Smith has been targeting fish near the Mothball Fleet and as far up river as Roe and Ryer islands. "We're fishing bullheads in 20 to 40 feet of water," he explained. "On the big tides with lots of water movement, the best bite has been at the very top and very bottom of the tides. On the slower days, the best bite is right in the middle of the tides. Yesterday, we had a really strong tide and didn't catch a single fish until the tide started to slow down around 11:30 a.m. By 1:00 p.m. we had limits for the entire boat." Just how long will the striper bite last? Judging from years past, we're on the tail end of the run and this could all be over with the next big rain. In other words, if you waste much time thinking about going, you just might miss it. Of course once the rain starts, then it's time to break out the big sticks and target sturgeon.