Area anglers are finding more action lately as the rockfishing improves and salmon fishing says steady over a wide area. With the recent groundswells dying, we are looking forward to halibut along the inshore waters as well.

Most boats are catching from zero to three salmon per trip, according to Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. A few lucky anglers are scoring limits of fish, but the average is slightly less than one fish per rod. The good news is that the salmon were caught last week in widely separate locations, including Moss Landing, Pajaro, the Soquel Hole, Three Trees and Davenport. Most fish were caught in 180-250 feet of water, though a few fish were reported caught shallow, in 100-120 feet, according to Fraser. We also received reports from further up the line of commercial salmon boats catching as many as 40 fish in a day, targeting the area near Pigeon Point. The fish in Monterey Bay are unusually large for this time of year. We have seen many fish weighed in the 25-35 pound class, and Fraser himself netted a 41-pound king salmon on his boat Sunday. The big fish seem to be a local phenomenon, as reports from San Francisco and further north indicate a more typical range of 9-25 pound fish caught recently.

Last week was a disappointment for many rockfish anglers. The North Coast reefs were not producing well, with roiled murky water and few fish reported. The best bite reported seemed to be on reef areas closer to Santa Cruz, including the West Cliff reefs and Lighthouse Point. Skipper Mark Gravasse from Stagnaro's Sportfishing took the Velocity to the south side of Monterey Bay on Sunday and fished deep water to find limits of rockfish for his 26 clients. Ken Stagnaro reported a great mix of Olive, Vermillion and Starry rockfish along with a few Copper rockfish for the boat.

Capitola Boat and Bait's Ed Burrell saw a few limits of rockfish come in from the skiffs this week, and reports a good number of small halibut caught from the wharf. "Most of the halibut were caught by a guy using bass lures like the Bass Assassin and Hairraisers," Burrell says. With the swell dropping this week, we should start to see larger halibut filter into the early season hot spots near Capitola and New Brighton, and by the Santa Cruz Wharf and Mile Buoy/Harbor area.

Allen P. Bushnell
Special Projects Coordinator
Crown and Merrill Colleges, UCSC
(831) 459-3780