Ocean sport fishing has been very productive lately despite less than ideal weather conditions. Good news is, the forecast for the coming weekend looks ideal, with a minimal swell and low winds predicted through the weekend.

Rocky areas and reefs continue to hold good schools of rockfish and lingcod. Skipper Ken Stagnaro is running two boats, the flagship Velocity and her smaller six-pack sister Sea Stag VI. Both boats are stacking up big numbers while working the reefs along West Cliff from 60-120 feet of water. “With the warming of the water near our local reef the cod fishing has really gotten great. Our half day and twilight trips have been getting limits of real nice school and bottom fish. Same for the six-pack boat. Big blue cod and many nice reds along with several lings are normal catches right now. Velocity had a dozen big four to seven pound reds and a 20-pound ling mixed in with the evening catches on Saturday night,” Stagnaro reported.

Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine has been fielding good reports from the private boats that are fishing further north, near Davenport and up to Franklin Point, especially for lingcod. Fraser adds that rockfishing is good “on almost all the rock piles,” and specifically mentioned Natural Bridges, the West Cliff reefs and South Rock as good locations for local rockfish and lings.

In Monterey, Chris’ Sportfishing continues to work the area south of Point Pinos for full boat limits on a daily basis. Tuesday’s trip included 25 lingcod on the Caroline and the Star of Monterey racked up limits of lings (99) on Sunday.

As mentioned last week, salmon fishing is picking up in the Bay. Right now, the best bite remains near Moss Landing. A few boats reported catches, including some limits, near Pajaro and the Soquel Hole. Trolling near the bottom in 220-300 feet of water has been most productive.

We are finally seeing some halibut come to the gaff as well. In a pre-spawn pattern more reminiscent of April rather than June, the big flatfish are still in deeper water. Slow trolling hoochies is a good technique to cover territory and elicit bites, though drifting with live bait is always a good bet. Work the big flat sand areas about a mile offshore near the Santa Cruz Harbor down to the Cement Ship area. A few halibut were also reported caught this week in 40 feet of water off the West Cliff kelp beds, so they are moving in albeit slowly this year.

Bushnell also operates Santa Cruz Kayak Fishing Guide Service.