The water temperature had cooled down, there was lots of bait in Monterey Bay and anglers fishing for sanddabs and halibut reporting releasing king salmon in the weeks previous to opening day. However, as Pete Bruno, owner of Randy’s Fishing Trips, confided with me before I boarded the Sur Randy on the opening day charter of the Central Coast Salmon Anglers, “The signs look good, but I’m not saying anything until anglers put fish in the boat.”

The weather was also great, with a 3 to 6 foot groundswells every 14 seconds and only minimal wind. The morning started off with cloud cover, but the sun came out by mid morning.

Tom Nakazawa, charter master, urged everybody to get to the dock early, since we would be leaving at 5:30 am. With all 23 anglers aboard, Captain Brian Cutting fired up the motor and the boat left the dock, heading towards Moss Landing and the Soldier’s Club.

We stopped at one spot where there were good bait marks on his graph, but none of us hooked anything. Cutting heard over the radio from Brent Williamson that they had caught some fish on the ocean side of Monterey off Point Pinos, so he headed back to Monterey.

“Put your baits down 80 feet and work them up and down,” Cutting coached after we arrived off Point Pinos. “Most of the fish I’ve heard of caught have been taken by trollers or mooching working their baits.”

Cutting’s advice proved to be fortuitous for Bill Ray of Monterey, who hooked up the first fish of the day around 7:45 a.m. on, believe it or not, a Rotary Salmon Killer (RSK). Although RSKs are generally used by trollers, they can also produce fish for moochers, as Ray so aptly demonstrated.

The big fish ripped out lots of line, forcing Ray to follow his fish up and down the boat. Finally deckhand John Mayer netted the fish, the first chinook of 2007 aboard the Sur Randy.

Ray weighed the fish on a digital scale and was elated, since it weighed 26 pounds. He was entered in both the first fish and biggest fish jackpots – and a fish this large would be hard to top.

The bite was very slow for the next couple of hours. Cutting decided to move the boat to a different spot outside Point Pinos and suddenly we encountered a flurry of action.

Bob Stillinger and another angler both hooked salmon at the same time. Stillwater got his, a 14 pounder, in the boat, and I was shooting a photo of him when Ray yelled, “you got a fish on your rod.”

I put the camera down on the bench, grabbed my rod and began reeling in my line. “Try to catch up with the fish – the fish is running towards you,” the deckhand advised.

Finally I got enough line in where I could feel the weight of the fish and the fish realized it was hooked and took off on a long run.

“Follow your fish, follow your fish,” Mayer said, as the fish took off towards the bow. I kept the pressure on the fish and then it rolled on the ocean’s surface before it came back towards the boat. I worked it to the edge of the boat and Mayer netted it.

I was stoked – it was my first ocean salmon of 2007 and it was a quality one weighing 14 pounds! Just after I landed my fish, two other anglers hooked up chinooks. Daniel Fields of Seaside hooked and landed a 12.5 pound beauty, while John Mills bagged another fish in the 14 pound class.

Everybody hoped that the action and excitement would continue, but it didn’t. Brian Friesen of Fresno boated the last fish of the day, another 14 pound beauty, and that was it.

Throughout the day we saw moochers and trollers both hook up fish, but the action was disappointing – except for those that caught fish. We ended up with 7 salmon ranging from 12.5 to 26 pounds for the 23 anglers. We didn’t hook any shakers or even any small keepers.

Bill Ray had a great day, catching the first and biggest fish aboard the boat, getting both the jackpots for each and two trophies!

Other boats in the party boat fleet reported similar action. The Chubasco returned with 11 salmon for 30anglers. The Caroline out of Chris’s fishing returned with 5 fish for 18 guys, the Star of Monterey came back with 12 fish for 33 anglers and the Checkmate had 5 fish for 18 anglers.

“There wasn’t much happening north of Point Pinos,” noted Captain Cutting. “Off Santa Cruz there was a lot of bait and humpback whales, but no salmon in it. We encountered a couple of clusters of fish, but for the most part the salmon were scattered on opening day.”

The next “opening day” for Monterey and Santa Cruz anglers will be the opening of rockfish and lingcod season on May 1. Rockfish action was excellent last year and veteran anglers and skippers expect to see another outstanding year.

For more information about booking a salmon or rockfish out of Monterey, call Randy’s Fishing Trips at (831) 372-7440 or Chris’ Fishing Trips at (831) 375-5951.

Maxima line and Gamakatsu sponsored the charters by the Central Coast salmon. For more information about future charters, call Tom Nakazawa (559) 917-0679.