San Francisco Area

I will be coming into the area near the end of June for about a week for a wedding. What type of fishing option do I have?

Depends...how far can you travel from SF and for how many days?

Welllll,
Within about 2hrs of SF you can pester halibut, stripers, perch, smelt, lingcod (maybe), white sea bass (again maybe), trout, LM bass, SM bass, crappie, bluegills....that should be enough to make a wedding seem intrusive. ;-)
If it works, maybe we can run you around the SF delta for a snoop. LM's and BG's should be in a co-operative mood by then.
.....lee s.

The details are not set in stone yet. We should be there for about a week, give or take a couple of days. I am hoping to pull at least a day trip fishing somewhere while we are out there. It would be a shame to make the trip from coast to coast and not wet a line in some new waters. As far as distance to travel from the bay area, I am not sure. It would be my guess that we will rent a car while we are out there. I would like to see a little more than just the city. Not much of a city guy.

Any local guidance would be great and it would be neat to fish with a local from the forum.

Thanks again for the advice and keep it coming! :D

I live about 300 miles north of SF but will offer some of my suggestions anyway. You might check with the Orvis fly shop in the city, Leland outfitters or some of the other shops in the area.

California is a big state. I am not familiar with any fishing - other than off shore fishing - in the SF area itself. So, anything that I could suggest would involve some driving. Fortunately, everthing would be on freeways for the most part so easy driving. No mountain, narrow, off road stuff

Maybe 4 hours drive would get you up to the Truckee River in the Tahoe area. Beautiful country. Check local fly shops. Could have run off problems in early June.

Puta Creek, between Sacramento and SF might be an option. Kind of closer to Napa area but not exactly. Again check fly shops. Maybe Leland or Orvis in SF could give you directions/info..There might be a fly shop in Napa, CA.

Perhaps the Yuba River might also be an option. North of Sacremento. Again, some distance and driving involved. Again, could have run off issues.

Further North, you could drive to Redding, CA and hire a guide through the Fly Shop. This would be a drift trip on the lower Sacremento River. This is probably a 4 to 5 hours drive so might involve an over night trip or a long day. I have used a couple of guides there and one that comes to mind is Matt Dover -- knows what he is doing and will fish you hard - or until you want to quit. This is drift boat fishing as the river in this area is too big to wade. Futher north, on the upper Sacremento, the river is wadable but run off in early June could make that problematic.

There might be some Chad fishing around Sacramento/American Rivers that time of year -- again depending on run off -- check with Keine's fly shop ion Sacremanto for more information. The Sacramento area has great river accesses for the American and Sacramento River. Some better / safer than others-- that is, the further out of the city the better.


If you can't go very far from SF, there is always the Golden Gate Casting Club in Golden Gate Park. They have a wonderful old Anglers Cabin there and three casting ponds. The ponds are open to the public and, if there, a member will probably show you around the cabin. There are always some members hanging around. The location is great - secluded- and it is a fantastic way to spend a few hours practicing casting and talking to members and other people hanging around there. You don't even know you are in the city when you are there. If you are lucky, there might be some Spey casting going on -- beautiful to watch.

Good luck. Hope this gives you a little help in deciding where to start.

If I was going to be in the bay area in June and didn't want to drive more than an hour I would look into a day on the Delta for largemouth and or smallmouth bass. That is what I do when I'm up there in summer. Lee S who posted above knows his way around. I can also provide some guide references if you wish.

Thanks again for all the help! Looks like we might not be staying a whole week anymore due to the cost of housing while we are there. Might cut into my fishing time or cut it right out. If I can pull it off, I would still like to make a trip happen.

lee s - saw you tried to send me a private message but my mailbox was full. I cleaned up that mess so you can try me again.

Under your guidelines, the only real choices are Putah Creek, the Delta, or possibly the lower American ( but that one may be outa range), and saltwater.