Morro Bay/Avila Beach
The weather has calmed along the Central Coast and this has really allowed charter boats to zero in on schools of quality rockfish. On long range trips, good numbers of lingcod are showing along with the rockfish.

“The fishing has been really good here at Morro Bay,” said Harold Lovett at Portside Marine. “Our anglers are getting limits of rockfish everyday and good numbers of lingcod up to 20 pounds are being caught on our longer range trips.”

He added, “A couple of thresher sharks up to about 60 pounds were caught and a couple other fish were lost. Three of them were caught by trollers, but one guy hooked his while drifting live bait.”

The folks at Virg’s Sportfishing are also enjoying very good rockfish action. On Sunday, September 14, the Harbor Pathfinder took out 31 anglers on a half-day trip. They boated 1 whitefish, 60 vermilion rockfish, 250 assorted rockfish and 1 lingcod.

At Avila Beach, Roger York of Patriot Sportfishing described the recent rockfish fishing as “great.” “Our guys are getting limits of rockfish all the time and we are seeing quite a few lings, too. Jeff Boylen from Arizona recently took over the top spot in our lingcod contest with an 18.4 pound fish,” said York.  

  Monterey/Santa Cruz
The rockfish action along the Monterey County coast is superb, regardless of whether you fish off the Big Sur or in local waters.

The Chubasco made a trip to Carmel Bay on Sunday, September 14 that produced limits of rockfish and 18 lingcod for 13 anglers, reported Brian Cutting at Randy's Fishing Trips. On the previous day, the Sur Randy returned with limits of rockfish and one lingcod for 11 anglers, while the Chubasco had limits of rockfish and 4 lingcod for 31 anglers.

"We are catching a lot of quality olive, yellowtail, widow and vermilion rockfish," said Cutting. "The fish are falling for shrimp flies, tipped with anchovy strips, and King's Tackle Deep Sea Stingers."

"Fishing is really good for an array of vermilion, yellowtail, olive and other rockfish," confirmed Todd Arcoleo at Chris' Fishing Trips. "The passengers are nailing limits on every trip. The Caroline made a trip to Point Sur on Sunday, September 14 that produced limits of rockfish and 2 lingcod for 22 anglers."

The Santa Cruz area is also yielding great rockfish action. A 33 person fishing charter aboard the Velocity, Stagnaro's Sportfishing, on September 22 produced top-notch rockfish action off New Years Island. The passengers caught limits of assorted blues, reds, olives and one lingcod .

Twenty anglers aboard the Velocity on Saturday also bagged limits of assorted blacks, reds and olives and two lingcod weighing 10 and 27 pounds.

Private boaters are nailing a mixture of rockfish, lingcod and halibut off the Santa Cruz County coast. "The fishing has been productive from Natural Bridges to Franklin Point," said Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz. "Anglers reported great rockfish scores at Franklin Point and a few halibut also over the weekend of September 13-14.”

Meanwhile, anglers continue to hope that albacore arrive in waters closer to the harbor. ”The few private boaters who looked for albacore near the weather buoy on Saturday ended up with no tuna and one bonito,” noted Fraser. “The other boats that went down to the Weenie didn’t hook any fish either. The water is flat and blue, but the fish are staying offshore. The commercial boats catching the albacore are fishing 140 miles out.”  

  Half Moon Bay
Rockfish fishing for anglers departing from Half Moon Bay has been a hit and miss proposition for much of the summer. Anglers that work hard were catching limits of fish, but they didn’t come easy. These days things have taken a change for the better. The bite has heated up significantly and anglers are now bagging limits with regularity.

“The rockfish bite is wide open,” exclaimed Robert Hansen of the Half Moon Bay Sportfishing Center. “Yesterday the Queen of Hearts had 34 limits of rockfish and added 15 lingcod up to 15 pounds. One guy boated 5 keeper lings while working a white scampi body rigged on a 6 ounce head. The Riptide had limits of rockfish for their 14 anglers and added 1 lingcod. Both boats were fishing south near the lighthouse.”

“We’ve been doing a little bit of everything,” related Captain Tom Mattusch of Hulicat Sportfishing. “We’ve run a couple of jumbo squid trips for research purposes and we got squid both times. I’ve also spent some time dropping deepwater shrimp traps, but I haven’t had much success yet.”

“Rockfish action has been very good for quality bottomfish, a few lings and the occasional cabezon. I’ve found very good bottom fishing at both Montara and the Farallon Islands. We went to the islands yesterday and ended up with 10 limits of coppers, olives and blues. In addition, we got 1 very good cabezon and a lingcod.”

“I don’t think we are going to have much of an albacore season this year. There are some fish about 150 miles offshore, which of course is a long expensive run. When you get out there most of the fish are small. I know one guy that went out and caught 40 fish, but only 4 of them hit 10 pounds,” added Mattusch.

Peggy Beckett at the Huck Finn Sportfishing Center reported limits style rockfish action in local waters. “All of our boats had limits of rockfish yesterday while fishing between Montara and Martin’s Beach. Today the New Captain Pete had 11 limits of rockfish, 7 lingcod and 2 cabezon while fishing in shallow water. There have been good numbers of large black rockfish caught by boats while fishing shallow,” said Beckett.

