Welcome to Half Moon BaySportfishing
Join us for world class sportfishing and nature trips
April Shop Update
ROCKFISH: The recreational rockfishing season is now open for fishing from a boat as of Tuesday, April 1. The season is the same as last year: April is deep sea rockfishing, fishing depths outside 300 feet. May through September is coastal rockfishing from shore to no deeper than 120 feet. October and December are back outside 300 feet, and November is coastal. As far as we know, no change in size or limit from last year.
SALMON: We have a 2025 recreational salmon season! It will be short...but hopefully sweet! Open dates in California are June 7-8, July 5-6, July 31-August 3 and August 25-31...or until no more than 7,000 salmon are landed. There is also a Fall fishery off the Bay Area coastline scheduled for Sept. 4-7, 29-30, October 1-5 and 27-31...or until no more than 7,500 salmon are landed during that time period. Limit will be 2 salmon per person with a 20 inch minimum size. We are adding those dates to our online booking system, so grab your spot(s) as soon as possible! They're going quick!
AROUND THE HARBOR: Folks are still catching perch along the coastline, and there's still some bait around the harbor at times. Lots of folks are enjoying catching both rock and dungeness crab off the fishing pier inside the harbor as well as on the jetty. As of May 1, recreational crabbers will be restricted to using hoop nets and crab snares only (no crab pots) through the close of the recreational crab season. If you're interested in monkeyface eel, there's loads of them available hidden in the jetty rocks for poke-pole anglers. Might not be a bad idea to try to find a few stripers along beaches, too.
QUEEN OF HEARTS TRIPS: The Queen of Hearts is deep sea rockfishing during April, coastal rockfishing as of May 1, and is scheduling salmon fishing a couple of handful of dates slated for July 7 through the end of August, plus another handful or two of dates in August and September beginning June 5. Spots will fill quick, so if you're looking to grab a spot, book it asap!
CRAB: The commercial dungeness crab season will close effective May 1...so if you're looking to buy that last crab or two at the harbor, you only have until the end of April to do so. Only a few boat are selling off the docks, so I recommend arriving between 9 and 10am on a Saturday for the best chances of grabbing some crab. Don't forget to bring a bucket or ice chest to put them in your vehicle...and we have 7 lb. bags of ice for sale here at our shop for $3.00 a bag. We also sell an absolutely awesome tool here at our shop that makes quick and easy work of cleaning your crab...the "Crack'n Crab Cleaner." I know it sounds like a sales pitch, but it really is fantastic and worth every penny.
SHOP SCHEDULE: We are open Wednesdays through Sundays from at least 8am to 4pm. We will open at 6am if the Queen of Hearts is going out or if the weather looks good on a Saturday or Sunday. Monday and Tuesdays will be closed unless the QH is going out; on those days we'll be open from 6am to 7am ONLY.
Welcome to Half Moon Bay Sportfishing and Tackle, located on the coast about 20 miles south of San Francisco, the only stop you have to make for the fishing adventure of a lifetime! We have the supplies you need for a fantastic day on the water onboard the charterboats that book through our shop as well as all the basic gear, bait, and tackle you need for a great trip on your own boat or from the shore. You can also purchase day and annual fishing licenses as well as commercial fishing and hunting licenses at our shop. Our staff has unsurpased knowledge of gear and techniques for salmon, rockfishing, surf fishing, Dungeness crab and other various species of ocean dwellers that live in our part of the ocean.
Got Bait?
We've always had a complete array of the best bait that's available for sale in our shop that is constantly rotated to be as fresh as possible. But now we've gone one step further...Half Moon Bay Sportfishing is one of the first bait and tackle shops in California to own its own frozen bait vending machine available outside our front door 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Even when the shop is closed or we're crazy busy getting our charterboat customers out first thing in the morning, you can purchase your frozen bait from the machine using either cash or credit cards and get on out to the water quickly and easily.
Charterboat Trips
Half Moon Bay Sportfishing and Tackle is proud to be the booking agent for the vessel Queen of Hearts, which has taken more people fishing out of Half Moon Bay than any other boat, hands down, since 1990. The Queen of Hearts is Coast Guard licensed and inspected, insured, well maintained, and has an impeccable safety record. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020 when the stay at home orders were established, we discontinued booking any other vessels other than the Queen of Hearts through our shop.
Website Hosting and Design provided by TECK.net Fish Counts provided by Sportfishingreport.com. All Rights Reserved.