Fishing season is shaping up. Despite some heavy fog and windy conditions, most days this week were very fishable, especially in the mornings. Even the local reefs are beginning to provide decent action for area anglers.

Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait struck gold on Tuesday, when he noticed birds working bait just offshore from the Capitola Wharf. Armed with an Ambassadeur 6500 on his seven-foot Lamiglass rod, Burrell quickly motored out and began casting a Sassy Shad swimbait. His reward was this year's first legal White Sea Bass reported for our area. A few Sea Bass were caught last week in Monterey when the squid were spawning near the Monterey Harbor, but Burrell's fish is the only one reported locally.

Burrell is excited about a variety of catches for anglers working the Capitola area lately. He has seen five legal halibut caught from the wharf this week, and many more short halibut caught and released. On Tuesday, one angler brought a 27-inch flatty over the rail, and others caught at least 15 short fish which were released successfully. The New Brighton/Cement Ship area has featured a similar bite for smaller male halibut as well as a few legal stripers for the surfcasters. Burrell adds the skiff anglers are doing well on lingcod, grass rockfish and Bolinas, working the Capitola area kelp beds with swimbaits.

Some of our other local areas are beginning to produce as well, according to Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. "We saw decent scores of rockfish come in from South Rock, and the lingcod are on the bite at Lighthouse Point," Fraser recounts. He also weighed in one 16-pound halibut taken near the Mile buoy by an angler using a purple PowerBait swimbait.

Jim Rubin from Captain Jimmy's Sportfishing chose to travel a bit for his clients this weekend. On Friday and Saturday, he headed south and found plenty of action for his clients aboard the Becky Ann. "We fished deep, at 220 feet of water, and found a good mix of big olives, blues and some red rockfish," Rubin said. Despite the long run, all aboard including the crew had limits by 9:30a.m. on both days.