On Sunday, the Kayak Connection at Santa Cruz Harbor held its annual kayak fishing derby.

Known as the “Roots” Derby, this is the original and for many years the only kayak fishing derby in Northern California. Co-sponsored by Ocean Kayaks, owners Dave and Jessica Grigsby were again able to bestow a brand new Old Town Predator fishing kayak as first prize during the barbeque awards ceremony. Fishing in mostly pleasant conditions despite a smattering of rain showers, kayak anglers worked the local reefs, catching a variety of species.

This year third place was captured by Charles Nunez with a four-pound two-ounce lingcod. Edging him out for second place, Robert Kirby weighed in a five-pound five-ounce ling. The first place fish was exponentially bigger. After an hour-long fight, Travis Blymer from Santa Cruz brought in a 56-pound, nine-ounce white sea bass. He hooked up just outside the Mile Buoy in 70 feet of water. Blymer was to say the least, enthused, remarking “I caught a live mackerel for bait, and this fish hit on my first drop. Having lost a sea bass last week, I babied this one. It towed me almost to Lighthouse Point and back again. I was so relieved to get it gaffed and clipped on my kayak!”

This is the largest fish ever weighed in for the Kayak Connection Derby which has been an annual event since 2001. Blymer essentially won the derby with one drop of his bait. Once he had the fish in the boat, he paddled back in and weighed it at Bayside Marine’s certified scale, because the official derby weighmaster’s scale tops out at only 50 pounds.

Capitola Wharf has their boat hoist fixed now, and are launching rental skiffs and private boats once again. A few white sea bass were reported caught in that are this week, most notably Myron Larson’s 59-pound beast caught near the SC-3 buoy on a Lazer Minnow lure. Ed Burrell from Capitola Boat and Bait has also recorded a good number of bonito brought in on the skiffs and by private boaters to the wharf.

The warm tuna water is hosting wildly feeding schools of bonito all across the Bay. In Monterey, the best spot is just around the corner of Point Pinos, according to Holokai Brown at Monterey Bay Kayaks. Anglers launching from Moss Landing are finding bonito just two miles from that harbor. In Santa Cruz, most of the feeding frenzies are a bit further offshore, though some boaters have found schools of bonito in as little as 120 feet of water off Natural Bridges State Beach.

And finally, we are stoked to report the epic bluefin tuna bite continues in the waters further offshore. Eight to 10 miles offshore the deep blue pelagic water is still hosting big bluefin. Skilled tuna anglers who get lucky are boating three to five of the 35-60 pound tuna. Most others are lucky to get one. Skipper Jack Teresi and veteran angler Leroy Cross fought a tuna for 45 minutes last week and were surprised after boating the fish to find it was a 60-pound albacore. A few big-eye tuna are in the offshore mix as well as other exotics. Some small mako sharks have been caught lately, and another opah was brought in last week, this one weighing in at 120-pounds.