It's hard to believe, but here we are in December, and the fishing remains very good for an unexpected variety of species.

This year's liberal rockfish season allows fishing for rockies, lingcod and cabezone through December 31. Anglers may have to search a bit, and perhaps fish the deeper reefs more often, but limits are still available to those who put in the time. From Capitola to Davenport good catches are reported daily.

In Capitola, Boomer's Reef, about a mile offshore has produced numerous rockfish over the past few weeks, according to Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait. "We're seeing lots of Bolinas, with a few vermillion and gopher cod in the mix. A few skiff fishermen are targeting the kelp beds by New Brighton and catching grass cod and the occasional cabezone in shallow water, real tight to the shoreline."

Fishing from 50 to 70 feet of water straight out from the Harbor can produce as well. While no limits were reported from that area, a few quality reds and lings were caught there last week.

North Coast rockfishing has been most productive, with 10-fish limits being common. Working the reefs from 70 feet of water out to 130 feet, anglers are hooking steady limits of browns, reds, gophers, calicos, blacks and blue rockfish. The best presentation continues to be white shrimp-fly jigs with the smaller hooks, tipped with a strip of squid. Using light tackle and a plastic swimbait or jigging irons may not be quite as productive in terms of numbers, but is well worth the effort if action is the prime motivator.

Incredibly, a bit further up the coast near Davenport, anglers are still catching the occasional white sea bass. Using whole squid, preferably live, most hookups occur for anglers fishing near the bottom in 70- 130 feet of water. A side benefit to targeting sea bass with this technique is the chance a lurking halibut might take the bait. The flatties move to deeper water for the winter, and are scattered. It's almost not worth it to target them directly, but a great consolation prize if one of them grabs your squid while you are fishing for the sea bass.

Crabbing continues unabated. Lots of Dungeness are crawling from the Soquel Hole area, and it gets better further up the coast. Commercial crabbers have finally started dropping pots after their holdout at the beginning of the season. This make it easy to go down to the Santa Cruz harbor and pick up live crab right off the boats, but does create some congestion out on the crabbing grounds. If you are setting pots, or just transiting towards the North Coast fishing spots, keep a wary eye out for crab pot buoys and avoid getting those buoy lines tangled in your props, which can mean an expensive repair, not to mention the possible loss of that angler's expensive crabpot.

Mark Davis from Capitola wore the right shirt last week: "Life is Good" as shown in the photo above.