Santa Cruz...
If you want to go lingcod fishing off the Santa Cruz coast, now's the time to do it. On Sunday, July 7th the Sea Stag III had a live bait trip that produced 15 limits of lingcod and assorted rockcod. The lingcod ranged from 10 to 15 pounds. The anglers fished off Davenport in 80 feet of water, according to Ken Stagnaro of Sea Stag Sportfishing.

The Wild Wave's latest live bait trip also yielded red hot lingcod fishing. "The 23 anglers found limits of lings, while the crew caught a few as well, giving us a grand total of 51 lingcod by 11:30 a.m." said Mike Baxter of Shamrock Charters.

He added, "We are planning our first albacore trip on July 17 so sign up now and we will hope for calm weather."

Meanwhile, the Salmon bite has been "decent" out of Santa Cruz with a few anglers catching 1 - 4 fish near the Westside of Soquel Hole, according to Todd Fraser of Bayside Marine.

"The fish were caught in 240 feet of water and 100 feet down," said Fraser. "Wiki and Coho Marv fished down near Monterey and hooked into a bunch of big salmon. Coho Marv ended up with 8 fish trolling Krippled Anchovies at 36'35/121'59. The fish were caught 80 - 120 feet down and weighed up to 32 pounds."

The halibut fishing continues to be good, with anglers catching fish from Mitchells Cove to Capitola in 30 - 40 feet of water. There were a few juvenile white seabass caught and released in 40 feet of water off Capitola on Fish Traps & Mega Baits.

"The albacore boaters headed out on Wednesday towards the Weather Buoy, despite early morning winds," added Fraser. "There was 1 - 2 fish caught between 36'45/122'28 and 36'40/122'33. The best bite we heard of was at 37'21/123'01 where one boat had 2 triple hook ups. The water was rough in the morning and calmed down in the afternoon and conditions look good for tomorrow."

Half Moon Bay...
The boats haven't been placing very much pressure on halibut or striped bass in the Half Moon bay area, since the salmon and rockfishing has just been so good, noted Steve Moniz of Huck Finn Sportfishing.

"My buddy, Joe, and I caught our limits of salmon to 20 pounds in a few hours of trolling with green and red Rotary Killers," said Moniz. "The fish were really on the bite."

While the salmon boaters are running out to Point Reyes and off the Farallon Islands for limits of quality salmon, anglers venturing to Pescadero for shallow water rockfish are bringing back limits of black, blues, and vermillion rockcod. "The rockfish are being caught fishing chunks of squid and artificial lure," noted Moniz.

A recent trip to Pescadero aboard the Queen of Hearts produce a solid 22 limits of assorted rockfish, 22 lingcod to 19 pounds, and 9 cabezon to 7 pounds.

"Boaters are reporting hooking into albacore tune just 25 miles south-west of the harbor," stated Moniz. "Although the bite is not hot year, anglers are averaging 10 fish per private boat."

Berkeley...
Anglers fishing out of Berkeley Marina Sportfishing through the week found impressive scores trolling for salmon and drifting live anchovies for halibut in the bay.

Three boats leaving the marina found wide open salmon fishing. The boats were back at the dock before noon with full limits of tasty chinooks up to 39 pounds.

New Easy Rider ran out to put 19 limits to 37 pounds in the box. Thirty-two passengers aboard New El Dorado III found the same success trolling bait, as they returned with full limits. El Dorado I also took part in the wide open bite, ending up with a total of 27 limits were caught to 39 pounds.

Live bait, pot luck trips in the bay for halibut have yielding over one fish per rod, though the bass bite has been slow to produce.

The Golden Eye took out 11 anglers who managed to bag over two fish per rod while drifting live anchovies. The anglers boated 23 halibut, but no bass. The New Golden Eye also came back with 14 halibut and 2 stripers for their 15 anglers.

