The local marine weather story is getting old. We continue to experience high gusty winds, and even significant overnight winds that leave the ocean choppy and disorganized for early morning launches. Conditions were not so bad that the boats did not go out, however.

A primary motivator is the school of king salmon that moved into the bay last week. A flurry of a bite emerged two weeks ago near Monterey, and thence moved towards Soldier’s Club. Last week the salmon hung out around the Moss Landing Harbor entrance, feasting on abundant anchovy bait balls there along with dozens of whales and thousands of seabirds. Salmon gotta move though, and as this week progressed the fish swam further north in the bay. A few fish were reported caught from the east side of the Soquel Hole and a spotty bite remains near Moss.

Salmon season opened above Pigeon Point this week, and boats from Pillar Point Harbor as well as the San Francisco/Sausalito fleet have been enjoying limit-style fishing in that area. It’s worth a trip up the coast to hop on one of those boats soon for a high-percentage shot at fresh king salmon limit. Skipper Tom Joseph from Fish On Sportfishing wasted no time on zeroing in on the fish. On Monday, Joseph reported four limits of salmon to 17 pounds, and on Tuesday all four of his clients caught limits, with the skipper keeping a couple fish as well. “Fish to 23 pounds with a solid 16-pound average. We lost another 9 along the way,” Joseph reported.

Launching out of Moss Landing, the Kahuna took advantage of the nearby feeding frenzy and caught a good number of salmon while mooching just outside the harbor. For limit-style fishing Captain Brian Cutting and owner Carol Jones are specializing in “long-range” trips down the coast deep into Big Sur. The fish are bigger and more numerous as Jones reported on Wednesday, “Captain Brian just called in with great action on the lingcod. Limits for all aboard! Several lings going 20 pounds plus. Big one was 24 pounds. Rockfish bite was a little slower but the vermilion wanted to bite at the end of the day. They ended just shy of rockfish limits for the anglers.”

Chris’ Fishing Trips in Monterey continue to post their usual groundfish limits as well. Jigging up live squid for bait, anglers aboard the Check Mate and Caroline this week caught mostly limits of lings, and half to full limits of rockfish on trips targeting the area between Point Pinos and Carmel Bay.