Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine reflected on the weekend's fishing out of Santa Cruz. He reported, "There were a few boats out today despite the swell. There were some blue rock fish and lingcod caught on the west side. The best crabbing seems to be in 140 feet of water. The wind stayed down most of the day." On Monday, Fraser added, "Rain hit in the morning but a few anglers went out in the south wind for rock fish. There were some decent rock fish caught on the local reefs. The crab fishing has been a little better on the north side of Moss Landing in 140 feet of water."

Weather and sea conditions were tough all week, but featured quite a few windows of calm to access the nearshore waters for anglers in search of rockfish, Dungeness crab and the dwindling population of California halibut in the area. This coming weekend will be see more of the same in terms of dicy conditions. On Wednesday the National Weather Service predicted, "Rough to very rough seas continue through the week. Swell will continue to abate through the evening; however, very high swell re-builds Thursday and Friday. Winds increase on Friday with strong breezes and near gale force gusts possible. Otherwise cold upper level low pressure systems will bring unsettled, wet weather through late week and the weekend".

Meanwhile, Chris' Fishing Trips in Monterey got the boats out a few times during the week. Both the Caroline and the Check Mate reported full limits of rockfish for their clients, along with a few lingcod to fatten the bags. In Santa Cruz the story was much the same. Go Fish Santa Cruz, with skipper JT Thomas at the helm fished locally for limits of mostly blue rockfish on Monday. Thomas reported, "We fished locally today with Keith and his team. The caught early limits of quality rock fish." An earlier trip on the beautiful Miss Beth traveled up to the Ann Nuevo area, where the fish are bigger and feature more variety. Thomas reported that charter caught canaries, blues, browns and chinas.

Rodney Armstrong on the Knot Alone ran a combo trip for rock fish and crab on the weekend. "The crabbing was tough for us. We ended up with 15 keeper crab. We had quick limits of blues and a nice lingcod," Armstrong reported. Fisherman Christopher Robert was visiting from Cleveland, Ohio this week. He's no stranger to big waters, living right next to Lake Erie. This week he hooked up with local Erik Andreassen on his boat The Big Anchovy. Andreassen said, "”We snuck out before the big north swell rolled in and found some beautiful fish!" Robert ended up with a sizable ling cod and eight big blue rockfish while having a blast on the Pacific Ocean.