Warm water offshore is still holding albacore, and the inshore fishing is rated good or even great, depending on where you go.

With news of red tides and oil spills on the front page, it is important to relay that all is well in terms of sport and commercial fishing in our area. "The water is clean and clear," says Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. The commercial crab season delay in San Francisco does not extend to our area. Local commercial crabbers set out today to drop their pots, and Dungeness crab will be available at the harbor on R and S docks this coming weekend if all goes well.

Rockfish remain the primary prey in our area. The season will stay open until the end of this month in our area, which stretches from Pigeon Point in the north, to Lopez Point near Big Sur. The algae bloom known as "red tide" may be affecting the bite locally. According to Jim Rubin from Captain Jimmy's Sportfishing, "the fish are here, they're just not biting." Despite the slow bite, Rubin managed to find half limits for his clients last weekend, along with some tasty Dungeness crab. Gerry Brookes aboard the Doble got out of the red tide area last Friday on a trip to Franklin Point. In a turnaround situation, Brookes found the only half limits of black rockfish for the clients aboard, but gaffed full limits of lingcod up to 18 pounds on the trip.

The other side of the Bay is producing well, also. Chris Arcaleo at Chris' Sportfishing in Monterey is still sending his boats around the corner to Point Sur, and they are racking up. On Wednesday, the Star of Monterey returned from that area with full limits of rockfish for 22 people. "It was a wide-open bite," said Arcaleo. "The weather was fabulous, with flat calm seas." Clients aboard the Star of Monterey caught reds, olives, deep-water yellows and boccacio weighing up to eight pounds each. Arcaleo's crab combo trip on Wednesday resulted in rockfish limits for 15, and 36 tasty Dungeness crab.

On the exotic fish front, a few lucky boats managed to catch albacore from the warm offshore waters this week. Fraser at Bayside reports catches of 1-4 fish per boat, with jumpers and blue water as closes as 20 miles from the Santa Cruz Harbor. One angler even caught a rare yellowtail this week while fishing for the tuna.