Ocean fishing has been the best option for fishing as reservoirs are low and we are lucky enough to live close to the coast. Salmon fishing remains tough, rockfish are a great bet as halibut start to show and albacore tuna seem to be a mystery.
If you would like to fish for “what’s biting” that would be rockfish and lingcod! The bay water is warm at 60 degrees and is full of mackerel. The mackerel can be a nuisance at times and also make great bait for ling cod. Anglers are stopping outside the Santa Cruz Harbor in the morning and catching live bait (mackerel) to use for ling cod bait. Halibut and the larger model rockfish also see the mackerel as a tasty food source.
Private boaters, rental boats, and charters alike, have been scoring limits of rockfish and lingcod. The limit of lingcod is 3 fish and minimum size is 22-inches, it is common to catch your 3 ling cod and limit of 10 rockfish on an outing. Some anglers may consider if they need that much fish and opt to release the smaller lingcod and or large female fish that may be preparing to spawn. Halibut have been caught, but not as many as one would think. The conditions look very good for halibut but they are not showing up in numbers yet.
Boaters have steamed offshore recently in search of albacore tuna with the warm water offshore it is a surprise there have been no catches. Boats hailing form northern California and Oregon ports have had success on albacore and the commercial fleet has started fishing with great success. The past few years have had large numbers of albacore along the Oregon coast as central California did not see many fish. Albacore are highly migratory and migrate East in the spring if they move east and remain North on the Latitude line they may not come south. This appears to be the case with albacore again this year. Anglers may have to go north to get albacore or go another season with no tuna for the home canner, we will see.
I am always looking for fishing pictures for the column, if you have one please send it to my email [email protected]. Remember to ad who caught the fish and where it was caught.
