The weekend rainstorm almost looked like the real thing. Ocean conditions got nasty Friday morning and persisted through most of Saturday, but calmed by Saturday afternoon. Despite the choppy seas, many anglers headed out to drop crab traps on the opening day of sport Dungeness season.


Local angler Jack Tereci had a few mates onboard to assist in placing his eight crab pots early Saturday morning. Then they ran inside to get off the chop. Noting conditions calming early afternoon, Tereci went back out to check the crab traps. "We only pulled four traps, and came home with 36 keepers. The crab so far are phenomenal! Big trophy crab, commercial grade, firm with hard shells. Since the opener we've caught 100 Dungeness, and only threw back two shorts." Tereci says the crab are likely spread out now, and anglers should do well anywhere from Four-Mile Beach area down to the Soquel and Pajaro Hole. 180-200 feet over a mud bottom is working for Tereci, so that depth seems like a good bet.


Chris' Fishing Trips operating out of Monterey Harbor makes it look easy. Reports from the Checkmate, Star of Monterey and the Caroline have featured limits of rockfish, lingcod and Dungeness crab every day since the opener. Stagnaro's Sportfishing in Santa Cruz also offers "combo" trips of rockfish and Dungies. The swift start to this year's season does not necessarily mean limits all year. If you are thinking about tasty fresh Dungeness crab, now would bee a very good time to book a trip.


Rockfishing has been steady along the rest of the bay as well. Moss landing's Kahuna reported 28 lings and 140 rockfish for their clients on Sunday. That's full limits, folks. In Santa Cruz, anglers are seeing a lot of small schoolie rockfish, mainly blues and yellowtails, but a few big bruiser groundfish are also out there, as evidenced by Myron Larson's lingcod and vermillion caught on Thursday and a smattering of big browns, lings and reds coming in from the Westside reefs.


In the "exotics" category, Ed Burrell from Capitola Boat and Bait was happy to report the continued presence of white sea bass in the area. Burrell hooked two bass on Wednesday, both in the 25-30 pound range, using a Laser Minnow lure. While the exact location of his catch is unknown, he usually does pretty well just east of Capitola, as well as near the SC3 Buoy in 70 feet of water closer to Pleasure Point. And, Todd Fraser at Bayside describes "huge schools of mackerel and a few bonito from 140-220 feet of water from the Lighthouse to 5 Mile Beach. That could be fun on light tackle, for sure.


Send your photos, comments or questions to scruzfishing@yahoo.com