Emeryville...
"We've mostly been targeting halibut in the bay, which has continued to produce a solid 1-1/2 to 2 fish per rod through the week," explained Frank Salazar from Emeryville Marina Sport Center. "The size of the fish being caught has definitely gone up. "We found halibut to 40 pounds over the weekend, and the largest so far this week was a 25 pounder."

Salazar noted that the boats are currently not concentrating on stripers in the bay, since the action has been slow.

"Salmon trips along the Marin Coast near N. Buoy has also produced excellent action for both trollers and moochers," said Salazar. "Every trip this week has kicked out a fish over the 30 pound mark, with most fish averaging between 15-25 pounds."

Anglers targeting salmon out of Emeryville have bagged limits and near-limits of chinooks over the past week.

Richmond...
"There have been some great tides for halibut fishing in South Hampton and Berkeley Flats, but the bass action is fairly slow," reported Captain John Paxson of Dreamcatcher Sportfishing. "My last trip out produced 21 halibut to 13 pounds and 4 salmon to 21 pounds."

The salmon were caught fishing just 4 miles west of the N. Buoy, noted Paxson.

Anglers are picking up their halibut trolling anchovies and dodgers along the bottom, while salmon enthusiasts are nailing their fish trolling Rotary Killers in green and blue. "With the salmon starting to make their way closer to shore, we won't have to make such a long haul out to locate feeding fish," added Paxson.

"I haven't been on the water very much this week," reported Captain Mark Delnero of Fin Addict Sportfishing. "The last trip I ran was to the Berkeley Flats for halibut. The 4 passengers managed to land 4 halibut to 10 pounds, along with a 7 pound striper."

"All the fish were caught while drifting live anchovies on the incoming tide," said Delnero.

"Since my boat has been out, my fishing partner, Paul Machem from Vacaville, has been kind enough to let us fish on his boat," said Delnero. A recent trip with Paul yielded a limit of salmon to 24 pounds for three anglers.

"We took our limits before 11:30 in the morning," added Delnero. The fish were caught trolling Rotary Killers in Drake's Bay.

Bodega Bay...
The salmon bite has erupted off Fort Ross along the Sonoma Coast. "Our two boats just came back in from a wide open salmon bite off Fort Ross," reported Captain Dave French of Blockbuster Charters. "Both the Pay Back and Blockbuster took impressive numbers of big salmon to 32 pounds in their limits."

"I am hoping that the weather will hold steady and allow us to get out for similar action over the next few days," added French.

According to Cathy from Bodega Bay Sportfishing, limits of quality salmon up to 38 pounds are being caught by anglers trolling 25-30 pulls down from Bird Rock to Fort Ross. "Anglers are picking up the big fish trolling Rotary Killers or sardines in 60-90 feet of water for their limits," noted Cathy.

"By far the best time to get out and fish is during the week when the boat numbers are down and there is less activity on the water," indicated Cathy.

Rockfish anglers are also hammering away at rockcod and lings to the north near Fort Ross, according to Cathy. Boaters are using shrimp flies and ling bars to entice the bottomfish.

Fort Bragg...
The salmon season is closed until July 20, so Fort Bragg boats are focusing on shallow water rockfishing, reported Ashley Diez of Noyo Fishing Center. Anglers are bagging their limits of blue and black rockfish, along with a few lingcod, south of Fort Bragg.

"We haven't seen very many lingcod showing in the catches until recently," noted Diez. "We are now are averaging 3-5 fish per boat."

Ashley noted that anglers are using swim baits with shrimp flies to entice the rockfish to bite.

"A few boats are reporting spotting albacore tuna about 35 miles off-shore, but the action is just getting started with the warming water conditions," indicated Jason Rossetto of Anchor Charters.

"Were waiting for the salmon season to reopen, but until then we are hammering away at the rockfish along the shoreline," noted Rossetto. Anglers are boating their limits of blue, black, yellowtail and vermilion rockfish, along with averaging one lingcod per person.

Passengers fishing aboard the Lady Irma II are finding their best action fishing shallow water to the north of Westport. "Boaters are using shrimp fly jigs for the top action," added Rossetto.