This week we will be experiencing a few transitions. In the fishing game, everything is always moving, shifting and changing. The challenge is to become familiar with these variables and do our best to anticipate, adapt and plan accordingly for best fishing results. Some of the changes are imposed, like the Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations and seasons. 

We are looking right now at the sportfishing Dungeness crab opener scheduled for Saturday, November 2. Again this year the DFW has imposed temporary constrictions on legal gear to utilize while sport fishing crab in our area. No crab pots are allowed due to concerns about whale entanglement. As occurred last year, the commercial Dungeness season is delayed until such time the DFW determines that entanglement is sufficiently low risk before those hardy crabbers are allowed to start dropping and hauling their pots. DFW regs also change in regards to rockfishing on November 1, 2024. The deep water reefs we’ve been allowed to fish this past month will be closed again while nearshore waters are open for rockfish during the month of November.

Other transitions come from nature and are much less predictable. Moving into late fall season, the weather patterns shift. We start to see swells coming in from the northwest, generated by storms in the North Pacific, often bringing rain and wind along with huge waves. When the situation is dangerous enough, we’re not doing any fishing at all. This weeks NOAA prediction for the northern portion of California waters states, “A cold front will move across the waters through Thursday morning bringing rain to the region. This rain will move from north to south across the region and begin to taper off Thursday morning and afternoon. Northwesterly winds will build to a fresh breeze and reintroduce rough seas through the day Thursday and into Friday. A second cold front brings more rain Friday and Saturday. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH THURSDAY EVENING.

Monterey Bay specific forecasts for this same time period indicate possibly milder conditions than described above, as we are somewhat protected by the shape of our coast. The potential remains however, for conditions to be gnarly. Caution is suggested before heading out to hoop net for Dungeness or fish the nearshore reefs for rock cod.

The past week provided plenty of action for anglers all around the bay. Chris’ Fishing trips in Monterey reported cookie-cutter counts of rockfish limits for all trips aboard the check Mate and Caroline. Santa Cruz charter boat reports indicate similar results with big fish and quick limits from the deep water reefs, especially those off the north coast. Davenport and other north coast spots provided some halibut action for anglers fishing in 70-80 feet of water. A few albacore and possible bluefin tuna catches were reported, but numbers were low and few boats were searching the tuna grounds 30-60 miles offshore.