In the long-term, strong northwest winds of springtime are necessary for creating ocean conditions that attract and hold king salmon. The winds push across the top surface of the sea, and cooler nutrient-rich water from deep below mushrooms to the surface to take its place. In the short-term, however, the incessant wind results in big choppy swells and small-craft warnings. Such has been the case this week.


Todd Arcoleo from Chris' Fishing Trips in Monterey reports, "We've been tied to dock for the past three days, it's just too windy to get out there. Our rockfish trips on the weekend came home with limits of fish, including lingcod." Chris' has been sending their boats around the corner towards Carmel and upper Big Sur. The Checkmate, fishing for salmon, averaged just shy of a fish per rod last Friday and Saturday.


Brian Cutting on the Chubasco out of Randy's Sportfishing in Monterey had similar reports. "We were working from Cypress Point down to Carmel Bay. Limits of rockfish were no problem, and a few lingcod were caught. The rockfish mostly were blues and yellowtail." Cutting notes the commercial squid boats have been working near Lover's Point, but there are no reports of white sea bass from that area yet. The Kahuna, working out of Moss Landing, reported full limits on Sunday, with 180 rockfish and 36 lingcod for the 18 anglers aboard.


In Santa Cruz, Captain Jimmy Charters fished deeper reefs near Natural Bridges and did very well last Sunday.


Jim Rubin reported "The limit for rock cod is ten per person, so today we were able to keep 60 fish for our customers. That amounts to 120 boneless and skinless fillets! We caught mostly blacks and yellowtail with a few nice blues, greenling, chinas, bolinas and gophers. We also landed one five-pound lingcod." The entire West Cliff area has been productive for rockfish this week, especially for those who got out early, and caught limits before the winds came up for the day.


Other areas in Santa Cruz producing well for rockfish include the Lighthouse Point area, near the Mile Buoy and Black's Point, the Pleasure Point area and of course the Capitola reefs. Ed Burrell at Capitola boat and Bait quipped, "Other than sightseers, I did not see a boat without fish." It looks like a good mix of bolinas, blacks and occasional vermilion rockfish are available now across all the reefy areas on the Santa Cruz side of Monterey Bay. Lingcod and cabezone are abundant at this time in the shallower water as well.


The big swell rolling through last weekend seems to have driven halibut back to deeper water. Judging from initial reports from a few weeks ago, those fish should move back in once things settle down and we'll see more reports for the big flatfish soon.


Bushnell can also be heard on The Let's Go Fishing Radio Show Thursdays at 8 p.m. on KSCO radio 1080 AM. Send your photos, comments or questions to scruzfishing@yahoo.com