Big news last week was the appearance of albacore tuna in our area. Finally! Special thanks to Mike Baxter for covering this report last week, and bringing such good news. Serious anglers from the Monterey Bay area have been trailering boats up to Fort Bragg and the southern Oregon area to get in on the stellar bite up there lately. The tuna are as close as five miles from the each in that region. They are a little further away from our harbors, but we finally have schools of long fin to chase locally. We’ve received some rumor/reports of bluefin tuna in the area as well.

The best bite seemed to be about 30 miles out of Half Moon Bay. Many boats counted double digits of albies last weekend before the winds came up and kept most anglers inshore. Captain JT Thomas was ready to go when the tuna appeared last week. He checked his list of tuna aficionados and made two successful trips. JT reported, “We fished Thursday and Friday for albacore.  On Thursday the clients caught 38 Albacore on Friday, 26. Everyone was very excited and happy.  The next window for tuna is September 5th.”

Always a top resource for tuna news, Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine had this to say about the flurry of tuna madness, ”On Saturday wind came up. The coming weekend looks good with lower winds forecast on the Tuna grounds. There were a few boats who ran for albacore from Santa Cruz and Monterey on Wednesday. There were scores of 0-5 fish caught today in our area. The best area around here that I heard of was at 36'33/123'00. The anglers who fished near the Pioneer to the Gumdrop caught more albacore I believe.”

Inshore fishing is very strong. A full complement of species are on the bite in and around Monterey Bay. Halibut retain the full spread pattern of smaller fish in the warm shallows, and big fish in deeper waters of 50 to 70 feet. The fall halibut bite is emerging along West Cliff Drive and the North Coast spots, with fish in the 30- pound range reported this week. Ling cod and rockfish are acting hungry in that area as well. Near Capitola and Rio Del Mar, some anglers have caught the mysterious white sea bass as well. Private boater Keagan Vasconcellos got out with some friends in his skiff last week, and hit the jackpot. He quipped, “We finally got out after not fishing from Santa Cruz in two months, and ended with nine halibut to 20 pounds and 10 lings to 16 pounds. We drifted live bait and, while drifting, threw swimbaits. Vasconcellos and crew also caught a smattering of rockfish on their recent trip.