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Home › Waters › California › Suisun Bay
Estuary · Northern California, Solano and Contra Costa counties, the upper San Francisco Estuary above Carquinez Strait · California

Suisun Bay Fishing Guides

The brackish upper reach of the San Francisco Estuary where the Sacramento and San Joaquin meet the tide, and the core of California's striped bass and white sturgeon fishery.

A boardwalk crossing tidal marsh at sunset on the southeastern coast
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Suisun Bay

Suisun Bay is the brackish middle ground of the San Francisco Estuary, lying above Carquinez Strait and below the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It is where the combined outflow of California’s two largest river systems first meets ocean water, and the position of that mixing zone shifts up and down the bay with the season and with how much water is moving downstream. The gauge at the Benicia Bridge reads water temperature, salinity and velocity, which is precisely the set of numbers this fishery turns on.

The bay is shallow over much of its area, with broad shoals, extensive tidal marsh in the Suisun Marsh to the north, and deep dredged channels carrying ship traffic through the middle. Current is strong and the tidal range is meaningful, so anglers here fish tides rather than times of day. Turbidity is usually high, which suits the fish that live here.

White sturgeon are the marquee fishery and are targeted on the shoals and in the deeper channels with bait fished on the bottom, generally on a strong tide. Striped bass are the other mainstay and are taken by trolling, by bait fishing and on lures depending on season. Green sturgeon are present and fully protected. Chinook salmon and American shad pass through on migration, and largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, Sacramento pikeminnow, Sacramento sucker and common carp use the fresher upper reaches.

Regulations here are detailed and change regularly, particularly for sturgeon and salmon, so reading the current rules before fishing is not optional. Sturgeon in particular are managed with slot limits, report card requirements and seasonal closures that have changed repeatedly in recent years.

Access is good, with ramps at Benicia, Martinez and Pittsburg and a substantial local guide fleet. Wind builds through the afternoon across the shoals, so most of the productive fishing happens early or on the tide rather than on a schedule.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Suisun Bay.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Benicia - the gauge location, with a state recreation area, ramp and full services.
Martinez - a developed marina and ramp on the south shore.
Pittsburg - an east end access with marina facilities and ramp.
Suisun City - the town at the head of Suisun Slough, with marina access.
Suisun Marsh - the extensive managed wetland on the north side of the bay.
Carquinez Strait - the tidal channel immediately downstream.
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta - the vast waterway system upstream.

Seasons

Spring: striped bass move through on their way upstream and the fishing picks up steadily.
Summer: warm and productive for striped bass, with sturgeon fishing slower in the heat.
Fall: salmon pass through and striped bass fishing is at its best of the year.
Winter: the prime sturgeon season, with high outflow pushing fish down into the bay.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Suisun Bay?

Anglers target American Shad, Chinook Salmon, Common Carp, Green Sturgeon, Largemouth Bass, Sacramento Pikeminnow, Sacramento Sucker, Smallmouth Bass, Striped Bass, White Sturgeon on the Suisun Bay in California.

Where can you access the Suisun Bay?

Benicia - the gauge location, with a state recreation area, ramp and full services. Martinez - a developed marina and ramp on the south shore. Pittsburg - an east end access with marina facilities and ramp. Suisun City - the town at the head of Suisun Slough, with marina access. Suisun Marsh - the extensive managed wetland on the north side of the bay. Carquinez Strait - the tidal channel immediately downstream. Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta - the vast waterway system upstream.

When is the best time to fish the Suisun Bay?

Spring: striped bass move through on their way upstream and the fishing picks up steadily. Summer: warm and productive for striped bass, with sturgeon fishing slower in the heat. Fall: salmon pass through and striped bass fishing is at its best of the year. Winter: the prime sturgeon season, with high outflow pushing fish down into the bay.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Suisun Bay?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the California agency site: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regulations