The grounds · 180 ft · banks, ledges and wrecks

Pacific Bonito

Sarda lineolata. Prime water reaches San Francisco in California right now (63°F at the surface). Fish it around 5 ft down — that is where 63°F water sits off San Francisco.

Pacific Bonito identification illustration
LaneThe grounds · 30 fa (180 ft)
Depth it holds20–197 ft
Prime water63–73°F (workable 63–79°F)
Holds in the column0–82 ft down below the surface, over 20–197 ft of water
Judged onsurface temperature (NASA MUR satellite)
Structurenone

The water column off San Francisco

0 ft94 ft187 ft3 ft of workable water0–3 ft · 63–63°F

The strip is the water itself, coloured by temperature from the surface down to the 187 ft surveyed bottom at that spot — one band per RTOFS model level. The outlined stretch is where Pacific Bonito's temperature band (63–79°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.

In 3D

Drag to rotate, pinch or scroll to zoom. 3D model traced from a nmoorhatch / iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0 reference — source.

How it's fished

Small jigs or a fly-lined bait through a boiling school; they show under working birds.

Region by region — right now

RegionSeasonPrime waterTempFish it atMonths
California in season reaches San Francisco 63°F ~5 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
"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 30-fathom lane whose surface temperature sits inside this species' band. It is water, not a sighting report.