In Santa Cruz, most  charter boats are heading north towards Ann Nuevo and Franklin Point for the best fishing. Up there it’s quicker limits and bigger fish. Most reported caught are blacks, gophers and brown rockfish. Lingcod are biting well, but many are undersized. Rodney Armstrong from Santa Cruz Coastal  Charters reported after a successful trip on the weekend saying, “Today we fished Davenport for Rock fish and lingcod. We had limits of rock fish for 6 and we had 3 nice lingcod and a handful of shorts ones.” Rockfishing is limited to depths of 120 feet or less now, and will remain that way until October, when the deepwater opens back up again. Halibut fishing is getting a slow start this year. Fatties are being caught in the one’s and two’s from the usual early season locations. Deeper water seems to be more productive, so try the 50-70 foot depths.  Bounce ball trolling for flatties is a good bet right now because you can cover more territory. Drifting live bait  always remains a killer option, but you gotta find the fish first. Anglers launching from Moss Landing have reported good signs of bait above the deep sea canyons. Salmon are here, but sadly we can’t fish for them. Most Moss anglers are heading north or south for rockfish, or hitting the flat areas close by for halibut and really nice Dover sole.

Reports indicate a good amount of scattered bait in the Monterey area including market squid, sardines and mackerel. Rockfish are on the bite from gravel beds off DelMonte Beach on around past Pacific Grove and Point Pinos. Fishing near Carmel and of course Big Sur, anglers find better quality fish and faster fishing. It’s a longer trip, though. Chris’ Fishing Trips in Monterey Harbor remains consistent, posting full limits of rockfish for every trip aboard the Caroline and Check Mate, but only a couple ling cod for the week.

Fishing from the beaches is good and getting better. Despite a muscular south swell this week, surfcasters around the bay found protected beaches or good inshore holes to hit for barred perch, walleyes, calicos and striped bass. Everyone’s talking stripers these days. Monterey Bay has quite a few bass on the munch. Most good schools are hanging closer to Monterey, but the Santa Cruz side of the bay has seen its share of  bass. Most are schoolies in the 15-22 inch range. There are keepers in the mix as well, in the 28-32 inch range. Using sand crabs on a Carolina rig is a great way to attract a bigger striped bass while catching multiple barred surf perch. Hedge your bets.

If you don’t mind driving a ways to take another long beach walk, then heading north might be a great idea these days. Overall, bigger fish than our Monterey Bay variety can be caught from Half Moon Bay up to Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Baker Beach near the Golden gate is not a bad bet either.