nice catches of Salmon & White Seabass. And the beat goes on.

A good number of anglers working live squid near the bottom for White Sea Bass in 60 feet of water near Capitola are getting bonus halibut. Other spots that produced flatties last week include Pleasure Point, the harbor area, in front of the Boardwalk and outside the kelp beds off West Cliff Drive. In other words, halibut are on the bite in all the usual spots. The fish were caught as deep as 75 feet, and as shallow as 20 feet of water.

As long as the squid hang around, the White Sea bass bite should be steady. Despite a large fleet of boats working the Capitola area daily, there's still a very good chance of hooking a monster seabass, especially if using live squid. Dead (frozen) squid will also work, but don't seem to elicit as aggressive a bite as the wiggly ones.

Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine calls the salmon bite "hit and miss," but reports a few fish caught near the Soquel Hole on Wednesday. Over the weekend the bite was a bit better. Jim Rubin on the Becky Ann got limits for all six clients both Saturday and Sunday, working the canyon edges off Soquel. Gerry Brookes, on the Doble, went uphill on Saturday, hooking eight salmon in two hours before the bite shut off. He motored down towards the Soquel Hole and spent another two hours for his "go-home" fish.

The mooching bite off Lover's Point in Monterey is still going strong with early limits for private boaters as well as party boats. The bite is so close to shore that kayak anglers are slamming the salmon as well. As of Tuesday, many trollers and commercial boats started working the area off Point Joe, which may signal a new school about to enter the Bay.

Rockfishing is very steady, and the quality of fish is improving as the season progresses. Most boats are still working local reefs from the Cement Ship up to Wilder's Ranch. South Rock and the Lighthouse area were particularly productive mid-week, with a good mix of browns, blacks and big lingcod pulled in by private boaters.