To everyone’s delight, fishing remains very strong on Monterey Bay, and for a wide variety of species. We’re following a fairly normal pattern for late-summer fishing. The weather is calming down with no significant ground swells for a couple weeks now. The winds have been somewhat gusty, but generally low, with nice calm mornings and a growing tendency to ease off towards sunset. The biggest factor in this equation is the presence of an immense amount of bait in the bay. Mostly anchovies, the bait schools cover broad swaths of water from the beaches out to deep water. We’ve had a few nice squid spawns lately, and should expect more as we move into fall. Also present in big numbers are big jacksmelt, white croakers (kingfish) and an increasing number of mackerel. It’s no wonder then, that our predatory gamefish are on the bite right now. It’s like a buffet out there.

Surfcasters using GULP! Sandworms, grubs and small lures are catching barred surf perch by the dozens at nearly every beach along the bay. A few striped bass make their way into the reports, though we’re resigning ourselves to a poor striper year. One 12-pounder was caught from the wharf in Capitola this week. With calm inshore waters halibut are cozying up nearly to the beach. New Brighton and Seacliff Beaches in Santa Cruz are good spots to cast for flatties. A drop-shot rigged white fluke seems to be the most productive technique for enticing these halibut to bite. Swim baits, KastMasters, Krokodiles and smaller stickbaits like the Lucky Craft 110 in an anchovy pattern are all working well. Tidal flow seems to have a great effect on these close-in halibut. Each location is a bit different, some better on the high tide, some better on the low. Santa Cruzan Isla Hardy took her dad Brook out for some casting last week. They both caught legal halibut from one of the pocket beaches near Capitola.

The halibut bite remains strong and steady in deeper water. The bite seems to have shifted from Pajaro/Capitola last week to Capitola/Mile Buoy in Santa Cruz this week. Over at Santa Cruz Coastal Fishing Charters, skipper Rodney Armstrong continues to bring his clients up to his secret north coast sports for halibut and full bags of good quality rockfish. He's fishing in the Davenport area and says the conditions have been fairly comfortable this week. In Monterey, the halibut reports keep coming in from various locations centering mostly on the DelMonte Beach area. Look for calm clear water over a clean sandy bottom and it’s likely there are halibut there right now.

We may have some tuna fishing on the horizon as well. A commercial fisherman out of Half Moon Bay caught a couple albacore on his black cod long line last week and Captain Tom Joseph brought in a small bluefin the week before from that same area near the 601 weather buoy. The big bluefin bite occurring in Southern California waters is creeping north. We won’t be surprised to see tanker bluefin in our area again, sometime in the fall.