Say goodbye to 2011 the right way-go fishing! Rockfish and lingcod season will close after Saturday, December 31, so today or tomorrow is our last chance for big vermilions, cabezone or lings till the 2012 season opens. As usual for this week each year, I try to take a look at last year's fishing, in gratitude for all the good days and great catches, and in hopes for more of the same in the coming year.

Steelhead season has been open now in our area since December 1, but no rain equals no fish so far. Last year's season was summed up well by Ernie Kinzli, local flyfishing and steelhead sage. "Overall, the season was considered poor by most of the seasoned anglers. Started off with lots of rain, good for the fish, and then a very dry January. Then a February with lots of rain, and a last weekend with beautiful water, but very few fish!! I was lucky again. (On the) last day, I hooked and landed a strong, hatchery 7# buck!"

Perhaps the brightest highlight of 2011 was a full-length and viable ocean salmon season, the first for us in a few years. Big schools of anchovies and sardines attracted and held feeding salmon from spring through summer. The salmon were also feeding on juvenile rockfish and Dungeness crab larvae. Captain Mike Baxter chimed in at the beginning of the season "The fish are out there and some guys are getting limits. You gotta work for your fish, and the situation changes every day. Find the bait and you should find the fish." As the season closed in September, these were my thoughts- "We had a very good season overall. Starting out slow, with trollers working the deep canyon edges, and with more undersized fish than keepers, this season matured into a steady pick of legal to medium-sized king salmon. Towards the end of the season, increasing numbers of kings were caught closer to shore. The shakers of spring grew out to keeper size and salmon fishing was very productive right up to the end." To top things off, we even had a late-season push of hatchery fish just offshore and even inside the Santa Cruz Harbor.

Rockfishing was productive and steady all year. Charter boats reported limits as a rule, and only in the past month or so has the bite slowed significantly. Due mostly to the large northwest swells, most likely. Crabbing remains consistent, though a bit slower than the first couple weeks, prior to the commercial crabbers dropping their pots in our area. Halibut fishing was steady, though the reported numbers were down from last year, probably because many boats were out chasing salmon rather than drifting the shallows for flatties.

Another outstanding aspect to this year's fishing in the Monterey Bay was the unprecedented white sea bass bite. Starting in mid-summer, sea bass following the spawning squid started popping up in big numbers. And, these were BIG fish! The bite bounced between Pajaro and Lover's Point in Monterey, and wound up along the North Coast near Davenport just last month. Limits were not uncommon. Some hook and line commercial fishermen reported 9-19 sea bass for a single day's fishing. Few of these fish weighed less than 25 pounds, most went 30-45 pounds, and a good number were caught in the 50-pound plus range. A new California white sea bass record was set in October by local Justin Barry, who weighed in a whopping 79-pound, four-ounce bass, caught near Pajaro. Barry's Accomplishment eclipsed the previous record of a 78-pound seas bass, also caught in Monterey Bay in 2002.

And so we wrap up another awesome year of local angling. We hope next year will be just as productive, and that all our fellow anglers and readers enjoy a happy and prosperous New Year. Remember to "Have Safe and Be Fun!"