Happy Halloween to all Monterey Bay anglers. The trick or treat this week involves the weather forecast. We need rain badly, and we just might get some on Friday and Saturday. Also in the forecast is a building northwest swell for the weekend and the possibility of gusty winds along with thunderstorms Saturday. For those that do get out, there's still plenty of fish to go after, and this weekend also heralds the opening of 2015 Dungeness crab season.


We've enjoyed ample harvests of Dungeness for the past few years from the Monterey Bay waters. Experts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife suggest a pattern of a few "good" years followed by a few years with lower catch rates are the norm. Like the annual salmon season opener, we can expect to see plenty of boats both local and visiting trailered craft launching from our harbors this weekend. In Monterey and Santa Cruz, the crab is most often located between 180-240 feet of water, and usually on a mud bottom. Further north, near Half Moon Bay, Dungeness can be caught much shallower, from 30-60 feet. Hoop netters on the Pacifica Pier do well in that 30-60 foot range as well.


Sport-caught Dungeness must be five and three quarters inches wide measured in front of the lateral spines. Sport anglers may keep 10 Dungeness per day. If fishing from a commercial sport vessel, the minimum size is six inches and bag limit is six crab. Male and female crab are legal to take, though most sporting anglers will release any female holding eggs, in order to help propagate the species.


Though salmon season is closed below Pigeon Point, Skipper Tom Joseph on the Sara Bella is still running trips from Half Moon Bay for salmon next week. Joseph is playing it out till the end. "Just a reminder salmon season closes November 9th. This is time of year that the bigger fish 30-plus pounds move through." If you want last licks on a big ocean-bright king salmon for the year, Joseph is the man to call.


Locally, the rockfish bite has remained steady. Fish are located along the deeper reefs this time of year. Try fishing 90-150 feet of water on the smaller offshore reefs. Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz also reports "a few" white sea bass were taken off Lighthouse Point this weekend, and weighed in a few stripers taken from the beaches near town in Santa Cruz.


Don't forget surfperch. Staff at Bayside report very good perch fishing from the Santa Cruz Main Beach down to 26th Avenue Beach. The go-to bait this week has been prawns, or cut bits of uncooked shrimp. Don't cast too far, as these fish seem to be holding in the first offshore trough, necessitating only 30-40 foot casts.


Send your reports and fishing photos to Bushnell at scruzfishing@yahoo.com.

Allen Bushnell
bushnell@ucsc.edu