In the final bottomfishing changeup for the year, December ushered in one more month of deepwater rockfishing. As per CDFW regulations, nearshore rockfishing is closed for 2024. Rockfishing is allowed only beyond the 50-fathom line (300 feet). It takes a little longer to get to the fishing grounds and conditions always seem to deteriorate as you move further offshore, but the rewards can be big. Deepwater species such as chilipeppers, green-spotted rockfish, vermilion and canaries are numerous, and usually average out as much bigger fish than their nearshore cousins.

In Monterey, J&M Sport Fishing has hosted light loads on mid-week trips aboard the Kahuna. There is plenty of elbow room with only six or seven anglers aboard a boat of that size. They reported limits of rockfish plus one lingcod on each of their trips this week. Santa Cruz charter boats posted limits as well. Go Fish Santa Cruz Charters took an adventurous trip up the North Coast near Ann Nuevo on Sunday. Skipper JT Thomas reported, “We fished at The Island today. The clients caught limits of rock fish including browns, blues, blacks, vermillion and ling cod. We will be fishing the deep water until the end of the year.” Stagnaro’s Sportfishing also reported deepwater limits this week. Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine noted that private boaters were doing best by fishing the North Coast spots. On Sunday Fraser said, “The water was calm and anglers fished the deep water today. There were limits of big rock fish caught near Wilder Beach and Davenport. The crab fishing was decent near the Soquel Hole.”

Surfcasting remains rather slow for most beaches ringing the Monterey Bay. An increase of structure from the heavy swells this week and last is creating conditions very favorable for wintertime perch fishing. We can expect to see some big grey bellies coming in from the broad mid-bay beaches soon as the perch enter their pre-spawn mode.

Don’t forget about poke-poling! Wintertime features some wild tidal swings with big high tides and severe minus tides. These ”super low tides” expose rocks and reefs that are usually underwater. Poke-polers take advantage of the access to scrabble over the rocks, poking a baited hook into caves and crevices. Often, they are rewarded by incredibly big fish. Bob Christian is a dedicated lifelong angler from the Santa Cruz area, and proved this point on Friday while fishing one of his traditional spots on the coast north of Davenport. Christian landed a 26-inch monkeyface prickleback eel while using squid at the tip of his 10-foot poke pole. He recounted, “With this particular fish it was a calm day then bigger sets started coming in.” The conditions were potentially precarious when Christian got the bite and muscled the big monkeyface out of it’s hole in the rocks. He furthered, “That was enough for me so I headed home. It was two days dinner for my wife and I. Battered and fried. I like grilling or steaming them as well. They yield a very mild white meat.” Christian was using a very short 80-pound Dacron leader with a 2/0 hook.