A strong school of king salmon moved into the Monterey Bay this week rekindling salmon fever for many area anglers. The fish were caught near Soldier’s Club and Mulligan’s Hill last weekend, then followed the anchovy bait balls to the Moss Landing area by Tuesday. Word got out, and boats from Monterey and Santa Cruz Harbors joined the boats from Moss to form a small fleet working a tight area within a mile of the Moss Landing Harbor entrance.

Brian Cutting, skipper of the Kahuna charter operation working out of Moss Landing, took a few friends out on Wednesday and found the fish were close by and willing to bite. Cutting reported, “We fished only one mile out of of Moss Landing! We found huge bait balls with tons of birds and humpback whales feeding all over the place. Most of our fish were caught fishing 30-60 feet down.”

On Thursday, the salmon school remained along the canyon edges in front of Moss. With all the anchovies in the area, why would they go elsewhere? Conditions were a little rough ,with some wind and choppy seas early in the morning. Sticky green moss flushed from the Elkhorn Slough also fouled lines and downriggers, requiring frequent equipment checks. Patches of clean green water were located mostly to the north of the deep Monterey Canyon, which terminates at Moss Landing. Both moochers and trollers landed fish from that area with an average of 1-3 fish per boat, but everyone had to work for their fish.

Captain Mike Baxter on the private boat Skookum set his downriggers at 60 feet for two beautiful king salmon, and hooked one more at 115 feet on the wire. Baxter was using Hot Spot flashers, white hoochies and cable-baited anchovies to fool the fish. Sam Bird-Robinson from Santa Cruz took big fish honors on the Skookum with a gorgeous 17-pound wild king salmon that proved to be a tough fighter. After nearly ten minutes of battle, Bird-Robinson got the fish to the net, and thence to the cooler. At the end of a long day Baxter reported, “It’s a treat to spend time on the bay with friends, catching magnificent fish!”

The salmon arrived just in time. After weeks of strong overnight winds, a significant west swell hit our coastline and scattered the previously plentiful halibut out to deeper water. Rockfish and lingcod also have a tendency to hunker down when the waves get big, though savvy skippers continue to find the groundfish on both sides of the bay. JT Thomas at Go Fish Santa Cruz Charters had good luck for a variety of rockfish while working the deeper reefs off Natural Bridges, and Chris’ Fishing Trips in Monterey posted their usual reports of lingcod limits and half to full limits of rockfish for all of their trips aboard the Check Mate this week.