It is a really good time to go fishing in the Monterey Bay region.

It is a really good time to go fishing in the Monterey Bay region.

by Allen Bushnell
10-4-2012
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Big lingcod are moving in, late season salmon are biting only a mile from shore, white sea bass are popping up here and there and offshore albacore fishing has been hot.

Let's not forget our mainstay rockfish, either. Anglers using shrimp fly jigs and a variety of swimbaits and other lures continue to pull up limits of rockfish form our local reefs. The Rockies are even more numerous and much bigger up the coast.

Skipper Gerry Brookes on the Doble likes to run up to Ano Nuevo for his clients. Brookes blasted up the coast this weekend and was well rewarded for the extra fuel he burned. "Today my customers wanted to run to Ano. We put in some of the biggest blues I've seen- two to three-pounders, but we hooked only three keeper lings to 15 pounds. The swell was big and the currents were moving fast. Not the best for bottom fishing, but we scored big anyway."

Closer to home Captain Jimmy Rubin worked the deeper reefs just north of Santa Cruz. Both Saturday and Monday's trips on the Becky Ann resulted in full limits for all clients as well as the crew. "It's been really great fishing. Saturday we caught limits for five anglers and two crew, of big blues, blacks, vermilion, and six lingcod. We will be doing Dungeness crab combo trips starting November 3d."

Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat and Bait has kept busy weighing in big fish, and even catching a few himself. "Monday was a real nice day to be on the water. I got a late start and still caught a white sea bass of 39 pounds, from up the coast. There were a few boats catching salmon trolling southwest of the SC-3 buoy in 70 to 80 feet of water and 35 to 60 on the wire." Burrell adds he's seen a lot of big lings coming in this week as well. Capitola local Glen Larsen, pictured above jigged up kingfish for bait and "wrangled up" five lingcod. Larsen kept two lings and released three as well as releasing "over a limit" of rockfish.

Monday was the day to be tuna fishing, according to Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. "The albacore fishing was wide open at 36'18/122'57. There was a boat out there with over 30 fish and the albacore were eating the lures during stops." So, we know the water and the tuna are still out there, it's just a matter of picking the right day, and heading in the correct direction.


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