Inshore · 60 ft · beaches, bays, inlets and rips

California Sheephead

Semicossyphus pulcher. Prime water reaches San Francisco in California right now (62°F on the bottom). Fish it around 49 ft down — that is where 59°F water sits off San Francisco.

California Sheephead identification illustration
LaneInshore · 10 fa (60 ft)
Depth it holds26–148 ft
Prime water57–72°F (workable 57–77°F)
Holds in the column26–148 ft down (on the bottom)
Judged onseabed temperature (RTOFS at depth)
Structurerequires rock reef and kelp

The water column off San Francisco

0 ft26 ft52 ft23 ft of workable water26–49 ft · 59–57°F

The strip is the water itself, coloured by temperature from the surface down to the 52 ft surveyed bottom at that spot — one band per RTOFS model level. The outlined stretch is where California Sheephead's temperature band (57–77°F) and the depth it holds actually overlap. That thickness is the number that matters: it is how much water you can work, not just whether the spot is warm enough somewhere. One model cycle, not a weekly archive — this holds still while the surface map scrubs.

How it's fished

Whole shrimp or urchin on the bottom in the rocks and kelp — they crush a bait with a beak.

Region by region — right now

RegionSeasonPrime waterTempFish it atMonths
California in season reaches San Francisco 62°F ~49 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
"Fish it at" is where this species' temperature band and its holding depth overlap in the water column, from the RTOFS profile (13 levels, 0–300 m) — the depth to actually put a bait, not just the place. "Prime water" is the furthest sampled station on the 10-fathom lane whose seabed temperature sits inside this species' band. It is water, not a sighting report.
Charted grounds on the 10-fathom lane
The Farallon Islands