Either more halibut are moving in as the water warms or our local anglers are getting better at locating the big flatfish. This week featured quite a few halibut cuaght in our area as well as near Moss Landing and Monterey. Jim Russell, pictured above took visiting family out near Monterey and scored his personal best flatty, a 25-pound beast. Russel's dad, from New Orleans, bested his son with two of the flatfish, weighing 17 and 19 pounds each. Russell also took a few dives in the area for the usual rockish and lingcod plus a bonus 50-inch Wolf Eel Photo #1, which he described as "quite tasty."

Halibut reports ticked up steadily this week, from Natural Bridges, to West Cliff, the Harbor area and Pleasure Point as well as Capitola and points south towards Moss Landing. They are still in deeper water with 60-70 feet being the prime location zone right now. Bounce-balling hoochies or dead squid is working well on the long flat stretches from Capitola towards Pajaro, while anglers who jig up squid are having good luck drifting live ones on a three-way or Carolina type rig.

To compound the good fishing news, salmon have decided to make a return appearance in the Bay. The Caroline, from Chris' Sportfishing out of Monterey caught limits of big salmon while mooching near the Soldier's Club south of Moss landing on Monday. Since then, the bite has tapered off at that location, but picked up at the closer spots, such as Soquel Hole. Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine suggest trolling the canyon edges, 30-50 feet down, using gold or chrome Krippled Anchovies for success.

Rock fishing remains hot from the reefs in Capitola on up to the North Coast. On Saturday, kayak anglers Mike Peters and Bert Bones mad an easy paddle out to the Mile Buoy area, and returned before 11am with a bag full of black and blue rockfish,and two lingcod in the 30-inch range. They report catching a releasing multiple undersized lings as well. Swimbaits and shrimpfly jigs were doing the trick for the kayak anglers.

Increasing numer of spawning squid appeared this week, from Lighthouse Point on up the coast towards Davenport. If you can find squid schools and jig up some live ones, try flylining a few on heavier rigs for a chance at white sea bass. Though we have seen no pictures since Ed Burrel's 44-pounder last week, rumors have it a few more of the big tankers were caught this week.