This week's weather featured grey skies and misty fog along with very cool temperatures. The winds stayed quiet though, and fishing remains very good in the Monterey Bay.

In certain spots, fishing might even be described as spectacular. Last weekend the spot to be was in Monterey. The Monterey Bay Kayaks Fishing Derby, held Sunday at DelMonte Beach, is in its fourth year. Fifty kayak anglers gathered to vie for a first prize of an Ocean Kayaks Trident 13 Angler Edition.

Few of the competitors were skunked, and most caught some quality brown, red or blue rockfish. Most impressive for the day was the large number of lingcod caught in that area. The top seven contenders in the contest were all lingcod, ranging from six to nearly 14 pounds. Ryan Baek held the lead with a 13-pound 14-ounce ling he fooled with a hex bar lure from the Coast Guard Jetty until top angler Phil Debord weighed in his 13-pound 15-ounce fish, caught with a live sardine from the Yellow Can area.

Winner Debord went home with the new fishing kayak compliments of Ocean Kayaks and Baek was happy with the second-place kayak paddle from Monterey Bay Kayaks. Everyone enjoyed the BBQ lunch, and all proceeds from the Derby were donated to the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project to assist their hatchery and habitat programs.

Closer to home, rockfishing has been very good from Capitola to Ano Nuevo. The further north one goes, the quicker the limits and the bigger the fish. Local reefs are also producing well, however. Captain Jimmy Sportfishing has been working locally, hitting the reefs off Natural Bridges in 100 feet of water. He is consistently reporting limits of fish for his clients, mostly a mix of blacks, blues and olives, with a few vermillion up to six pounds in the mix. Stagnaro's Sportfishing handles up to 30 clients, and they report similar limits working the reefs just north of Santa Cruz.

Halibut fishing remains steady in all the flat sandy areas off the North Coast as well as the stretch from Lighthouse Point to the Cement Ship. Most flatties caught this week were in the 10-14-pound range, but we received reports of a few 20-pounders and at least one halibut that topped 30 pounds. Whole squid, live sardines, anchovies, or FishTraps or other lures are all doing the trick for halibut. (Live sardines are still the most reliable bait however.)

The albacore fishing which looked so promising last week has failed to materialize for us. Heavy fog has obscured the sea surface temperature maps, and few want to make the 30-mile gamble to reach the last known temperature breaks. Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine is in contact with a few commercial boats that are heading that way, and he may receive reports for the coming weekend.

Bushnell can also be heard on The Let's Go Fishing Radio Show Thursday at 7pm on KSCO radio 1080 AM. Send your photos, comments or questions to scruzfishing@yahoo.com.