It’s kind of hard not to want to travel for fish these days. Southern California near San Diego and Oceanside has tons of yellowtail, yellow and bluefin tuna as well as dorado and other exotic species just offshore. Half Moon Bay featured “easy pickin’s” for small but legal salmon all this week just outside of Princeton Harbor. Big bruiser kings are staging off the Marin coast feeding crazily before turning the corner for their last spawning dash through the Bay. And Shelter Cove along with points north have had a banner year for the XXL sized Pacific halibut. But, it’s hard to leave home when so much is also happening here.

More climate scientists are agreeing that equatorial ocean and wind pattern conditions increasingly indicate we are experiencing a “major” El Nino condition. Ocean waters off California are three to four degrees above normal, and continue to climb. In Monterey Bay, warm water makes the salmon harder to find, and seems to keep halibut out deeper for summer months. The current conditions seem to favor hordes of hungry rockfish and lingcod, however many of these fish are being caught deeper than in a typical August. Anglers who venture further up or down the coast to areas of lower fishing pressure, are getting quicker limits and bigger fish. Leroy Cross took advantage of flat seas on Thursday to travel just past Ano Nuevo, and was rewarded with full limits of big rockfish, hefty lingcod, and two halibut in the 20-pound class.

The ocean water just outside Santa Cruz is holding at around 62-64 degrees. Half Moon Bay has un upwelling eddy keeping their water cooler, in the 60-61-degree range, hence the shallow water salmon bite up there. Skipper Tom Joseph from Fish On Sportfishing hooked quite a few salmon this past week. On Thursday, Joseph reported, “Today our private charter was rewarded with limits of salmon by 11:30 am, fish to 15 pounds and lost a few. Another great day on the water.”

Our local halibut fishery is still going strong. In a typical year we see smaller males moving into the 30-40 foot depths in spring, followed by larger females June through August. This year, most halibut have been caught in 50-90 feet of water, significantly deeper than we usually observe. Our theory is that they prefer shallow water along the beaches for spawning because it is warmer. With ocean temps so high, it seems their comfort zone is a bit further offshore this year. Halibut are still hitting well on live mackerel, smelt, anchovies and squid. Throwing swimbait for the big flatfish can be rewarding as well.

Please note, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the Pacific halibut season closure yesterday due to quotas being met earlier than anticipated. The Pacific halibut are a separate species, like the big ones caught in Washington and Alaska. We have some Pacific halibut in California, but they are very rare in our area. For our local fish, the California halibut, we enjoy an open season year-round.