Once again fall is in the air. The circle turns, fish come, fish go and fish come back again. We can look forward to some crisp cool mornings and long windless days searching for that final bruiser halibut of the season. Or, perhaps we'll be drifting the North Coast reefs, dropping big iron into jagged underwater holes, hoping to entice Ms. Lingcod into taking a vicious swipe at the intruder. Best of all, this fall we can fish the blue pelagic waters offshore where albacore tuna speed through the deep accompanied by other, more rare exotics.

Fall also brings waves- sometimes big waves. Such was the case this week when an unusually early northwest swell came steaming into town. The large swells have a tendency to drive halibut out to deeper water, and cause rockfish to hunker in their holes. This swell will drop by the coming weekend, and hopefully the bottomfish bite will resume.

Up until last Sunday, it was limit-style fishing for rockfish and lings in our area and along the coast to the north. Jim Rubin on the Becky Ann reports "Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Another week for great fishing! We had limits all week of big vermilions, blacks, blues and big lings and very good weather." Sunday was particularly nice on the water with a low fog and nearly windless, glassy conditions. Gerry Brookes from Reel Sportfishing took advantage and shot up to Ano Nuevo, where the fish are bigger. "Its still epic. Nine nice lings to 12 pounds, limits of blues, blacks, olives, white bellies and nine big reds to seven pounds. I love fishing that place, you never know what your gonna catch."

Prior to the swell, halibut fishing remained consistent in the 40-65 foot depths. White sea bass were hit and miss, with reports from the Mile Buoy area, Capitola, Aptos and Pajaro coming in during the week, but no apparent concentration of the bass. Squid was still the best bait for both bass and butts last week. A few lucky anglers also hooked into king salmon in those same areas. Savvy anglers hedge their bets by fishing with barbless circle hooks for any of the three species, ensuring any salmon will be legal to keep. Remember, after a salmon is boated only barbless hooks may be used, and one fishing rod per angler is the limit.

Tuna hunters also enjoyed some success last weekend. Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine was happy to report decent albacore scores from the area offshore from Big Sur. "The wind was down yesterday and anglers were able to go looking for albacore. The scores ranged from 12-25 albacore a boat down towards the Davidson Sea Mount. There were some good scores of 25-40 fish at the Gumdrop (Seamount closer to half Moon Bay)."