The Fish Sniffer

(Monterey) Very few charter or private boats have fishing on Monterey Bay, due to the stormy weather of the last two weeks. Boats will be switching over to crab, squid and sanddab combo trips after the rockfish and lingcod season ends on December 31.

The Checkmate was able to get out on Sunday, December 23, putting in l2 limits of rockfish and Dungeness crab to go with 6 lingcod, reported Chris Arceleo of Chris’ Fishing Trips.

“The past couple of weeks have been a bit on the slow side,” confirmed the report from Randy’s Fishing Trips. “There have been just a few people around, as everyone has been getting ready for the Holidays or the weather has been very foul. However, we have made a few trips out to visit with the gray whales and even had some productive combo fishing trips.”

A recent trip by Randy’s yielded limits of rockfish, limits of Dungeness crab, 2 lingcod and 14 Humboldt squid.  

Ken Stagnaro of Stagnaro’s Fishing Trips in Santa Cruz will begin running half-day sanddab trips starting January 1 after the rockfish season closes.