Those lucky enough to get out fishing this past week could hardly have picked a better time. Local rockfishing remains strong, the halibut are back in the shallows for spawning, big stripers are just a cast away from the beaches and even the salmon cooperated for the most part. A big aspect of all this good fishing is the abundant bait in our area right now.

Gerry Brookes, who operates Reel Sportfishing, didn't have to travel far for success this weekend. He took the Doble out on our local reefs and found easy limits of rockfish for his clients. After filling the rockfish bags, Brookes drifted live sardines for halibut on some of the nearby sandy stretches, and scored halibut for the boat on Saturday as well as Sunday.

Captain Jimmy Charters had pretty much the same story to tell. Jim Rubin stayed local and found good numbers of reds, blacks and olive rockfish for his clients. On his "go home" drifts, Rubin was also using live bait for halibut in the flat sandy areas outside the kelp beds. Rubin hopes to travel further up the coast soon, but he keeps a wary eye out for weather. The weekend forecast suggests mild conditions and low winds, so Rubin will likely explore some of the productive North Cost reefs soon.

Salmon fishing is "hit or miss" according to Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. Depending on the day, trollers working the edges of the Soquel Hole can boat one or two fish up to full limits. The deep-water canyons are holding tons of krill, and that is serving to keep the salmon in our area. There are still plenty of shakers and silver salmon in the mix, but a good number of kings in the 20-30-pound class were caught last week. Fraser adds a few king salmon were caught in relatively shallow water, including a couple caught in 40 feet by anglers mooching near sardine balls last week.

Taking top honors this week, though, is the Capitola area. Anglers fishing from Capitola Boat and Bait rental skiffs, private boats, and personal kayaks or from the Capitola Wharf itself are reaping summertime rewards in the form of rockfish, lingcod, halibut and striped bass. The Mile Reef produced plenty of rockfish and lingcod, while the nearby kelp beds kicked out grass cod, lings and halibut. Jigging up sardines for live bait is no problem, as the bait remains thick in the area. Savvy anglers are flylining live sardines towards the surfline at New Brighton for epic striper catches. Anglers who fished from the pier caught a wide variety last week, including perch, mackerel, halibut and even a few stripers.

Our photo today shows Kayak fisherman Keith Nguyen displaying the results of his morning efforts, fishing near Capitola last Monday.