Redwood City March 16th

Hey all, I am planning to head out of Redwood City port to see whats biting. I realize it a bit early in the year as May-June are usually the best months for that area. But with the weather being as nice as it is and with my fourth child due at the end of the month I cant go to far so I thought I would give it a shot.  Anyway, my plan is to fish the afternoon in coming. I plan to hit the water around 1pm and fish till about 5pm. I realize a lot of folks like to head out earlier in the morning, but hey what can I say I like to sleep in 

I live in San Mateo and have paddle RC, and if the fog starts rolling in, the winds will be picking up hard in the afternoon.  GF says 2-3 days of sunshine and we will get fog.  and as much as I hate to admit it, she is usally right.  If you hang to the slough areas it won't be so bad.

Hey Squidder, thanks for the heads up. My plan is to fish one of the sloughs just before you head out of the port. I have actually fished that general area quite a few times. So I totally understand how rough the wind can be. July is usually the worst moth. In fact last summer I fished there nearly every weekend. Being that it is pretty much my back yard I wanted to unlock its secrets. I have gotten to the point now where I can literally walk out there with absolutely no bait and fish my way up the food chain. That area can really be a lot of fun. Of course most of what is out there are sharks and rays with the occasional striped bass (I have also seen sturgeon there as well but have never hooked into one). But then again I mostly just catch an release anyway, so for me it doesn't really matter.

I may have to go out with you in the future.  I don't live to far from there.  I am guessing you put in by the boat launch where the sailing school is?

Yep. Overall its an ok place to launch. Although you do have to carry your gear up and over some steps and when it rains is a bit slippery. Also across the street there is also a place to hose off your yak when your done, which is kind of nice. There are some pretty nice spots you can get to fairly quickly. In fact, I generally don't paddle out of the port area and into the main channel. Not sure what kind of license people need to captain one of those large sail boats. But based on experience a lot of folks operating them clearly have not idea what their doing. So I try my best to stay way out of there way. Also as I was saying the months Apr. through June can be pretty productive if you know what your doing. This is because a lot of the fish move in closer to spawn. (At least this is what I have been told) There is also a lot of bait fish swimming around then as well which I think is what draws the stripers in. Then around the first week or so of July everything moves back out to the main channel. Making for a much longer paddle  Ray fishing is also good for much of the summer as there are a lot of shallow areas which they seem to like. Anyway, I have not been out this early before so it will be interesting to see whats hanging around.

Status update, how did you make out?

Hey Squidder, sorry for the delayed report. I actually headed out there as planned and when I got out there the conditions were pretty nice. However, my kids were begging me to take them fishing and since it was just me heading out anyway. I decided to do that instead. Jack Smelt were in pretty thick, but fairly small "10" or so. In the afternoon/evening the wind did start to pick up as you commented that it would. Although it was not unbearable. I also checked out my local spots to bait up and things are still a bit slow there. Also for yucks I tested the salinity while I was out there and its still pretty low. But with the weather that we are having and the lack of rain I imagine that it will not be long before things start rolling in.