Monterey...
Salmon enthusiasts are landing one fish per rod on mooching trips in Monterey and Monterey bays, while bottomfish anglers fishing shallow water along the Monterey Coast are nailing limits of rockfish.

"The Checkmate found solid action mooching anchovies on its latest trip to Carmel Bay," explained Todd Arcoleo of Chris' Fishing Trips. "The 18 anglers landed 18 salmon in the 18-20 pound class."

Party boat anglers are finding exceptional rockfish action while fishing off Point Joe and Pebble Beach. Anglers are catching limits of assorted rockcod, along with an occasional ling, according to Arcoleo. Rockfish enthusiasts are enticing their limits with squid, shrimp flies and bars.

"The salmon bite has improved to an average of one fish per rod, with some leaner days and some better days," said Pete Bruno of Randy's Fishing Trips. "The fishing was very good today, July 1, when the Chubasco came back with 18 salmon for 11 anglers. The nice thing about the fish now is that most of them are over 20 pounds; the largest fish reported at the wharf last week weighed 40 pounds. The hottest area is from Cypress Point to the Whistle Buoy."

Randy's is starting afternoon "potluck trips" in the afternoon from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. "We'll go fish for whatever's biting, salmon some days and rockcod on others," said Bruno.

Santa Cruz...
The rockfish and lingcod bite has taken off at New Year's Island, while quality king salmon continue to be caught inside Monterey Bay.

"Today we fished at New Years Island with a real nice charter," said Mike Baxter, captain of the Wild Wave on June 30.

"The weather was bumpy and windy and the swell was up. We worked hard for limits of medium-sized rockfish. We landed a half dozen lings also.

On the day before, the Wild Wave ended up with 8 salmon. "The fish were all slugs; and I am not talking about UCSC students," said Baxter. "These fish were all trophies 20 pounds and up."

The local bite for the private boaters for halibut was a little tougher this weekend, due to the 3 to 4 foot south swell, but the guys "in the know" had 3 to 5 fish per boat.

"The salmon are in the middle of the bay at 36:44 and 122:56," added Baxter. "Look for the dark water and be patient; you will probably pick up a few real nice fish."

On Baxter's previous trip, the anglers caught early limits of rockfish, one lingcod and two quality halibut.

"We had great salmon reports all day on the bay yesterday," said Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine. "The hot salmon spot was on the south side of Moss Landing. We weighed in multiple limits of chinooks in the 15-20 pound range from that area. A few chinooks were also caught right off the can in front of the harbor in 45 feet of water."

The halibut are still coming in from Capitola to Mitchell's. Day Kim did it again with a 31 pound halibut taken at Mitchell's.

"We got one report of an undersized white seabass caught off the kelp beds in Capitola," added Fraser, "but we have received no reports of albacore."

Phil Monk landed a 20 pound halibut while drifting a live anchovy off Lighthouse Point in 40 feet of water, according to Mike Hicks of Capitola Boat and Bait. Anthony Drieho of Capitola caught two halibut weighing 28.5 and 21 pounds tossing Fish Traps from a sea kayak off New Brighton Beach. Shirley Thurston nailed a 7 pound halibut, her first halibut ever, using an live anchovy off Capitola Wharf.

Half Moon Bay...
Anglers leaving the Princeton Harbor now have the opportunity of catching limits of king salmon or shallow water rockfish, depending on which species they want to fish for.

"This weekend produced outstanding shallow water rockfish action," reported Peggy Beckett of Huck Finn Sportfishing. "Boaters managed to pick up limits of assorted rockcod, along with some lingcod and cabezon. Anglers are targeting the bottomfish with rubber grubs, lead head jigs and bars."

Rockfish enthusiasts have found the best action fishing near Pescadero. The Queen of Hearts came back with a total of 46 limits on two back-to-back fishing expeditions to Pescadero.

"Trollers fishing 12 miles southwest of the Half Moon Bay harbor over the weekend of June 29-30 took 1 to 2 fish per rod," advised Beckett.

Anglers fishing aboard Ankeney Street on Sunday, June 30 landed 12 limits of salmon to 15 pounds. On the following morning, the 12 anglers trolling anchovies aboard the New Captain Pete brought back limits of kings to 18 pounds.

The wide open rockfish and salmon action being experienced by anglers fishing along the San Mateo Coast was confirmed by Captain William Smith of Riptide Sportfishing. "We fished shallow water over the weekend and bagged full limits of quality rockcod, along with several lingcod, while using squid," said Smith.

On the previous day, the 7 anglers trolling aboard the Riptide landed limits of chinooks by 9:00 a.m. The largest chinook weighed 19 pounds, according to Smith.

