We can’t call it “wide open,” but must acknowledge that fishing in the Monterey Bay has been pretty darn pretty steady for everyone, and even pretty good for the perennial high-liners.

New rockfish regulations have extended the maximum fishing depth to 300 feet off our shores. This has opened up miles and miles of ocean habitat that has remained untouched for decades.

In Monterey, Keith Stemler from Chris’ Fishing Trips enthused, “There’s lots of rockfish but it’s really about getting limits of lings. Important thing is, these fish are big. We’re hitting spots that have not been fished for 20 years. Instead of five-pound rockfish, we’re catching ten-pounders. The lings are going 20-25 pounds. Lots of anchovies outside of Asilomar and with this low pressure we hope they get pushed into the bay.”

Launching from Moss Landing, the Kahuna Sportfishing crew have a similar focus. Last week owner Carol Jones reported, “We have had a lot of area that has opened up to us due to the deeper water regs. It paid off! Just a few shy on the lingcod limits, and limits of nice quality rockfish. Vermilion, coppers and canary rockfish. We have a lot of scouting around to do in areas we have not been able to fish for 20 years.”

Scouting pays off for the serious salmon anglers as well. Captain Jimmy Rubin from Go Fish Santa Cruz reminds salmon anglers to take a good look around before committing to the troll. He found success on the vessel Miss Beth from Pajaro all the way to the area off West cliff in the past week. “There’s a good number of fish in the bay since opener.” Rubin reports. “They are scattered and seem to be moving fast. If we take a day off, we have to find them again. We did good on the west side of Soquel Hole over the weekend, then fished closer to Santa Cruz in the days since. There are also salmon in fairly shallow water. We hooked seven or eight on Tuesday in about 160 feet of water generally out front of the harbor. Most were in the ten to 12-pound range, but one king we caught weighed in at 15 pounds.” Other reports have come in citing salmon caught from as shallow as 120 feet of water. Most anglers are doing best trolling about 80-100 feet down, using hoochies, spoons or cable-baited anchovies.

Meanwhile, don’t forget beach surfcasting. Wave action is lessening though this week, and the fish are waiting and willing. Austin Sprague from Aptos fishes a number of beaches from Santa Cruz to Moss Landing on a routine basis. Sprague says the barred surfperch are getting noticeably bigger, and that he has hooked multiple striped bass in the evening hours during the past week.