Anglers all around Monterey Bay are enjoying the heights of summertime fishing. All of our normal species are well present and accounted for.  And, some exotics may be on the way.

Charter boat operations continue to report limits of rockfish and an increasing number of ling cod for their daily trips. Weather conditions have been mild. The gentler winds and waves not only make ocean fishing more comfortable, but also allow boats to travel farther from the harbors to improve both quantity and quality of fish being caught. Chris’ Fishing Trips from Monterey has no problem getting around the corner at Point Pinos to steam south past Carmel and towards Big Sur, where the fish are bigger and quicker to bite. Chris’ reported full limits of rockfish for every trip aboard the Caroline and Check Mate this week.

In Santa Cruz, Stagnaro’s Charters has enjoyed near-limit fishing on their half-day trips to the local reefs, and full limits on their whole day trip to the North Coast. Their catches this week included 2-3 lingcod per trip and one halibut reported. The smaller six-pack boats are reporting limits on rock cod as well, both from local reefs as well as the North Coast  spots. JT Thomas from Go Fish Santa Cruz reported on Sunday’s trip aboard the beautiful Miss Beth saying, “We fished locally today for rock cod. The bite was wide open. The clients had early limits of quality rock fish including big vermillion. They landed four nice ling cod.” Rodney Armstrong , skipper for Santa Cruz Coastal Charters has been traveling up towards Davenport and finding great success on the larger rock cod. On Tuesday Armstrong reported, “Today we went back to Davenport.  The fishing was great.  Landed two lingcod keepers and lost four more. (Rock fish) Limits for boat and crew.” Tom Dolan on the six-pack Mega Bite had an adventurous charter group who opted for halibut on Tuesday. Their choice paid off as Dolan explains, “Our first halibut trip of the season and WOW! Our Nebraska team of three nailed the halibut today. Boated nine and kept the biggest seven. Fresh squid was the ticket!”

Meanwhile, if that’s not enough, salmon are still in the bay and still on the bite. Trollers working various south bay spots found the fish deep, near the bottom in 180-220 feet of water. The bite was decent for big king salmon near the Sand Plant, Mulligan’s Hill and Soldier’s Club this week. Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine also reported a few salmon were caught north of Santa Cruz as well, near Wilder’s Beach. 

Tom Joseph on the Sara Bella of Fish On Sportfishing, may have the best fishing news of the week.  Joseph trailers his boat so he can launch from a variety of harbors. He often launches from Moss Landing, Monterey and Santa Cruz. On Tuesday he took off from Half Moon Bay with clients, looking for albacore tuna. They caught no albacore but did troll up a bluefin tuna, the first reported caught this season. This is big news indeed. We may enjoy another year of tuna fever on the Monterey Bay if the bluefin start biting. The thought of bluefin AND albacore fishing offshore should make local anglers heads swim.  Fingers are crossed.