According to Smith, the top area for lingcod is off the Towers and Double Point. "On some days, we started out fishing for bottom fish and ended the day with halibut," added Smith. "On other days, we targeted halibut first when we had a good tide in the morning."

Smith experienced solid fishing on Saturday, September 6 when the 24 passengers landed limits of lingcod, 160 assorted rockfish and 13 halibut. Sunday's trip produced 52 lings, 165 rockcod and 30 halibut for 30 anglers. "On the previous weekend, a party of 33 anglers fishing with me landed limits of lingcod, 170 rockfish and 37 halibut," he explained. "As of the third week of October, I will be fishing out of Martinez Marina."

The Berkeley Marina Sport Center offered similar action to their anglers over the weekend. "The weather is starting to come up now and we're going to put tuna trips off until later this week. Until then, we'll be fishing off the Marin Coast for bottom fish and halibut," explained Dennis Deaver at the Berkeley Marina Sport Center.

"Over the weekend, we hammered the rockfish and lings off the coast and Farallon Islands, catching limits of lings and rockcod on most trips," he said. "We also managed to catch several halibut to 20 pounds on each trip." On Sunday, September 7, the Hali fished off the Marin Coast to catch full limits of rockcod, 11 lingcod to 15 pounds and 3 halibut for 14 people. The New Golden Eye checked in with 340 rockfish, limits of lingcod to 28 pounds and 11 cabezon for 35 passengers taken off the Farallon Islands.

"We had a few salmon boats go out, but they turned to bottom fishing after a few tough hours of fishing," said Deaver. The New El Dorado III started the day off with 7 king salmon to 25 pounds and turned to live bait fishing, ending up with 7 halibut to 20 pounds, 23 lingcod and 110 rockfish for 25 anglers. The Taku took 3/4 limits of rockcod and 6 lingcod for its 13 passengers, while the El Dorado finished up with 18 halibut, 12 lings and 75 assorted rockfish for 18 anglers.

Anglers fishing out of Emeryville Sportfishing Center found wide- open action off the Marin Coast, with most boats filling up on lingcod, assorted rockfish and a good showing of halibut, according to John Perrodin of Emeryville Sportfishing.

On Saturday, September 6, the C-Gull II checked in with 240 assorted rockfish, 48 lingcod and six halibut for 24 anglers. On the following day, the 23 passengers caught 33 halibut, 118 rockcod and 18 lingcod. The Captain Hook fished the same water on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in a total of 232 rockcod, 58 lingcod and 2 halibut for 43 passengers.

Rapid Transit finished their weekend off for 15 anglers with 33 lingcod and 210 rockcod, while the Dandy took a total of 120 rockcod and 20 lings for 12 anglers. The New Huck Finn ran a shallow water trip with 27 people on Saturday and checked in with 54 lingcod and 270 assorted rockcod. The New Seeker was the lone boat targeting salmon off the coast, returning with near limits (9 fish) of salmon to 22 pounds for 5 passengers.