Anyone watching sunset near the Santa Cruz Wharf this week will notice a group of commercial salmon boats anchored up in the area. A couple dozen “visiting” boats are using the anchorage while fishing for the prized wild king salmon in our area right now. And, the salmon are still here.

They are still moving quickly. Day to day catch reports vary from Soldier’s Club in Marina, Mulligan Hill below Moss Landing, the Pajaro flats and also near the Soquel Hole. Captain Tom Joseph aboard the Four-Pack Sara Bella continues to hook up on numerous king salmon. It’s a testament to the hard-fighting fish how many escape prior to getting in the net. Joseph said, “Our party of four hooked 12 and put four in the boat and lost one to a seal. They just were not sticking today and came off after a few cranks on the reel. Just one of those days. The fish went 10 to 15 pounds.”

Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine suggests fishing from 100-180 feet of water. Fraser also reported personal success on his boat Easy Money using Krippled Anchovies, fishing from 50 feet to the bottom. “I fished near the Moss Landing Canyon and ended up with five out of six fish,” Fraser reports. Trolling remains the best option for catching salmon as the fish, and the bait, remain scattered.

Signs of bait are looking up, however. Ed Burrell from Capitola Boat and Bait noticed “clouds of pinhead anchovies” near the wharf this week. Burrell also located few thick spots of mature sardines in the area, as well as numerous smelt. All of these make very good live bait when fishing for rockfish, lingcod and the prized California halibut.

Last year halibut were few and far between, while this year looks to be shaping up as a more “regular” halibut season. It’s early May, the inshore water temps are getting as high as 59 degrees and halibut are slowly moving in. Capitola was the epicenter this week with a few nice fish reported caught. Azi Dennler from Belmont brought in a flatty weighing 20 pounds, caught in 35 feet of water using a frozen anchovy garnished with shrimp. The shrimp garnish is a brainchild of Myron Larson who works the rental boats with Burrell. Larson used a squid/shrimp combo to nail his own halibut from the Mile reef area on Thursday. What’s next Myron, a sprig of parsley?

As water temps increase, we will see a corresponding increase of rockfish catches. The Kahuna is still heading down towards Point Sur for their rockfish and lingcod limits. Chris’ Fishing Trips in Monterey is using live bait for daily lingcod limits, with rockfish limits reported most days this week as well. Near Santa Cruz, Tom Dolan on the Mega-Bite took the afternoon off from salmon trolling on Sunday. Dolan reported, “The wind was up and the bigger waves prevented us from venturing too far offshore. Fished some of our close to shore spots and we found lots of canary, blue, black and olive pacific snapper.”