The Monterey Bay is bursting with life these days. Huge anchovy schools, localized squid spawns, and krill from upwelling are providing an “all you can eat” buffet for sport fish. We are also gifted with a large number of grey whales, humpbacks, orcas and a variety of dolphin species in the bay right now. The big numbers of apex predators are the best indication of a healthy bountiful biosphere. And, with the weather settling down, we can start to enjoy increased opportunities to pursue our local sport fish.

In Monterey, Chris’ Fishing Trips continues to record limits of rockfish and lingcod for their clients on the Check Mate, Caroline and Star of Monterey. This week’s reports included numbers as high as 240 rockfish and 42 lings on Tuesday’s trip on the Check Mate. Salmon fishing has slowed in the Monterey area as the fish scattered around the bay and moved northwards. Halibut fishing is picking up, even for surfcasters working the long flat beach at DelMonte. Some evenings feature bait moving in to the Monterey Harbor area, followed (or pushed) by striped bass. Jig up some live bait and float it out under a big sliding bobber for big fish action.

Stripers and big barred surfperch are being caught on a daily basis from most of the beaches that ring our beautiful bay. The striper action is heaviest on the Monterey side, near Sand City and the Salinas Rivermouth. We are seeing an increase of striped bass hitting on Santa Cruz side of Moss Landing as well, including Zmudowski State Beach, Manresa and Rio Del Mar.

Capitola Boat and Bait owner Frank Ealy reports very good fishing from the wharf and the rental skiffs this week. “Fishing is really good and I think it’s going to get even better as the water warms up. This week we had three legal halibut caught by pier anglers up to 27 inches. We’re seeing larger halibut caught by skiff anglers, and quite a few rockfish limits. Right now, surfcasters are getting some halibut from the Cement Ship area and from It’s Beach in Santa Cruz. The helicopter people reported up to 15 Great White Sharks congregated near the Cement Ship again. A couple of them look to be large adults in the 14-17-foot range.”

Salmon fishing has been spotty, according to Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. “There were only a few boats who tried for Salmon today. There were a few fish caught straight out in 220 feet of water. The fish are still being caught near the bottom. There were some nice rockfish caught near Natural Bridges. There was a nice halibut caught in 50 feet of water near the Mile Buoy. The shore anglers are catching a few halibut and bass,” Fraser reported on Wednesday.

John Thomas from Go Fish Santa Cruz has concentrated on rockfish this week, and is doing very well. Thomas reports, “The charter had crew limits by 11 am. We fished locally and caught a variety of rockfish including vermillion, coppers, bolinas, green spot, canaries and lingcod.” In other good news, Moss Landing’s Kahuna is back in the water and ready to go, after a winter-long rejuvenation. A great boat just got better. Owner Carol Jones is joyous in her report, “We made it! All cleared to go. First trip Saturday May 12. She's a beauty with some healthy new engines!”