Anglers who fished the Monterey Bay area this week enjoyed a few days of very nice conditions. The weekend heat wave meant low winds, and the ocean swells were low. This allowed boaters to travel farther and faster to find the fish. The calm conditions were especially beneficial for our area’s tuna hunters. Big bluefin tuna have been feeding in our area for many months now, but catches remain scarce. Part of the reason for low scores can be attributed to windy and choppy conditions offshore along with a succession of larger ocean groundswells. Bluefin anglers rely on sighting the big schools of tuna as they feed or jump from the water. Big swells and wind waves brings visibility way down in terms of spotting fish. Nasty conditions also make it difficult to impossible to set up effective smooth trolling patterns. The big tuna are notoriously shy and easily spooked. Trollers find the best success when the waters are calm and the lines can be let out far behind the boat.

 

This weekend’s placid seas created conditions that were workable for those intrepid anglers who have been on the hunt for months. Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine in Santa Cruz pays particular attention to any and all tuna news. This week he was happy to report a few catches of big bluefin from the Fingers area about 10 miles off the coast from Davenport. The fingers are a series of deep submarine canyon branches that point roughly towards shore. Fraser recounted, “The bluefin are in the 100-200 pound range. The anglers were fishing the Davenport Fingers and finding good signs of marine life. These were caught trolling Mad Mack's and live mackerel.”

 

Tom Joseph from Fish On Sportfishing would rather fish for tuna than anything else in the sea. Joseph reports that information is hard to come by, but cited catches of multiple tuna caught by boats launching out of both Half Moon Bay and Sausalito this weekend. “These fish were on the inside and just above the 601 weather buoy,” Joseph said. He then added, “The one guy I talked to trolled al the way back from the Fingers and hit the spot near the 601. He said it was crazy, fish were everywhere!”

 

Big bluefin have been feeding all along the North coast of California since late spring this year. Boats from Fort Bragg and Crescent City have done really well on bluefin and albacore as well as the occasional big eye tuna. The schools in those far north areas are in closer to shore, which may account for their better catch rates. In previous years, tuna have hung out in our area well into December, so it ain’t over yet.