Lake Merritt Halibut & Striper - Non-yak

So I go over the the 14th St. bridge to make bait for a trip tomorrow and I'm sitting there on the bicycle path and I look in the water. What do I see? A keeper-plus flattie cruising along the shore. I walk over to take another look. Yup. Nice healthy halibut. So I sit down and try to make bait with a sabiki (no dice... tiny smelt) and I look over again. This time, it's a striper in the 12-15 lb. class. I didn't smoke anything today. Guess it makes sense, given all the very small bait in there, but wow. Crazy. Right at the crest of high tide.

Nice.  I've seen bruiser stripers lazily cruising alongside the Lake Merritt paths before, but never a halibut.  Cool.

Ha, that's cool! Makes sense it was at the top of the tide - big tide today, too. I guess it shouldn't be so surprising since Lake Merritt is actually part of the estuary, but surprising it is. And both a hali and a striper! Thanks for posting. 

GB...no surprise at all. There have been times making bait where i was actually throwing halfbricks at 25" to 30" bass to try and get them outta the hole so I could make bait. .
Yea, they just swim lazily through the schools of baitfish with their mouth open.
And yes LM is a good place for butt watching. Both kinds  .

  I hear they are running at the Campbell Perc ponds too?