Marine weather was mild and sea conditions very forgiving this week, enabling area anglers to fish to their heart’s content. Rockfish are holding steady along most or the rocky and reef areas in Monterey Bay. Big halibut are still making an occasional appearance, and we are starting to see a hint of winter-style fishing with an uptick in ling cod catches as well as the delicious little sand dabs.

Randy’s Fishing Trips and Whale Watching in Monterey posted full limits of rockfish for the Chubasco and Sur Randy on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Chris’ Fishing Trips maintained ½ to ¾ limits on rockfish. As usual, Chris’ concentrated on the bigger lingcod, counting full limits of three lings for every client on the Star of Monterey and the Caroline on Wednesday’s trips.

Charter boat scores were similar on the Santa Cruz side of the bay. Captain Tom Dolan took his six-pack Mega Bite out Tuesday to the West Cliff reefs for early success. Dolan reports, “Perfect fishing conditions today and the fish were glad to see us. Right from the get-go we started hauling in BIG olives and BIG blues and it was pretty much non-stop for a couple hours. Caught well over 90 fish and only kept six limits of BIG olive and BIG blue pacific snapper then we went in for our halibut/lingcod drift and nailed a nice blue lingcod. Great day.”

Reefs inside the Santa Cruz Mile Buoy are holding an increasing number of lingcod. Keith Williams from Mariposa took a kayak fishing adventure on Tuesday and hooked up two nice lings along with a half-limit of blacks and brown rockfish. Being out for pure sport, Williams released all his fish. Bigger lings are in the mix these days as well, with good catches reported from Capitola Mile Reef and nearby Surfer’s Reef. Danny Finkel fished out of Capitola on Monday and nailed a 20-plus pound flatty near the SC3 Buoy, using a live jack mackerel, according to Ed Burrell from Capitola Boat and Bait.

Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine keeps a comprehensive overview of fishing reports for the Santa Cruz area. On Sunday he reported, “There have been some nice striped bass caught near Manresa and near Pleasure Point. The striped bass are biting on chunk sardines.” On Wednesday Fraser added to his weekly log saying, “The inshore fishing was good near Davenport and Five-Mile beach for halibut and lingcod. The local areas near Natural Bridges produced some nice rockfish. There were some quality sand dabs caught in 100 feet of water near Three-Mile beach. The winds were light and the swell is small. The weather is expected to stay nice for the weekend.”