As usual, when we move towards the fall season, fishing conditions change up a bit. North Coast water is warming so we will see an improved rockfish bite in the spots between four-mile Beach and Ano Nuevo. Already, anglers are finding pockets of squid spawning in that area, which means more halibut and white sea bass to be caught.

Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait reported a couple of his locals fished near Davenport on Wednesday, and returned with sea bass weighing up to 48 pounds. The anglers were flylining squid for the big croakers. Occasional white sea bass have been caught closer to home, outside Pleasure Point and in the deeper water south of the Cement Ship. The best bite for bass, however, remains in the middle of the Bay near Pajaro, and in Monterey from "The Hotel" to the Mile Buoy off Lover's Point. The white sea bass are considered by many to be the finest-eating fish in any ocean, as well as being one of the tougher fish to fight.

Watsonville fisherman Ray York was drifting squid off Monterey on Monday when he hooked up a massive white sea bass, see photo. Using a light-tackle mooching setup, York fought the fish for 30 minutes before he could bring it to the boat. Reportedly, the fish took repeated 100-yard runs during the epic battle. York's fish weighed in at 50 pounds. While the sea bass schools are not as concentrated as they were last week, apparently there are still plenty of the giant croakers feeding in the Monterey Bay area. Hopefully they will stick around for a few weeks and continue to provide trophy-hunting opportunities for our local anglers.

Locally, rockfish and halibut are still a very good bet. Captain Jimmy Charters recorded limits of blues, blacks coppers and nine lingcod on Monday, and Stagnaro's Sportfishing has counted limits on every trip recently, including a number of vermilions and lings. In Capitola, Burrell continues to take pictures daily of halibut caught in the area of Pleasure Point and the Mile Reef, and notes the rockfishing has been good near Boomer's and Adam's reef.

Albacore? Well, they are out there, but it's a pretty long trek for risky returns. Commercial fisherman Carl Azevedo from Boccie Boy Bait took a scouting foray over the weekend looking for the longfins. Leaving the Santa Cruz Harbor at midnight Saturday, he managed to troll up 20 tuna before returning on Sunday night. He was fishing nearly 100 miles form the harbor though, and never found a good concentration of fish. Ideally, the warm water currents will move further north, closer to Santa Cruz and be holding bigger schools of albacore.