When fishing SF Bay, Tide is a far greater determining factor than "being on the water early".
The tide table supports a fishing trip to the Berkley flats area during this window of time...an incoming tide. This time of year nobody does mutch of anything with junk, so natural bait is the order of the day. Either Ghost Shrimp, Mud Shrimp, Grass Shrimp, Mud Suckers or cut bait...to catch either surgeon or stripers. Surely the cops can find out who this guy bought his bait from...if he bought bait at all.
But I can assure you, that departing and leaving during these hours is not unusual.
What is unusual is that driving from and to Modesto, including launching and running time, this guy only had about an hour or an hour an half to fish. I find it incredible that he, or any guy for that matter, would spend so much time to fish so little.