Ocean conditions remained mostly pleasant this week and the nice weather should continue through the weekend. Large ocean groundswells as well as the typical winter slowdown have continued to make inshore fishing a bit tough. Still, there are fish to be caught if you know where to go and pick the right day.

One of the best guys “in the know” on Monterey Bay is Captain Jim Rubin aboard Go Fish Santa Cruz Charter’s Miss Beth. Rubin skippered a couple crab combo trips last week out of Santa Cruz. The trips averaged around four Dungeness crab per angler, plus rockfish and lingcod caught near Wilder’s Ranch and Natural Bridges. South Rock reef also continues to produce mixed bags of rockfish for the sport boats working that area using shrimp fly jigs, swimbaits or jigging irons near the bottom.

For best results out of Santa Cruz, the North Coast might be the ticket for the next couple weeks. Stagnaro’s Sportfishing sent the Legacy Up towards Davenport last week. Fourteen anglers aboard came home with limits of rockfish, mostly blues and blacks with a couple lingcod and few red and brown bottom fish in the mix.

As we move into winter, the rock cod generally move into deeper water. So, the distinctive reefs in 80-120 feet of water are a logical area to target. Lingcod will move into to shallower water in winter, for spawning purposes. Anglers fishing the 50-70 foot depths might do well using bigger bait. Large swimbaits, big irons, and whole herring or squid fished near the rocky bottom can result in a big ling on the line.

Monterey Boats have reported better results on average. Chris’ Fishing Trips reported ¾ to full limits of rockfish for their forays last week. Their crab combo trips provided up to two Dungeness crab for each angler. Chris’ has been doing particularly well with Monterey area lingcod, reporting from six to 28 lings caught by lucky anglers on the Caroline And Check Mate.

Winter surfcasting looks most promising. The early season succession of big-wave events has had the effect of restructuring beaches on the north side of Monterey Bay. We are seeing good holes and rips developing on these broad sweeping bands of sand. That will provide feeding grounds for perch and ideally, striped bass over the next few months. While we’ve not seen an influx of notably large perch yet, it is only a matter of time before the big bruisers make their appearance in the surf. In the meantime, striped bass are still around, with hookups reported even from beaches between Capitola and Santa Cruz since last weekend.