If you have not gone fishing yet this summer, now is the time. The weather continues to be great, with low swells and mild sea conditions. Mornings and late evenings are especially nice, with low winds and glassy seas.

Calm waters make it easier to see striped bass flipping or boiling on the surface as they feed on anchovy schools just outside the breakers. At his point there is a fairly good chance to run across stripers at any of the beaches around Monterey Bay. The pas few weeks have seen a better bite on the Santa Cruz side of Moss Landing with bigger fish closer to Moss, and more of undersized bass towards the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. Any of these beaches can provide surf perch as well. The best bet is to be prepared with tackle to fish either. Use the GULP camo or blood worms on a Carolina rig for perch, and if you see the terns diving or any fish boiling, switch out to your striper gear.

Rockfish and lingcod fishing remains consistent, with most boats reporting limits from deeper reefs. The Kahuna out of Moss Landing posted big numbers and great variety on their latest Point Lopez “down coast” trip. Skipper Brian Cutting reported, “We brought home one cabezon (9 pounds), seven canary rockfish, 55 copper rockfish, 44 lingcod (up to 20 pounds), 14 assorted rockfish, and 143 Vermilion Rockfish (up to 7 pounds).

Anglers traveling north from Santa Cruz are sending similar reports from the Davenport and Franklin Point areas. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced “in-season” changes to our rockfishing regulations last week. Legal fishing depth is now restricted to 240 feet of water in our area.

DelMonte Beach in Monterey continues to hold a good number of halibut in the shallows. Many of them are barely legal size, but a few weigh in to the low twenties. Deeper sand flats towards Sand City can provide big halibut right now. Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine reports, “The halibut fishing was good today from Capitola to the Cement Ship in 45-60 feet of water. There were some solid scores reported. The best bet has been trolling the bounce ball set up. A few sea bass have been caught near Natural Bridges and near the Cement Ship.” Fraser also reported some bonito caught near the wharf in Monterey, and in other “exotic fish” news, at least one calico bass was caught by a beach angler near Rio Del Mar this week.

Salmon fishing supporters who want to contribute to the cause can attend the Golden Gate Salmon Association fundraising dinner at the Elks Lodge in Santa Cruz on Friday, September 21. Tickets are available through the GGSA website, or can be obtained at Johnson and Hicks Marine Electronics at the Santa Cruz Harbor.