CAPTION: (1) Shane Baxter celebrates his first Santa Cruz king salmon with dad Joe.
(2) Kim Moriarty dressed for success on Wednesday, and returned to Capitola with this beauty.

The excitement and anticipation of the last few weeks was fulfilled for many local anglers, as salmon season finally opened in the Monterey Bay area after a two-year closure. Digging around in the dark corner of the garage for flashers and cannon ball weights, they dusted off their downriggers, tied up their rotary salmon killers and purple haze hoochies, and headed out on the bay. The results since opening day are not spectacular, but definitely solid and promising. Plenty of boats making it out are getting skunked, but those who find the salmon are averaging a fish per rod mostly, with a few limits being reported as well.

Most big party boats will mooch for salmon rather than troll. When mooching, the skipper finds a concentration of fish or settles on a good area, and the anglers drift bait at various depths. This works best when we have big balls of anchovies or sardines to attract feeding salmon. Right now, the salmon are eating krill, which is abundant in the Monterey Bay. Trolling covers more territory as the boat is moving and trailing bait or lures, often with an attractive flasher or dodger in front of the hook. On Saturday, anglers found the salmon near the Soquel Hole, and as expected the trollers did better than the moochers. Captain Jimmy's Sportfishing reported three fish caught Saturday weighing up to 15 pounds each. Gerry Brookes from Reel Sportfishing caught five that day, and reports losing a few at the net. Since then, both boats have been fishing every day and averaging a fish per rod, or  ? limits of beautiful, fat salmon in the 12-20-pound range. Jim Rubin and Brookes both commented on the high-energy antics of these "krill fish." "We had one launch four feet in the air at the boat," Brookes laughed. Rubin agrees that krill-eating king salmon are known to have a highly energetic nature and adds, "we've lost a lot of fish at the boat" due to the unpredictable antics.

Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine tracks the private boaters and characterized the season so far as "strong." He received daily reports of limits from the anglers who stop into his shop at the Santa Cruz Harbor. Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait fielded decent reports as well from the private boats and rental skiffs launching at Capitola Wharf. "Dan and Steve Williams brought in limits by 11am on Tuesday. They were working 220-240 feet of water straight out from the Wharf." Burrell had rental skiffs return with reports of four salmon caught as shallow as 180 feet of water, but all four were undersized and released.

Most boats have been working the Soquel or Pajaro Hole areas. Private boater Joe Baxter reports "the fish are scattered," but he and his son Shane managed to hook and boat two king salmon on the east side of the Soquel Hole on Wednesday. The Baxters ran purple haze hoochies and bait. "Four hours, two bites, two fish" Baxter happily recounted of his son's first king salmon.

As of yesterday, reports indicate the fish may be on the move. Next week's hunting might include the areas north of Santa Cruz, historically a good bet for Springtime krill fish. Conditions might be tough with high winds and large swells forecast on and off through the next week. Be careful, stay safe, and get out there for salmon while you can.