Morro Bay
Central Coast anglers have been targeting rockfish since May 1 with a fair level of success. At this point the only factors slowing the bite are the water temperatures, which are a bit low and the wind which has kept anglers from accessing the best areas much of the time.

According to the staff at Virg's Landing, the rockfish fishing has been fair to good depending on the day. When the oceans lay down anglers departing from Virg's are scoring from half to three quarter limits, but when the wind is up the scores drop.

"Anglers are catching fish, but the fishing hasn't been red hot," reported Del Kyle at Portside Marine in Morro Bay. "Most anglers are getting half limits of rockfish and there are some lings being caught too."

At Avila Beach, Alex Cossoboom at Patriot Sportfishing reported that rockfish anglers are catching about 4 fish per rod. "The fishing is okay, but things are going to get a whole lot better when the winds back off and the water warms up," said Cossoboom.

Monterey/Santa Cruz
Charter boat anglers fishing out of Monterey on the calmer days have experienced top-notch rockfish action off the legendary Big Sur Coast since the opening day of rockfish season. Unfortunately, heavy wind and a big swell have forced skippers to fish the local reefs most days since opening weekend.

"The rockfish bite is wide-open off Point Sur," said Chris Arcoleo of Chris's Fishing Trips. "However, the weather hasn't allowed us to fish there since Wednesday, May 6. Since then we've fished the local reefs including Cypress Point and Carmel."

The 25 anglers aboard the Star of Monterey on May 6 bagged limits of rockfish and 8 keeper lingcod. "About half of the fish were big vermilions and the rest were olive, yellowtail and widow rockfish," said Arcoleo. "Most of the anglers that day were fishing bars and jigs."

"The local trips are producing limits of rockfish," noted Arcoleo. Ten anglers aboard the Checkmate on Monday, May 11 bagged limits of blue, yellowtail and vermilion rockfish during a trip to the local spots.

The last trip to Point Sur by the Chubasco out of Randy's Fishing Trips on May 6 yielded limits of rockfish and 6 lingcod to 8 pounds. "We were able to get down to Big Sur before the wind started blowing," said Cutting. "However, the wind's been blowing ever since."

The fish being caught off the Big Sur Coast are a mixture of yellowtail, olive, vermilion and other rockfish in the 3 to 5 pound range, according to Cutting. Anglers are enticing the bottomfish with shrimp flies, Kings Tackle jigs, P-Line Lazer Minnows and other lures in 180 to 220 feet of water

Fishing for rockfish locally has picked up since, due to warming water temperatures and an increase in forage. "The water temperature has warmed up from as low as 48 degrees on opening weekend to 51 degrees now," said Cutting. "We're also seeing more squid and anchovies around the rocks."

For example, 16 anglers fishing aboard the Chubasco on Sunday, May 10 bagged limits of mostly olive and yellowtail rockfish in the 2 to 3 pound range in the Cypress Point area. They also nailed some copper and vermilion rockfish, but no lingcod.

"The weather was horrible," noted Cutting, "with a 6 to 8 foot swell and wind in the afternoon. However, we were able to catch our limits by noon."

The weather was even rougher on Saturday, when the 25 guys aboard the Sur Randy and the 28 anglers aboard the Chubasco caught three-quarter limits of rockfish in the Monterey

Anglers departing from Santa Cruz are catching rockfish limits in the Davenport area and south side of the bay. The 24 anglers aboard the Velocity on May 9 bagged nailed 240 copper, red and brown rockfish in 150 feet of water, reported Ken Stagnaro of Stagnaro's Fishing Trips.

The 12 fishermen aboard the Velocity also had a great day on May 1, catching 120 red and black rockfish and 2 lingcod. The 30 fishermen aboard the boat the following day bagged 200 red and yellowtail rockfish on the south side of the bay.

Half Moon Bay
Rockfish and lingcod were the target of Central Coast anglers on May 1 when the bottomfish season opened below Pigeon Point. While most anglers didn't score limits, the fishing was productive and yielded the basis for several tasty meals for rockfish hungry anglers.

"The bottom fishing isn't wide open, but it's fairly good below Pigeon Point," related Captain Tom Mattusch of Hulicat Sportfishing. "We've had limits and near-limits most of the time. Shrimp flies have been the best thing for rockfish and swimbait have produced the lings."

