Anglers are finding increasing concentrations of surfperch from the beaches, and those who make it out on the ocean are returning with big scores of sand dabs and mackerel. Grim news regarding our salmon season is looming on the horizon, however.

Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait has seen increasing numbers of ocean perch caught from the wharf lately. "We've seen beautiful rainbow and black perch caught using shrimp bits, and a few starry flounder were caught from the wharf this week," accords Burrell. Anglers working the area by the breakers continue to catch barred surf perch, and two undersized striped bass were caught and released by anglers using shrimp or squid strips on surf leaders from the wharf. "They're doing better for stripers down by Manresa," Burrell says. " I heard of one brought in at 12 pounds."

Party boats in Monterey and Santa Cruz continue to sponsor trips on the Bay for sand dabs and mackerel. Stagnaro's Sportfishing took 26 anglers out on Saturday and returned with 180 sand dabs, 150 Spanish mackerel and 140 Pacific mackerel. Chris' Fishing Trips in Monterey ran the Checkmate last weekend on the south side of the bay for similar results.

According to an article in the Sacramento Bee yesterday, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council took the unprecedented step of "preemptively" closing most ocean salmon fishing zones in California and Oregon during a meeting in Sacramento. We expect a final decision regarding salmon closures to be reached during April meetings in Seattle, but the PFMC and other state and federal agencies reportedly decided that even temporary openings could endanger the depleted stocks of King salmon on our coast. The move will have a devastating impact on the commercial salmon industry in our state, as well as all corollary business that rely on commercial and recreational salmon anglers for a large portion of their yearly income. It looks like local anglers who were gearing up for the scheduled April 5 opener and hoping for at least a few weeks of salmon fishing in our area apparently are out of luck this year.