Lots of anglers are having lots of fun on and around the Monterey Bay these days. We are also enjoying the bounty of fresh healthy seafood from a variety of species.

Rock cod fishing continues to be strong and consistent. Though we are limited to waters inside of the 120 foot line, there are plenty of fish on the local reefs near Monterey and Santa Cruz. Rockfish and lingcod are even more numerous and usually average larger when caught from the wilder coasts above and below the bay. Monterey boats head towards the Carmel Highlands or big Sur area, while the Santa Cruz anglers head north towards Davenport and Franklin Point. The ride is longer but the rewards are significant in terms of quicker limits of bigger fish.

Charter operations are enjoying a mass of blue rockfish this year. These schooling fish are a blast to catch on shrimp fly jigs, irons or swimbaits. They can often be hooked midway up the water column as well as at the bottom. Larger and more grumpy bottomfish such as vermilion, browns and lingcod will take the same lures or bait as the blues. Chris’ Sportfishing in Monterey continues their unbroken record of rockfish limits for every trip aboard the Check Mate and Caroline. Chris’ also posted reports of an occasional lingcod and two halibut on Tuesday’s trip. Stagnaro’s Sportfishing out of Santa Cruz is catching plenty of rockfish plus cabezon, lingcod and a couple halibut as well this week.

The halibut bite is improving on a daily basis. Anglers drifting live or dead bait, or trolling bounce-ball rigs with bait or lures are reporting limits every day. The current bag limit for halibut is two fish per day per angler. We’re seeing an increase in size of flatties reported this week. Many are in the 20-25 pound range and were hooked up  from the 50-70 foot depths. Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine reports the halibut bite as “strong” from Capitola down to Pajaro.

Fraser also alerts us to an increase of stripers caught from both sides of the bay. While the striper bite in Monterey County is better (as usual), Santa Cruz surfcasters are reporting a marked increase of linesiders biting a variety of baits and lures from the big broad beaches near Watsonville, and the occasional mavericks cruising the shore breaks from Aptos up to the Main beaches of Santa Cruz.