Weather and sea conditions have been cooperative as have a wide variety of species. For the most part, fish are abundant, with rockfish taking the lead, halibut counts on the rise and a new influx of salmon in the Bay. A few hardy souls are even exploring offshore for the fast-moving pelagic albacore tuna.

Since the season opened in April, rockfishing has been very good in the Santa Cruz area and this week was no exception. Any of the local reefs that "might" hold rockfish ARE holding rockfish. Even right out in front of the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor, the bite has remained consistent for months now, with clouds of rockies on the sonar, and plenty of big blacks and bolinas on the bite.

Chris Kieliger from San Francisco took a guided trip with Santa Cruz Kayak Fishing on Thursday in that area and was rewarded with near-limits of blacks and bolinas on the kayak before 10am. This was Kieliger's first kayak fishing experience and it's safe to say he was stoked. "A truly awesome experience! I was pulling them up two at a time!"

Our six-pack boats are reporting more, and bigger fish from the deeper reefs and especially off the North Coast right now. Jim Rubin on the Becky Ann reports limits of rockfish every trip mostly blues, blacks, reds and yellowtails, and the occasional lingcod up to 19 pounds. Gerry Brookes from Reel Sportfishing has almost identical reports. On Thursday he recounts "Today the weather again was calm, and the fish were on fire. We ran up the coast and were fishing by 7:00 and put in limits for five of mostly big blacks with a few yellowtail, blues and vermillion, and one lingcod. We had limits by 8:00."

Halibut are a bit harder to find, and hook. As the inshore water warms, we're seeing more of the big flatfish in the 30-45 foot depths. There have been some impressive catches in the past couple weeks, but more than a few experienced local anglers still have a halibut skunk going for 2013. Luckily, a new school of salmon is coming around the corner in Monterey to keep us busy.

The past couple days have featured a very good salmon bite from Pt. Pinos to Lover's Point in the Monterey/Pacific Grove area. A few Santa Cruz boats ran over to Monterey on Thursday to cash in. Jim Rubin counted a fish per rod of "big salmon, none under 18 pounds, and most over 20" for his efforts on Thursday.

Finally, while we hesitate to mention the "A" word prematurely, there are a few early scouts out looking lately. On Wednesday, Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine reported "Anglers who looked for albacore today found nice blue 59-degree water but no fish. The anglers looked from the dog bone out to the 123 line but did not hook up."