Happy Thanksgiving to all the fishing families of the Monterey Bay area! Hopefully everyone enjoyed some tasty fresh Dungeness crab along with the traditional turkey dinner. Commercial crabbers are now working this part of the coast, which means there are a lot of crab traps have been deployed on the flat bottom areas between 180-300 feet of water. Sport crabbers have been doing fairly well placing pots in the 150 to 220-foot depths. While the numbers of crab per pot have been low so far this season, the quality of crab is high. The Dungies are big and firm, which makes for good eating.

Most charter operations are running crab/rockfish combination trips, and can do so until December 31, when rockfish season ends. This is a great opportunity to get out on the bay and return with a variety for your family seafood buffet. Chris’ Fishing Trips in Monterey have been averaging half-limits of rockfish and a few crab for each angler aboard their boats. Chris’ also counted up to 15 lingcod per trip last week. Randy’s Fishing have worked the same areas near Monterey with slightly better results, returning with full limits of rockfish and up to five crab per angler on their boats Sur Randy and Chubasco.

In Santa Cruz, the fishing seemed a bit better this week. Beth Thomas from Go Fish Santa Cruz had good news to report on Tuesday saying, “Our combo rock cod and crab charter today was with Robert and his family from Lake Tahoe. They couldn’t have picked a nicer day to fish the Monterey Bay. We fished locally and caught quality limits of a variety of rockfish and a beautiful ling cod. These fish are truly a monster looking fish from the sea, and are fun to catch but better yet to eat. Our crab pots were two short of limits. Big and beautiful. Yummy. According to Captain Jimmy Rubin ‘it doesn’t get any better than this’.” Wednesday’s trip aboard the beautiful Miss Beth also netted near-limits of Dungeness crab, but only half-limits of rockfish. Skipper Jim Rubin did report seeing a good number of bluefin tuna in the area, which might bode well for tuna fishing in the near future. As Thomas reports, “The bluefin tuna were running but that is exactly what they were doing – running. They are not biting.”

Good news on the surfcasting front. Beaches south of Seacliff are starting to get in shape due to the heavy wave action of the past few weeks. We are starting to see holes and rip currents emerge as sand is scoured from the flat summer beaches. This is very promising for perch fishing as well as hunting for the elusive Monterey Bay striped bass.