Weather conditions were pleasant this week, and as a result the fishing remained consistently good in the Monterey Bay and adjacent coastlines. Winds and swell were minimal which allowed more anglers to travel farther for outstanding inshore fishing results.

The north coast above Santa Cruz kicked out dozens of big lingcod this week, a good number of halibut and even an occasional white sea bass. A small squid spawn near Five-Mile Beach was the epicenter for north coast anglers. In an emphatic confirmation of our weird warm water year one lucky fisherman pulled in a yellowtail jack this week, a fish that is semi-tropical and typically does not travel much further north than the Channel Islands near Santa Barbara.

Rockfishing trips off the wild coasts of Big Sur and North Santa Cruz are of the guaranteed limit variety. We are seeing more of the schooling type of rockfish such as blues and yellows as fall approaches, though the bigger hardhead bottom fish are willingly taking bait and swimbait or iron lures as well. Big vermilion are not unusual, but be careful in your fish I.D., as the canary rockfish get big as well, and it’s easy to confuse the two. Canaries are illegal to keep.

The charter boats are all reporting limits, as they have all summer. Chris’ Fishing Trips and Randy’s Sportfishing from Monterey continue to work the reefs off Point Pinos and Point Joe. Chris’ reported full bags of rockcod and averaged two lings per rod on all their trips last week. Randy’s presented similar reports with full rockfish limits of blues, blacks and reds, “a few lingcod” and a bonus blue whale sighting on their Sunday trip.

We have been waiting all summer for the halibut to come into shallow water. Looks like they ain’t gonna do that this year. Weird. Halibut counts are up this week, and most if not all were found in 50-70 feet of water. From Manresa to Capitola, to Lighthouse Point and the sandy areas off the north coast, anglers are hooking and catching nice halibut in the 15-30-pound class. Live bait still works best, but swimbaits will do the trick and frozen squid always is a good bet for the big flatfish.

Salmon fishing was pretty much nil for Monterey Bay this week. A few kings are still being caught by diligent anglers on the Santa Cruz Harbor west jetty who are using Mad River pink worms on the incoming or high tides. Half Moon Bay is still hosting a decent salmon bite. Our man on the spot, Captain Tom Joseph from Fish On Sportfishing had three salmon trips last week. Friday they got a double hookup on their first drop, and ended with a fish per rod for the day. Sunday was slow with only one fish for the boat. On Tuesday, things picked up again for Joseph as he relates “Today our charter boated four salmon and a couple came off.”

The coming weekend could go either way. Weather reports indicate a northwest swell of two to four feet and wind waves outside of the bay up to two feet, with wind forecast from five to 15 knots. The mornings should be very fishable, but keep an eye on the horizon and be ready to run for cover when the wind starts to pick up. As always, have safe and be fun.