If you have been thinking about going fishing, or taking the kids out on a charter boat, or inviting the in-laws down for the weekend, now would be a good time to do so. The weather is settling down, no big swells are predicted, and saltwater fishing, especially for rockfish and lingcod is amazingly consistent. Chris Arcoleo in Monterey continues to record rockfish limits for all aboard the Check Mate and Caroline. Tuesday and Wednesday, anglers with Chris’ Fishing Trips jigged up live mackerel for bait and were rewarded with lingcod limits as well.

On the Santa Cruz side of the bay, Stagnaro’s Sportfishing has a similar tale to tell. Skipper Ken Stagnaro reported, “Cod fishing has been awesome. Both the half and full-day trips have been getting easy limits. The all day trips have been getting good numbers of ling cod. The Sea Stag recently returned with limits of lings and big cod. Velocity's last trip up to davenport got 16 lings and limits of copper, brown and vermillion rockfish for 20 people. The sacks were really bulging! The half day trip a getting a little smaller fish on average but some lunkers have been in there too!”

Halibut fishing has had a slow start this season, but we’re finally seeing some good scores from Five Mile Beach down to Capitola. The halibut are still deep. Most recent catches have been in the 50-80 foot depths. Live mackerel, jack smelt or fresh squid are the preferred baits. With squid schools beginning to move in on both sides of the bay, we should see the big flatfish moving in to the shallows as well.

A few white sea bass have been reported caught in Santa Cruz and Monterey, but the big croakers are not here in any concentration. “There’s just not enough squid,” said Chris Arcaleo from Monterey. “A couple net boats made some big squid hauls last week, but the squid haven’t really moved in yet. One skiff went out last week and got two sea bass. I haven’t heard of any others down here.”

Salmon fishing has remained steady at less than a fish per rod average. The fish are holding near the bottom, according to Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine, though some of the Santa Cruz Harbor net-pen fish are showing up already. “Salmon are still being caught straight out in 200 feet of water. There were five nice salmon caught on the west jetty in the harbor as well! The shore anglers are using the Mad River Pink Worms and Fish Pills,” Fraser reported. He added that a few salmon were caught in 100 feet of water “near the Boardwalk.” Those anglers were using Krippled Anchovies 50 feet down.