Berkeley Marina...
Both salmon and live bait potluck trips found excellent action for anglers fishing out of the Berkeley Marina this weekend. The salmon boats are averaging a fish per rod or better and potluck trips produced a two fish per rod average on a mix of halibut and striped bass.

"We're seeing a lot of big salmon in the 20 to 30 pound class right now," reported Chris Nelson of Berkeley Marina Sports Center. "Our live bait trips are also doing well on halibut, stripers and a few rockfish and lingcod when they fish outside the bay."

On Saturday, June 29, the Drifter brought in 18 salmon to 25 pounds for 19 anglers. The Golden Eye managed 10 halibut and 20 striped bass for 29 anglers. The following day, El Dorado landed full limits of salmon to 32 pounds for 24 people. The New Seeker checked in with 23 salmon to 25 pounds for 25 anglers. The Taku ran a rockfish trip that produced limits of lingcod to 11 pounds and 95 rockfish for 19 anglers. The New El Dorado nailed 26 salmon to 32 pounds for 28 anglers. The New El Dorado III brought in 45 salmon to 30 pounds for 30 people and the New Golden Eye managed 36 salmon to 32 pounds for 24 anglers.

"We ran live bait trips inside the bay this weekend and caught good numbers of stripers and halibut," reported Captain Jim Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing. "The majority of the fish are coming off Angel Island, Alcatraz and the Berkeley Flats."

Over the weekend, the Happy Hooker scored a total of 21 halibut and 16 bass to 20 pounds for 22 anglers on Saturday and 24 halibut and 17 bass for 25 anglers on Sunday. The Baywatch had a red hot day on halibut Sunday with a total fish count of 28 halibut and 1 striped bass for 11 anglers.

Emeryville...
Salmon action is holding steady for anglers fishing out of Emeryville Sportfishing. Over the weekend, boats averaged one to two fish a rod on quality king salmon averaging 12 to 20 pounds.

"We had a great weekend of salmon fishing and our live bait trips are also doing well on halibut and stripers," reported Craig Stone of Emeryville Sportfishing. "The salmon are being caught between the N Buoy and Point Reyes. The stripers and halibut are showing inside the bay and along the Marin coast."

On Saturday, June 29, the C-Gull II brought in 30 salmon to 35 pounds for 22 anglers. The New Huck Finn managed 33 salmon to 28 pounds for 20 anglers. The New Salmon Queen landed 42 salmon to 33 pounds for 25 people and the New Seeker checked in with 23 salmon to 25 pounds for 25 anglers.

As for the live bait trips, the Dandy totaled 10 striped bass, 4 halibut and 3 lingcod for 6 anglers. The Rapid Transit nailed 17 halibut to 25 pounds and 7 stripers for 19 anglers. The Captain Hook brought in 14 halibut, 8 lingcod, 27 rockfish and 15 striped bass for 25 people.

The following day, the C-Gull II landed 40 salmon to 36 pounds for 22 anglers. The Rapid Transit checked in with 32 salmon to 31 pounds for 24 anglers and the New Salmon Queen landed 23 salmon to 33 pounds for 26 people. The Dandy managed 10 halibut, 4 lingcod and 1 striper for 6 people. The New Huck Finn brought in 18 halibut and 6 striped bass for 34 anglers and the Captain Hook landed 11 halibut and 7 stripers for 28 people.

San Rafael...
The long awaited salmon bite in San Francisco Bay off California City has just started as the fish get ready to move up the Sacramento River on their annual spawning run.

"One angler caught two chinooks weighing 37 and 17 pounds while trolling at California City," revealed Keith Fraser at Loch Lomond Live Bait and Tackle. "However, very few anglers have tried for the salmon over the past week."

The striped bass fishing has surprisingly good, in spite of the big tides and horrendous wind of the past week. "The Brothers and Sisters are still producing the best action on mixed-sized bass up to 30 pounds," said Fraser. "Anglers are drifting with live shiner perch."

Live bait drifters are also nailing stripers below the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, but the fish are smaller, with few over 8 pounds showing, according to Fraser.

"The bass are just starting to move into the central bay," added Fraser. "The top areas are the South Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Angel Island."

Halibut are providing "fair to good" action, said Fraser. Anglers are drifting live anchovies and shiners off the Berkeley Pier, Angel Island, Paradise Cay and Southampton Shoals. Glen Dunbar topped the catches with a 24.7 pound halibut he fooled with a live shiner perch.

The Morning Star returned with 15 halibut for 20 anglers on a live bait trip in San Francisco Bay on June 30. "We drifted live bait off Crissy Field and Southampton Shoals," said Gordon Hough, captain of the Morning Star. The fish averaged 8 to 9 pounds each."

