Buoy 46026 Reads 56°F as SF Bay & Bodega Enter Prime May Window

What's Biting

What's Next

**Conditions over the next 2–3 days**

With winds at 4–5 m/s (roughly 8–10 knots) across both buoys, the near-term window looks manageable for bay boats and nearshore runs alike. No wave height data was available from either buoy this cycle, but the light wind readings suggest seas are not significantly elevated at either location. That said, Northern California's spring upwelling pattern typically tightens the fishable window to mornings — expect afternoon northwesterly winds to build as May progresses, a consistent feature of the Bodega Bay corridor through summer.

**What should be turning on**

At 56°F, striped bass are squarely in their prime spring window. In a typical year, fish stage along tidal rips, channel edges, and structure points through the bay from mid-April into May before pushing further into the Delta system. Early May is often when bay-side action peaks before that upstream dispersion. Topwater plugs and swimbaits on the first moving tide — especially around dawn with the Waning Gibbous moon dropping in the predawn hours — are the classic approach. The moon phase lines up well with a morning tidal push; plan to be on the water at first light.

California halibut should be transitioning onto sandy flat and channel-edge habitat inside the bay. May marks the shift from offshore winter holding grounds to the accessible shallow-water feeding stations where flatties are easiest to target. Slow-drifted live anchovies and swimbaits worked along flat edges are standard-issue approaches for this part of the season.

Nearshore rockfish remain a dependable option off the Bodega headlands and the Marin coast structure. Light upwelling periods — consistent with the moderate winds buoy 46013 is showing — often concentrate baitfish against reef structure, pulling rockfish, lingcod, and cabezon tighter to holding spots in the 60–120-foot range. If the wind window holds through midmorning, a nearshore structure run is worth building into a weekend plan.

**Weekend timing windows**

The Waning Gibbous moon puts peak tidal movement in the predawn-to-midmorning hours. Launch early for stripers in the bay. Watch for the afternoon northwesterly wind build off Bodega — 15–20 knot gusts are common by early afternoon in May. Target productive water before noon, especially for open-bay drifting or nearshore reef runs.

Context

Early May sits in one of the most reliable fishing windows across the SF Bay and Bodega coast. The 56°F reading from buoy 46026 is squarely within the normal range for this date — the California Current typically holds nearshore and bay surface temps between 53°F and 58°F through May before aggressive upwelling pulses can push readings back toward 50°F in June and July. There is nothing anomalous about the current temperature signal; this is an on-schedule spring.

For striped bass, the first two weeks of May represent the tail end of the spring upstream migration and the beginning of the bay-resident summer fishery. Fish that have been moving through the system since March are typically well distributed across bay structure by now, making this one of the more accessible periods of the year before the population disperses into the Delta. Historically, the spring bay bite softens in the back half of May, so the current window is worth prioritizing.

California halibut in SF Bay track water temperature closely. They begin appearing on the flats in meaningful numbers once surface temps consistently hold above 54–55°F — which the current 56°F reading from buoy 46026 satisfies. This timing is typical for the first week of May, neither early nor noticeably late.

Bodega Bay's nearshore rockfish and lingcod fishery is productive year-round, but the spring upwelling season from April through July is when baitfish cycling makes structure-oriented fishing most dynamic. The light-to-moderate wind pattern at buoy 46013 suggests upwelling is active but not at the peak intensity that can make offshore runs uncomfortable or push bait off structure unpredictably.

No comparative angler-intel data for this specific region was available in this reporting cycle — national feeds focused on Atlantic and Gulf fisheries. Readers with ground-level reports from local bay area sources should weight that current intelligence above the seasonal baselines offered here.