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Home › Waters › California › Carquinez Strait
Estuary · Northern California, Solano and Contra Costa counties, the tidal channel between San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay at Crockett · California

Carquinez Strait Fishing Guides

The narrow tidal channel that carries the entire outflow of the Sacramento and San Joaquin toward the ocean, with ripping current, deep water and a long-standing sturgeon and striped bass fishery.

Sun setting over a broad coastal marsh cut by tidal creeks
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Carquinez Strait

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About the Carquinez Strait

Carquinez Strait is the narrow channel through which the whole combined discharge of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers passes on its way from Suisun Bay to San Pablo Bay and the ocean beyond. It runs about eight miles between the hills, is deep for its width, and moves an enormous volume of water on every tide. The gauge at the Carquinez Bridge near Crockett reports water temperature, salinity and velocity.

The defining characteristic is current. Because the strait is the bottleneck of the entire estuary, tidal flow through it is fast and the water column is well mixed and usually turbid. Depths run considerably greater than in the shallow bays either side, and the bottom is scoured, with rock, hard clay and deep holes rather than the soft shoals of Suisun. Shipping uses the channel heavily, so anglers share the water with large vessels.

White sturgeon are the fish the strait is best known for. They hold in the deep water and are fished with bait on the bottom, with the strongest bite generally on a big tide. Striped bass are the other principal fishery and are taken on bait, lures and by trolling along the shorelines and the rock. Green sturgeon pass through and are fully protected. Chinook salmon and American shad move through seasonally, and Sacramento pikeminnow and common carp appear in the fresher periods.

Shore fishing is genuinely viable here, which is unusual in the estuary. Public piers and rocky shoreline at Crockett, Benicia and Martinez put anglers within reach of deep water without a boat.

Rules for sturgeon and salmon change frequently and must be checked before each trip. The strait is also a working shipping channel, and anglers anchoring in or near the traffic lanes need to be alert to vessel movement and to the wake that comes with it.

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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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Posting to Carquinez Strait.

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

Crockett - the gauge location, with shoreline and pier access to deep water.
Benicia - the north side town, with a state recreation area, ramp and fishing pier.
Martinez - the south side access, with a regional shoreline park, pier and ramp.
Port Costa - a small south shore community with shoreline access.
Vallejo - the nearest larger city, with marinas and full services.
San Pablo Bay - the larger bay immediately downstream to the west.
Suisun Bay - the brackish bay immediately upstream to the east.

Seasons

Spring: striped bass move through in numbers and shore fishing is at its most productive.
Summer: warm water and strong striped bass fishing, with sturgeon slower.
Fall: salmon pass through the strait and striped bass fishing stays strong.
Winter: the classic sturgeon season, with winter outflow concentrating fish in the channel.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Carquinez Strait?

Anglers target American Shad, Chinook Salmon, Common Carp, Green Sturgeon, Sacramento Pikeminnow, Striped Bass, White Sturgeon on the Carquinez Strait in California.

Where can you access the Carquinez Strait?

Crockett - the gauge location, with shoreline and pier access to deep water. Benicia - the north side town, with a state recreation area, ramp and fishing pier. Martinez - the south side access, with a regional shoreline park, pier and ramp. Port Costa - a small south shore community with shoreline access. Vallejo - the nearest larger city, with marinas and full services. San Pablo Bay - the larger bay immediately downstream to the west. Suisun Bay - the brackish bay immediately upstream to the east.

When is the best time to fish the Carquinez Strait?

Spring: striped bass move through in numbers and shore fishing is at its most productive. Summer: warm water and strong striped bass fishing, with sturgeon slower. Fall: salmon pass through the strait and striped bass fishing stays strong. Winter: the classic sturgeon season, with winter outflow concentrating fish in the channel.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Carquinez Strait?

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