"I had a group of anglers that brought out a bunch of baby octopuses and rigged them on jig heads," he noted. "You would think that lings and big rockfish would have a tough time not hitting an octopus, but surprising the guys using shrimp flies tipped with bait actually outperformed the guys using the octopus."

Robert Hansen of the Half Moon Bay Sportfishing Center reported productive fishing on the opening weekend of the season, but confided that the weather has been pretty rough ever since. "On the opening weekend we got 6 rockfish per rod and added some lings and cabezon," said Hansen.

"We fished on the opening weekend, but we haven't fished since," said Peggy Beckett at the Huck Finn Sportfishing Center. "The Salty Lady headed out on May 1 and ended up with half limits of rockfish. The New Gravy went out the next day and finished, just short of half limits."

Berkeley/Emeryville
Charter boaters departing from the Berkeley and Emeryville Marinas are hooking fair numbers of halibut along with a few bonus stripers while trolling in San Francisco Bay. Skippers and anglers hope to see major improvements in the scores once live bait becomes available.

"We've been trolling recently with pretty good results," disclosed Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing on May 10. "On Friday I took out 12 anglers and they caught 14 halibut and 4 bass. On Saturday, we had 22 anglers on the boat and they ended up with 15 halibut and 2 bass."

Captain Joe Gallia of New Easy Rider Sportfishing has also been trolling for halibut. "Yesterday we took out 6 anglers and they got 6 halibut to 15 pounds. We've tried drifting with dead bait, but trolling has been working much better," said Gallia.

Captain Jim Smith of Happy Hooker Sportfishing has been targeting halibut and stripers with live shiner perch.

"Yesterday we had 8 halibut and 1 bass for 15 anglers. Last weekend we took out 12 anglers on Saturday and they caught 6 halibut and 2 bass. I caught a 20 pound halibut on that trip. The next day we went out with 9 anglers and caught 7 halibut and 1 bass," said Smith.

"We've had a lot of missed opportunities while fishing with shiners. When you have live anchovies, you can fish pretty effectively by placing your rod in a rod holder. With perch, you do much better holding the rod. The fish don't swallow a perch as quickly as they swallow an anchovy. When you feel that first little bite with a shiner, you've got to feed the halibut some line to convert the bite into a hookup," tipped Smith.

The story at the Emeryville Sportfishing Center is much the same with anglers nailing halibut and bass while trolling. On Saturday May 9, the Tigerfish took out 15 anglers and they scored 5 halibut to 10 pounds and 1 striper that went 5 pounds. On the same day, the New Huck Finn had 13 halibut to 14 pounds and 2 stripers to 5 pounds for their 18 anglers.

San Rafael
Although most anglers are concentrating on halibut fishing on San Francisco Bay at this time, there is some solid sturgeon action available on San Pablo Bay, as evidenced by the final two sturgeon trips of the season by the Morning Star.

A trip to the Pumphouse area on Friday, May 8 yield one 51 sturgeon, one keeper striper, 6 starry flounder and 12 bat rays for 9 anglers. "We lost two good-sized sturgeon and released 5 shakers," noted Gordon Hough, captain of the Morning Star. "There was a lot of action all day, with sturgeon jumping all over."

On the next day, the anglers aboard the Morning Star landed two keeper sturgeon measuring 65 and 50 inches, as well as releasing several shakers. They also bagged 6 flounder. The anglers fished grass, ghost and mud shrimp for the diamondbacks in 12 feet of water one mile east of the Pumphouse.

The Morning Star has made its annual spring journey from the Crockett Marina to Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael to go live bait fishing for halibut and striped bass. The boat will be using live shiner perch and dead anchovies until live anchovies become available, according to Hough.

Fort Bragg
Anglers and charter boat skippers at press time were gearing up for the rockfish and lingcod opener on May 15. Before then, crabbing was pretty much the only game in town for both charter and private boats.

Captain Randy Thornton of Telstar Charters can't wait to begin rockfish fishing. He is optimistic about the prospects of boating quality rockfish and lingcod.

On the crab fishing front, Thornton's clients have been scoring consistent limits when the weather allows them to get out of Noyo Harbor.

The most productive area for crabbing has been off 10 Mile Beach in 40 to 120 feet of water. While anglers are getting limits, it's not easy. Typically it takes 4 to 5 pots to score a 10 crab limit.