Fishing for lingcod and rockfish remains most productive in Monterey Bay, though king salmon are still around and it looks like the halibut are finally moving in for spawning.

The charter boats working out of Monterey are submitting cookie-cutter rockfish reports featuring limits, limits and limits. Father’s Day was productive for those on Randy’s Fishing Charters. Working the Point Pinos and Carmel areas, Randy’s reported full rockfish limits on the Chubasco (300) with 15 lingcod, while the Sur Randy caught 270 rockies, 12 lings and one rock sole. Chris’ Fishing Trips posted similar results with rockfish limits every day this week on the Check Mate and lingcod counts up to 29 for the boat.

On the Santa Cruz side of the bay, Stagnaro’s Sportfishing is doing just as well. Skipper Ken Stagnaro reports “We caught a 20-pound ling on yesterday’s half day cod trip on Velocity. They had full limits of cod in about two hours of fishing for 33 fishermen. Sea Stag got four lings for six guys, along with good quality bottom fish and black rockfish. Stagnaro’s boats are fishing the deeper reefs off West Cliff up to Wilder’s Ranch from 70-130 feet of water.

Salmon fishing is still sporadic. There are salmon in the bay, but they are constantly moving. Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine recorded private boat catches this week from such widely scattered locations as Moss Landing, Pajaro, Soquel Hole and north of Santa Cruz near Davenport. Fraser recommends fishing deep, near the bottom in 200-220 feet of water for the hard-fighting kings.

Those with trailer boats might think about heading north if salmon is the target. Captain Tom Joseph of the Sara Bella four-pack charter trailers his boat to go where the fish are. He’s been doing well working out of Half Moon Bay recently, and reports, “The salmon bite has picked up with most private boats getting limits outside the (Golden) gate. I'll be running salmon trips out of Half Moon Bay and fishing outside the gate. The tuna water is also here out of HMB and I plan on running Sunday to the Guide to see what we can find.” We wish Joseph well on his albacore hunt. If anyone can find them it is he.

Saving the best news for last, looks like the halibut are finally showing up in shallow water as they prepare to spawn. We have received numerous reports of the big flatfish being caught from the Santa Cruz West Cliff area, down to Capitola and the Cement Ship. Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait counted more than ten nice flatties brought in to the dock over the weekend, including a giant 30-pound fish caught by 16-year old Ben Aviv from his kayak. The fish are holding in the 50-70 foot depths right now, and are being caught mostly with live mackerel. Whole squid are always good bait for big halibut, and nothing beats hooking up a flattie on a swimbait or metal jig. There is plenty of live bait available for jigging up, however, and a good wiggling bait is a sure thing for halibut. As the next few weeks progress, we should see the big flatfish moving shallower, to the kelp bed edges in 30-40 feet of water.