Nothing’s ever perfect, especially when you’re fishing. As in life, you just gotta do the best you can with what you’ve got. Our weather seems to be settling down, which is a relief and allows for more fishing opportunities. Still, there is some confusion of swell direction with a northwest swell during the week transitioning to a small south combined with a significant west swell that will persist through the weekend. Winds will remain low, and early mornings in particular should be very calm with glassy conditions. Combined seas are forecast at five to eight feet by NOAA. It’s probably a good idea to fish deeper water for clarity and there aer always protected areas the swells affect less. On the positive side of things, water temperatures slowly continue to rise throughout the bay, with most areas reporting  temps in the mid to high 50’s throughout the bay.

The warmer water is bringing in the bait, and the fish we like to catch. So far this year anglers are seeing more sardines than we are anchovies out on the bay. Spawning squid blooms are popping up both near Monterey at the Pacific Grove and Sand City areas, and the Capitola and Santa Cruz Mile buoy locations. Both sardines and live squid are killer bait for a variety of the bigger fish available to us in the Monterey Bay. Boat anglers report increasing catches of California halibut in 40 to 60 feet of water. A few of the classic “chicken ranch” areas where smaller male halibut congregate are beginning to kick out catches for pier anglers and even shore anglers.

When the water warms sufficiently, we should see the small finfish (likely sardines) get pushed towards the beach by groups of voracious striped bass. Striper fishing is decent right now from Santa Cruz County Beaches, and very good from the Monterey beaches. They are keying in on live sandcrabs, though a variety of lures will do the trick as well. The number of bass is increasing as is the average size.  There are still plenty of shorts in the mix, so treat them gently and release quickly. That goes double for undersized halibut which are notoriously sensitive to damage from handling. Keep the fish in the water for your photo and release the hook, if possible without removing the fish from the sea.

In fishing news this week we have a couple very positive items. Capitola Boat and Bait have announced that business will resume rental skiff fishing on the Capitola Wharf sometime in mid-August. They have been shut down for over a year due to storm damage from the winter of 2023. Welcome back Cap B&B, we can’t wait. News from the Santa Cruz Wharf this week includes the massive Chinook salmon release held last Monday, after sunset. The Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project in partnership with CDFW released over 160,000 juvenile King Salmon directly to Monterey Bay in their ongoing efforts to restore salmon population along the coast and support local sport and commercial fisheries. Hopefully we will see enough returning fish to the Sacramento River system next fall to justify an ocean salmon fishing season once again.