Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine summed it up best while reporting on this week's fishing. "The bait has moved in and the inshore waters are coming alive." But, a very big south swell moved in on Wednesday, which slowed things down. Hopefully the weekend will bring a return to fast action fishing for multiple species.

The swell is a long-period southern hemisphere situation, with an extended space of time between waves or sets of waves. On Thursday morning, a number of boats made the intelligent decision not to challenge the dangerous conditions at the Harbor mouth. Charter boat skipper Jim Rubin had a full contingent of clients aboard. "We could have made it out between the sets this morning, but the swell was supposed to build today, and getting back in might be a problem." Rubin added his clients were appreciative of his decision, and rebooked for a later date. Rubin says the waves were breaking completely over the west jetty, and estimated the size at "at least 15 maybe 20 feet." Rubin added the West Jetty was completely covered with white water at times, and the spray reached higher than the Walton Lighthouse.

Santa Cruz Harbor officials monitored the situation closely, as may be well expected. For safety purposes, they closed the launch ramp by 9am on Thursday. The launch ramp will stay closed until the waves and surge subside.

Prior to the wave action, baitfish were crowding the shallows, especially near the Santa Cruz Wharf and the Small Craft Harbor. Veteran paddleboarder Jessi Butler went out for some stand-up exercise on Tuesday evening and was amazed at the amount of activity in the Harbor. "There were fishermen, birds and sea lions going crazy everywhere," Butler laughed. "The bait was coming out of the water all over the place." Commercial fisherman Carl Azevedo from Boccie Boy Bait set a net at the Upper Harbor and pulled about 2,000 pounds of sardines with some anchovies and kingfish mixed. Azevedo is currently busy re-installing his bait receiver at the end of S Dock to replace the one destroyed in last spring's tsunami. He expects the receiver will be open for live bait business as soon as next week.

Earlier in the week, anglers were finding a good mix of rockfish and lingcod from the deeper reefs off West Cliff and further up the North Coast. Gerry Brookes from Reel Sportfishing reported limits of lingcod and near limits of rockfish every time he fished last week. Working some North coast spots, Brookes also had time to drift for halibut, scoring a few flatties on the sandy beach areas, and even a shallow-water salmon while returning to port. White sea bass are still in the mix, with a scattered bite reported from the Pajaro and Monterey areas.

Most exciting might be the inshore salmon situation. Since last weekend, a number of savvy anglers have been mooching or trolling in 60-80 feet of water from Natural Bridges to Soquel Point, and catching small, but legal king salmon. These fish are likely the kings released from the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project net-pens, now grown and returning to the harbor area.

Once the swell subsides we can look forward to continued good fishing in the nearshore areas. If the baitfish schools return to the Harbor, it can also be a blast to take the kids down and sabiki sardines, smelt and kingfish.