We are at the height of the summer fishing season right now. Just about everything is available for an intrepid angler. Last week local inshore catches featured rockfish, lingcod, halibut and even a few white sea bass. In deeper water the salmon bite has remained steady, even "hot" in the right place on the right day. Offshore, we know the tuna are out there, and we're hoping the deep blue warm water currents come closer to Santa Cruz as albacore season progresses.

Historically, anglers have fished albacore out of Santa Cruz as late as December in a good tuna year. August, September and even October can be very good months for tuna fishing. This year, the currents moved in only recently, and the best nearby tuna grounds are still over 60 miles from the Santa Cruz Harbor. Before the winds came up this week a few albacore and bluefin tuna were reported caught in the deep water off Point Sur.

Salmon fishing has been very productive south for Moss landing. Mulligan's Hill and the Soldier's club areas seem to have produced the best numbers this week. The fish are concentrated, so mooching in 150 to 200 feet of water is working very well. Stagnaro's Sportfishing dedicated one trip for salmon fishing last week. Skipper Ken Stagnaro was happy to report 30 fish caught for 22 clients aboard the Velocity. The action was steady all morning. "We lost as many as many opportunities as we capitalized on," Stagnaro says.

Jim Rubin on the Becky Ann is calling it "wide open" fishing near Mulligan's Hill. On Thursday he said "We had six salmon in the box by 9AM, and we lost 14 fish between 9 and 11. These are quality fish, too," he added. "We only had to measure one fish for minimum size. Most averaged between 12-14 pounds each."

Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine adds that salmon anglers working the west edge of the Soquel Hole had "decent" scores to report, with a similar bite occurring along the west edge of the Moss Landing submarine canyon. Fraser fished on Wednesday for white sea bass in Monterey, returning home with one fish. "The sea bass bite is scratchy but there are a few fish from Santa Cruz to Monterey." Other reports indicate the ghost fish are being caught in the "ones and twos" off Davenport, as well as outside the Half Moon Bay Harbor.

Meanwhile, the rockfish, lingcod and halibut continue to chew in shallow water areas. From Long's Marine Lab to the Cement Ship below Capitola, reports continue to come in of halibut in the 6-20-pound range, and lingcod up to 20 pounds. Rubin fished his "secret spot" on Wednesday for limits of big vermillion and copper rockfish weighing five to nine-pounds. Live bait is working best, there are still plenty of sardines to jig up in the warm shallows, though dead squid and lures are producing as well.

Mulligan Hill kicked out limits of king salmon for anglers mooching aboard the Becky Ann on Thursday this week.>BR>