Despite a significant groundswell and windy conditions, fishing for rockfish was productive this week, especially for those anglers who targeted the Monterey and Carmel areas.

On opening day, Ken Stagnaro took the Velocity to the Davenport area. The bite was slow, but Stagnaro managed to find a couple of rocks in the 150 ft depth that eventually produced 130 fish for his 15 clients aboard. On Friday, Stagnaro returned to the same spot and netted 140 rockfish for 20 passengers. The fish were a good mix of red rockfish and coppers weighing up to 5 pounds each.

Saturday the Velocity fished the south side of the bay where they found better action. The anglers aboard were done by 12:30 with a good mix of Olives, Coppers, and Vermillion rockfish. As a bonus, Stagnaro mentioned the large numbers of gray whales in our area lately. On his whale-watching trips, they have been observing a dozen gray whales that have been feeding just offshore, as well as a good number of humpbacks in the deeper offshore waters.

As is typical in early spring, the further south one travels, the better the fishing. Chris' Sportfishing, launching from Monterey, were able to make the trip to the Big Sur area over the weekend for big returns. Chris' sent three boats around the corner and returned with full limits on each boat, for a total of 800 rockfish on Saturday!

Private boaters have found the local reefs to be a bit slower. Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait said skiff anglers found the best results by fishing the outside edge of the kelp beds near Pleasure Point and Lighthouse Point. Local angler Curtis Williams picked up a few grass cod near the kelp in Capitola as well as a 12-pound ling cod using swim baits. Burrell notes that one halibut was reported by skiff fishermen who used a white grub tipped with squid in that area for the 11-pounds flattie.

Ernie Kinzli from Ernie's Casting Pond in Soquel chimed in with reports from his fly fishing surfcasters, of schoolie stripers sill hitting from the beaches near Moss Landing. Kinzli says the latest reports indicate perch fishing is rather slow. Mark Dingler at the Anglers choice Tackle shop in Capitola received similar reports of slow perch fishing and attributes the slow down to the recent ground swell and high winds we have been experiencing.