Weather and sea conditions continue to cooperate with area anglers. Most mornings have been beautiful for fishing with calm even glassy seas. Afternoons continue to be somewhat windy. Those in smaller boats should set their alarms early.

The calm ocean enables longer trips in search of fish. Many private boaters from Santa Cruz are zooming up to Davenport where the fish are bigger and more numerous. Joe and Shane Baxter took the trip last Saturday and caught full limits of rockfish and lingcod for four anglers on the boat, using squid for bait and jigging irons.

On Sunday, Captain Jimmy Rubin took advantage of flat calm seas and piloted the beautiful Miss Beth from Go Fish Santa Cruz Charters north. Rubin reports, “Today our charter on Miss Beth took David and his friends to New Year’s Island. They caught limits of quality rock cod consisting of blues, blacks and olives. They also caught five lingcod weighing up to 15 pounds along with some vermilion. You could not find nicer weather or water to fish in.”

Local Santa Cruz reefs continue to produce as well. Though the fish are somewhat smaller, with a limit of ten you are guaranteed dinner for the family and the neighbors as well. Todd Fraser at Bayside marine cites the West Cliff reefs as well as the Mile Buoy area and Natural Bridges for lings, rockfish and the occasional halibut this week. Tom Dolan on the Mega-Bite from Santa Cruz Charters fished locally on Sunday and had great success. Dolan commented,” Another sweet day on the water. Got limits of blues, olives, browns and red pacific snapper (vermilion) and one nice lingcod.

Monterey boats continue to fish the Carmel area for limits of lingcod and mostly limits of rockfish. Chris’ Fishing Trips charters has specialized in live bait fishing this summer which accounts for their daily limits of lingcod. Halibut anglers in Monterey are notoriously close-mouthed, but private sources indicate halibut are biting live bait and dead squid. A classic location to look for the big flatfish in Monterey is Del Monte Beach, up towards the Hotel in 60-70 feet of water.

Tom Joseph skippers the four-pack Sara Bella, and trailers the boat for best fishing locations. He is running out of Half Moon Bay right now, and still chasing salmon. Salmon season remains open in that area. The Sara Bella is doing well according to Joseph. “Today our four anglers boated three salmon going 12, 21 and 24 pounds. Got some late info from a commercial friend and we will be checking that area out in the morning. The fish are getting bigger.”

Inshore water temps are finally starting to climb above 60 degrees, but El Nino is still with us, providing some exotic species. Last week, Alan Kaneg from Santa Cruz pulled in a nearly 20-pound sheepshead from the Natural Bridges area, and Bayside’s Todd Fraser reports bonito are schooling some three miles out of the Santa Cruz Harbor. Fraser also mentions the possibility of bluefin tuna heading our way. “With all the red (pelagic)crab in the bay, and bonito being caught, there’s a great possibility of bluefin showing up in the fall, like they did last year,” Fraser says.