Monterey/Capitola/Santa Cruz
Charter boat skippers and private boaters out of Monterey, Moss Landing and Santa Cruz were gearing up for the rockfish and lingcod opener on May 1 as this publication went to press. Meanwhile, halibut are starting to make a showing off the Capitola Wharf.

Ken McKeever of San Jose landed a 5 lb. halibut while fishing a frozen anchovy off the Capitola Wharf. "Anglers also released two undersized halibut," reported Frank Ealy at Capitola Boat & Bait.

The sanddab fishing was good on the last two flatfish trips of the season over the weekend of April 26-27. "Fourteen anglers fished for sanddabs aboard the Caroline on Saturday, while 20 anglers fished aboard the Checkmate on Sunday," said Chris Arcoleo of Chris' Fishing Trips. "They averaged 20 to 30 fish per rod while using jigs, tipped with squid strips, in Monterey Bay."

"Rockfish season should be really good off the Monterey County Coast this year," forecasted Pete Bruno at Randy's Fishing Trips, "based on the excellent fishing that we saw last year. We haven't fished for sanddabs over the past week."

  Half Moon Bay
As of press time, there was virtually no fishing taking place in the Half Moon Bay area, but that was on the verge of changing with the May 1 rockfish opener south of Pigeon Point.

“We’ve been doing a little crabbing recently and it actually seems like the crabbing is improving,” related Captain Tom Mattusch of Hulicat Sportfishing. “Maybe the improvement is due to the reduction in crabbing pressure that we’ve seen recently.”

“On May 1, we will be able to start fishing for rockfish again below Pigeon Point and the season up here around the harbor will get going about a month later on June 1.”

“I’ve received approval to run some deep water research trip. On these trips my customers will have the opportunity to fish for species that live in 900 or more feet of water. Basically, you’ll be fishing areas were no one has ever fished, so there is no telling what we’ll be reeling up. So far there has been no date set for the beginning of these trips,” continued Mattusch.

Robert Hanson at the Half Moon Bay Sportfishing Center reported that they were anxiously awaiting the May 1 rockfish opener below Pigeon Point. “We did really well down there last year, so I’m guessing that we will find plenty of fish on the opener,” he said.

The folks at the Huck Finn Sportfishing Center will also be running trips to the south for rockfish on May 1 and beyond.

  San Rafael
Boaters fishing San Pablo Bay saw a pronounced upswing in sturgeon and bass fishing on the weekend of April 26-27.

A group of 5 anglers from the Clear Lake area experienced great sturgeon fishing while soaking ghost and mud shrimp at Buoy #7 over the weekend. “In 2-1/2 days they hooked 13 sturgeon, including two oversized fish, four keepers and 7 shakers, along with three keeper striped bass,” said Art Donati at Loch Lomond Live Bait and Tackle. “They only kept one of the keeper sturgeon.”

Anglers drifting live shiner perch also nailed good numbers of halibut at Tiburon and Paradise Cay over that weekend.

The Morning Star finished its sturgeon season on April 27 and has now begun embarking on live bait halibut trips out of Loch Lomond Marina, according to Captain Gordon Hough.

“Saturday's trip produced two keeper sturgeon measuring 57 and 52 inches and two keeper stripers,” said Hough. “On the following day, the anglers aboard the Morning Star took 6 bass and 2 halibut, though no sturgeon.” The anglers fished shrimp baits west of the Pumphouse, off Sonoma Creek, and in 15 feet of water off Buoy #7. “Anglers on the Morning Star caught a total of 7 halibut this April,” added Hough. “By contrast, we only caught three halibut in the previous 29 years of sturgeon trips.

  Emeryville
Frank Salazar at the Emeryville Sportfishing Center described the halibut fishing as “very good,” with a few schoolie size stripers showing up, too.

On Saturday April 27, 4 charter boats departed from the Emeryville Marina in search of halibut. The C-Gull II boated 23 halibut to 19 pounds for 12 anglers. The New Huck Finn ended up with 35 halibut to 20 pounds for their 19 anglers. The New Seeker had 32 halibut to 17 pounds for their 13 anglers and the New Salmon Queen’s 16 anglers boated 31 halibut to 18 pounds.

Captain Jim Smith of the Happy Hooker has departed from Martinez for the sturgeon season and is now back at Berkeley Marina going on live bait halibut and bass trips.

  Berkeley
Superb early season halibut fishing is on tap in both the central and southern sections of San Francisco Bay. Both trolling and live bait drifting are producing fish, but over the past week drifting with live bait has proven to be the most effective approach. In addition to the halibut, stripers are beginning to show too.

“This is the best halibut fishing I’ve seen in the past 6 or 7 years,” disclosed Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing. “We’ve been on fire ever since live bait became available. On Wednesday April 23 we took out 11 anglers and ended up with 8 halibut and 5 stripers. The next day things really got going and we boated 23 halibut to 30 pounds 1 striper, a 15 pound white seabass and a quality leopard shark for our 11 anglers.”

On April 25, his 18 anglers nailed 42 halibut to 34 pounds. Saturday’s trip yielded 33 halibut and 4 stripers for 32 anglers and on Sunday our 23 anglers got 34 halibut to 31 pounds.”

Captain Joe Gallia of the New Easy Rider has also been enjoying very good halibut fishing at a variety of locations including the Berkeley Flats and Paradise Cay as well as in the South Bay.

On Thursday April 24, Gallia’s 11 anglers scored 17 halibut and 4 stripers. His 20 anglers landed 20 halibut and 5 stripers on Saturday, while the 8 anglers landed 16 halibut and 4 stripers on Sunday.

  Bodega Bay
Since salmon fishing is closed, these are dark days for charter boat anglers and skippers that enjoy plying the waters off the Sonoma Coast out of Bodega Bay, yet there is some light at the end of the tunnel in the form of rockfish and halibut. Rockfish season is slated to kick off on June 1 and at least one local skipper is attempting to get some live bait for halibut fishing.

“It’s the same old story up here, there is nothing going on, but we are looking forward to the rockfish opener,” said Captain Les Fernandes at Fish On Bait and Tackle. “About all we’ve done recently is whale watching.”

Things are much the same with Captain Rick Powers of the Bodega Bay Sportfishing Center. “We’ve done a little whale watching and that’s about it. At this point I’m trying to get someone to catch some live anchovies. I would love to try some halibut drifting, but we need some live bait to make it happen. At this point we’ve got a little over a month until the rockfish season opens, so we are very much looking forward to that,” said Powers.

  Fort Bragg
Salmon fishing is closed and rod and reel rockfish fishing has yet to get underway, but that is not keeping Noyo Harbor charter boats off the water. At least one charter operator is keeping busy by offering divers the opportunity to target abalone, rockfish and even crabs.

“We had a great trip yesterday,” reported Captain Randy Thornton of Telstar Charters on April 27. “I took out a group of divers and we started off getting limits of abalone up to 9 inches. Then some of the guys used spear guns to harvest three quarter limits of rockfish. My guys didn’t get any lings today, but the lings tend to move in and out. They just weren’t around today, but one guy did whack a big cabezon. We rounded out the day by doing some crabbing.”

“In the future I’m probably going to restrict our trips to two things like abs and crabs or abs and spear fishing. That will give us more time to concentrate on what we’re doing without jumping around so much,” continued Thornton.