Suisun Bay is open all year and features fishing, swimming, hiking and jogging trails, waterskiing, sailing and windsurfing. There are several boat launch locations around the bay along the northern shore. If you are up for a marathon paddle, off to the east of Suisun Bay are several smaller bays and islands to explore. Suisun Bay is part of northern San Francisco Bay that is located just seaward from the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

The wind was extremely intimidating on this gigantic bay when I first arrived. Anything that wasn’t tied down was blown away. I highly recommend paddling to the nearest shore and sitting out hazardous wind conditions if you are ever caught in strong wind conditions. Also, use caution while paddling in the south channel for large vessels. The channel is the connecting port of Sacramento to the Pacific Ocean.

The road to reach Suisun Bay is heavily congested with vehicles coming into or leaving the city of San Francisco during rush hour. Plan your arrival and departure time in advance if you don’t want to sit in rush hour traffic for two hours!

There are exquisite fishing opportunities to catch striped bass, along with sturgeon and other fish during the fall and winter, but fishing isn’t as easy during the spring and summer mainly due to the high, often unfishable conditions on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. You’ll probably have the most action at Suisun Bay between the three bays, San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun in the area.

Map of Suisun Bay