The weather is getting better and the water is warming up. There is plentiful bait in Monterey Bay right now and anglers are catching a variety of sportfish species.

Local anglers with boats are finding scattered concentrations of mackerel in our area. We have received reports of good mackerel fishing by Moss Landing. Using small white fly-jigs, anglers are catching the macks three or four at a time, and filling their buckets with upwards of 200 mackerel when they find a big school. The mackerel are very edible and work well as frozen bait for later in the season.

Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine found the mackerel schools by the tip of the Soquel hole last weekend. Fraser also reports a good showing of big barracuda near the Pajaro Pipeline. The barracuda, located in 180-200 feet of water, were hitting mackerel jigs about 30 feet down from the surface. Fraser says these are big fish, up to three feet long and weighing upwards of 10 pounds each. For striped bass fishing, Fraser recommends the Manresa area, where a number of stripers were caught last week, mostly of the 18-22 inch size.

Striper action was found closer to town as well. Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait fielded a number of reports of stripers caught from the surf on the beaches near New Brighton. Burrell has watched good schools of anchovy and sardine bait coming in and out of the Capitola Marina area over the past week, and fishing from the Capitola Wharf has been decent. Most curious is the number of immature halibut caught from that wharf lately. For the past few weeks, a good number of small flatties have come over the rail, including three on Wednesday. Of course, all short halibut were released. One legal halibut weighing 15 pounds was caught from the Santa Cruz Wharf this weekend, according to the report from Santa Cruz Boat Rentals.

Dungeness crab season is still open, and crabs are still being caught in our area. The best spots remain off the North Coast from Natural Bridges to Davenport in 180-200 feet of water.