However, the wind blew hard the next day. "We have five halibut in the boat so far, but it's blowing like an absolute hurricane here on the bay," said Hough from his boat.

Richmond...
Anglers fishing San Francisco Bay out of the Richmond Marina averaged about one fish per rod on mixed catches of halibut and stripers over the past week.

"We found a fairly good halibut bite off the Berkeley Flats and near Paradise Cay over the weekend, with my latest trip producing 8 halibut ranging from 8-10 pounds," said Captain John Paxson of Dreamcatcher Sportfishing. Paxson picked up the fish while trolling anchovies and dodgers on the bottom.

"The five anglers fishing with me also experienced a weird striper bite in San Pablo Bay," said Paxson. "On the first drift we hooked and lost three bass. Then on the next drift we landed 2 keepers weighing 8 and 17 pounds."

John boated the halibut while fishing the outgoing tide and slack water, but hooked the bass on the top of the incoming tide.

"Fishing for halibut and shark was tough over the weekend, as my passengers took one fish per rod on both species," noted Captain Barry Canevaro of Fish Hookers Sportfishing. Barry is finding his most consistent halibut bite fishing the Berkeley Flats and Angel Island on the outgoing tide. The flatties that he picked up averaged 9-12 pounds.

"I've been fly lining the shallow water for leopard shark, but the results have not been very favorable," reported Canevaro.

According to Captain Mark Delnero of Fin Addict Sportfishing, fishing for leopard sharks has been slow, except for the occasional sand shark. "I went out for leopards over the weekend, but the fish just were not biting. However, next week is looking more promising with a change in the tides," added Delnero.

Delnero confirmed the tough live bait fishing. "Trying to get the fish to bite in any numbers is difficult, but we still managed to put a few halibut and bass in the boat by the end of the day on my last trip," he noted.

Bodega Bay...
Bodega Bay anglers enjoyed excellent salmon action last week with reports of big numbers of fish averaging 15 to 18 pounds along with numerous fish in the 20 to 30 pound class.

"We've got a great salmon bite going off Bodega Head right now between Tomales and Jingle Bells," reported Sophie Powers of Bodega Bay Sportfishing. "Most of our trips are taking at least a fish per rod and these are really big fish up to 38 pounds."

While the salmon bite is drawing most of the attention, shallow water rockfish and lingcod action is also red hot. The few anglers who are targeting rockfish report easy limits of quality black and blue rockfish along with good numbers of lingcod to 20 pounds.

On Saturday, June 29, the New Sea Angler managed full limits of king salmon to 34 pounds for 23 anglers. They had numerous fish topping the 20 pound mark and the rest averaged 15 pounds. "The Predator brought in 18 salmon to 28 pounds for 18 anglers and the Sandy Ann totaled 5 salmon to 27 pounds for 6 anglers.

The following day, the New Sea Angler ran a salmon/rockfish combination trip that produced 8 salmon to 30 pounds, 195 rockfish and 3 lingcod for 28 anglers. The Predator landed 8 salmon to 27 pounds for 16 people and the Sandy Ann checked in with 6 salmon to 28 pounds for 6 anglers.

Fort Bragg...
Fort Bragg anglers found wide open salmon action throughout the weekend with early limits of quality fish running 12 to 30 pounds the rule.

"The salmon bite is red hot right now," exclaimed Rick Thornton at Anchor Charters. "I had 38 fish for 14 anglers by 11:00 am this morning and I'm back out on an afternoon trip now and we already have 7 hook-ups with four fish in the box."

According to Thornton, they had several chinooks close to the 30 pound mark the day of this report. "We have at least a half dozen fish over 25 pounds today," he said. "Brandon on the Lady Irma had full limits (30 fish) by 11:30 and Jason on the six pack Easy Diver had limits for 6 anglers by 9:00 am."

"All three boats were fishing off the mouth of Virgin Creek in 30 fathoms," added Thornton. "We're trolling anchovies and hoochies from 20 to 60 pulls deep."

Rockfish action is also red hot off the coast of Fort Bragg. "We're limited to fishing in 120 feet or less now, but the few trips we ran this week produced nice limits of black rockfish and up to 1 lingcod per rod," said Thornton. "The best action has been on bars with a Super Fly teaser."

"The salmon fishing has been excellent this week," confirmed Ashley Diaz at the Noyo Fishing Center. "The fish are showing just outside of the harbor about 3 miles north and a mile offshore."

The Rumblefish scored a total of 30 salmon for 17 anglers the morning of this report and they checked in with 33 salmon (1 shy of limits) for 17 anglers on their previous trip.