Every year, as anglers, we travel through the seasons enjoying what this month might have to offer in terms of species and prey and with a pretty good idea of what the next month or two is going to bring. There are always some surprises and anomalies in the mix. That’s part of fishing fun, dealing with the unexpected. This year is shaping up differently. In the Monterey Bay, March and April are usually transitional months. Stripers start biting from the beaches if you’re lucky enough to find them, halibut start moving in from their wintertime sojourn to the deep waters, Dungeness crab become harder to find with a drop in overall quality and king salmon stream into the area for heavy feeding before their final journey upriver in Fall.We are seeing all of the above occur right now. Though we can’t fish for salmon this year, they are here.  We’ve fielded a number of reports of kings caught as unintended by catch. But, something is different. Whether that bodes well or ill remains to be seen.

This year’s transition from winter through spring and heading towards summer has been just a little bit weird. Instead of steady northwest winds coming up in the afternoons and dying out in the evenings, we’ve seen a series of mixed wind events over the past two months with strong gusty events switching back and forth from north to west to south. Likewise, the ocean swells have been less predictable. Typically in spring, the wintertime northwest swells give way to west before settling into the usual south swells of summer. Again, what we’ve observed has been an odd mix of swell directions ping-ponging as if the ocean cannot make up its mind. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency information, strong El Nino conditions are dissipating right now, with a 65% prediction of a La Nina developing soon, and a 35% chance of that La Nina being a  significantly strong event.

So what’s that mean for fishing in the Monterey Bay? Well, it’s most likely to be a bit different, though no one can say what that’s going to look like. We can tell you that things are already shaping up to be a different sort of year. Starting with bait in the bay, we’re seeing big early blooms of squid spawning near Monterey and Pacific Grove, as well as near Capitola and Pleasure Point on the northern end of the bay. The terns and pelicans are getting busy diving for bait along the inshore areas. We might be seeing the start of a “sardine year,” as opposed to an “anchovy year.” Local anglers in Santa Cruz have reported catching a mix of sardines, market squid and mackerel while using the sabiki in 60-80 feet of water locally.

A recent report from Santa Cruz angler Matt Mitchell is a perfect example of how these strange patterns can work for us as anglers. Mitchell hit the beaches near the center of the bay last Friday morning. Local intel had put him on a spot that was literally teeming with striped bass.  Mitchell says “I hooked probably 17 fish, and landed ten of them. All were released. The fish were of a size, about 22 to 24 inches. All legal. After that, I figured I’d take the boat out and see if I could rustle up a halibut for dinner. I trolled my usual bounce-ball rig with a dodger and a Lucky Craft lure. Picked up a few rockfish and ling cod, including a double on the lings. Released them all so I could continue halibut hunting with two rods. Outside of Capitola I got a hookup that was just strange. It fought in a spastic style with a few long runs. I was surprised when I got it to the boat to find it was a Bonita. Pretty strange for early May with water temperature hovering around 47 degrees!”

Halibut seem to be moving into the shallows more slowly than “normal” years. Typically we’d see a lot more halibut reported caught by early May. Conversely, Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz has fielded reports of halibut caught by surfcasters within the past week. Others have reported legal flatties pulled in at the Santa Cruz Wharf, from 25 feet of water. Many anglers were surprised to hear of bluefin tuna caught by anglers near the Farallons this winter. Looks like those big tuna never left the area after the epic bite last year. Recently a few bluefin were videotaped feeding just offshore of Moss Landing, with the power plant towers clearly visible in the background. It may be, with the ongoing weirdly windy conditions, that boats are just not getting out often enough for us to get a good read on what’s going on. I’d like to predict that the weirdness will continue. Hopefully, La Nina will develop, providing cool nutrient rich waters along the entire coast and encourage an influx of fish we don’t commonly see in big numbers in our area. White sea bass anyone?  Albacore?