Beckett is planning on running rockfish and crab combo trips beginning on November 1.

  Berkeley/Emeryville
  The late summer crowds are fairly light at this time, but that doesn’t mean the fishing is slow. On the contrary, superb action is on tap for rockfish, lingcod and halibut. If you like catching hard charging saltwater gamefish and want plenty of elbowroom, this is a great time to schedule a trip on an east bay charter boat.

“We’ve been running rockfish and halibut combination trips most days,” disclosed Captain Joe Gallia of the New Easy Rider. “On Saturday we had a 25 angler charter and we ended up with limits of rockfish, 12 lingcod and 8 halibut to 14 pounds. On Friday, we took out 10 anglers. They boated limits of rockfish, 8 lings and 8 halibut to 25 pounds. Wednesday’s trip yielded limits of rockfish for 12 anglers, 12 lingcod and 15 halibut.”

Captain Chris Smith has been running the California Dawn in recent days with a high level of success on both halibut and rockfish.

“We’ve been getting halibut, both inside and outside the bay. You catch more fish in the bay, but the fish you hook on the outside are larger,” related Smith. “We nailed a 30 pound halibut, while fishing on the outside the other day. Rockfish action has been good and we’ve been getting some black rockfish in the 3 to 5 pound range while fishing up along the Marin County coast.”

On Friday, the California Dawn had 23 halibut for 23 anglers while fishing in the bay. On Saturday, they had limits of rockfish and 9 halibut to 30 pounds for 23 anglers. On Sunday, 15 anglers busted limits of rockfish, 3 lingcod and 9 halibut. Most of the anglers on that trip were kids between 6 and 9 years old.

Charter boats departing from Emeryville have also been enjoying very good success

According to Rob Taylor of the Emeryville Sportfishing Center, on Saturday, September 13 the C-Gull II took out 16 anglers that caught limits of rockfish, 2 lingcod to 8 pounds and 14 halibut to 16 pounds. The Captain Hook nailed 16 halibut to 8 pounds and 2 leopard sharks to 15 pounds for 24 anglers.

The New Huck Finn got 30 halibut to 12 pounds, limits of rockfish and 12 lings to 15 pounds for 25 anglers. The New Seeker took out 25 anglers and returned with limits of rockfish and 27 lings to 15 pounds. The Salmon Queen scored full limits of rockfish and 6 lingcod to 20 pounds for their 28 anglers.  

  Point San Pablo
Halibut fishing has remained steady for anglers fishing out of the Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor over the past two weeks. In addition, stripers have started to show as well, pointing to an exciting early fall for anglers working the North Bay.

“I’d say the fishing is good to very good at this time,” related Captain Frank Miller of Fury Sportfishing. “We ran a few trips on our six pack boat last week and we did pretty well on every trip. On Friday we took out 4 anglers and ended up with 6 halibut and a pair of bass. On Saturday, we had 5 anglers aboard and they got 5 bass and 6 halibut.”

“Most of the halibut we get are running from 6 to 9 pounds, but I’ve heard that there are some larger fish up to 30 pounds, moving into the bay from the ocean. There is still plenty of bait available and we are supposed to have a good supply for several weeks to come. If the conditions remain stable we could have good halibut action for the next two months. Of course this could change dramatically if a good size storm rolls in,” added Miller.  

  Bodega Bay
If you are a saltwater aficionado fishing out of Bodega Bay, it doesn’t matter if you travel to the north or south, since you have an excellent chance of limiting out on quality rockfish at destinations in either direction.

“The rockfish fishing is still absolutely red hot,” exclaimed Captain Rick Powers of the Bodega Bay Sportfishing Center. “We are getting full limits of fish everyday. In fact, we have had one hundred percent limits all season long.”

“About half the time I’ve been running to the south to fish near Point Reyes. The rest of the time, I’ve been going north to Fort Ross. We are finding quality bottomfish in both areas,” said Powers.

Power’s clients are getting their fish while working metal bar jigs with a single shrimp fly teaser rigged above them. There are not too many lingcod being caught these days, but those that do show up are big quality fish in many cases.

“The water temperature has inched up to 61 degrees about 20 miles offshore. I’m going to do a little looking around for albacore and squid over the next few days. I spotted a 400 pound mako shark the other day cruising along just under the surface,” added Powers.  

  Fort Bragg
These are bleak days at Noyo Harbor. The early rockfish closure pulled the carpet out from under charter boat skippers and local anglers, leaving them with extremely limited fishing opportunities.

“Right now there is nothing going on, but we do have some irons in the fire,” related Captain Randy Thornton of Telstar Charters. “We’ve got a special permit to fish for chili peppers in water over 900 feet deep. I’m hoping to run one of the deep water trips in the next couple weeks.”

“This Wednesday, I’m planning to run an abalone diving trip. There is a lot of kelp in the water right now, so if you are not an experienced diver this might not be the best time to go, since it is easy to panic when diving in thick kelp. The last time we went after abalone was on opening day back in August and we did extremely well,” added Thornton.