Area anglers enjoyed another week of fine weather and even better fishing. The sea bass bite near Monterey can only be described as "epic," rockfishing remains strong and steady, the occasional halibut is still being weighed in and at least one boat did pretty well on albacore tuna this week. Ed Burrell from Capitola Boat and Bait took a day off on Tuesday to try for white sea bass. Fishing with Larry Roland, Burrell found the squid and the sea bass in 100 feet of water near Lover's Point. "We had limits (three fish each) by 10am," Burrell reports. "Everyone was whacking them, our largest weighed in at 45 pounds." Burrell agrees it is important to be there on the right day. "One day it's hot and the next day it's not," he quipped. Wednesday's reports were dismal from that same area, with only a few fish reported and most boats getting skunked. Late reports on Thursday indicated much the same. Hopefully the bite will pick up again over the weekend.

The Bayside Marine reports from Todd Fraser indicate a good steady rockfish bite, even from the local reefs like South Rock. Fraser says a nice grade of vermillion are available as one travels up the coast between Natural Bridges and Davenport, and he fielded at least one halibut report from the Four-Mile Beach area. Captain Jimmy Charters took advantage of glassy seas on Saturday for a fast ride north to fish near Ano Nuevo. "It was beautiful up there, flat calm and sunny. We had limits by 11:30 for all five anglers aboard," Rubin said. Most of the Becky Ann's fish were big vermillion in the five-six-pound class, and the bags were filled out with smaller black and blue rockfish. Rubin adds that they released seven or eight short lingcod. "We haven't seen many of the larger lings yet this year."

For news of more exotic prey, the Kahuna out of Moss Landing took a gamble last week and traveled offshore in search of tuna. Captain Carol Jones found a good spot of albacore for her clients, who hooked 27 fish and managed to bring 15 aboard. The fish were high-grade, ranging from 25-35 pounds each. Jones says the tuna "did not want to bite the jigs," and were caught mostly with live bait or iron lures. Bushnell can also be heard Friday mornings at 6:45 on KSCO radio 1080 AM. Send your photos, comments or questions to scruzfishing@yahoo.com