Big squid spawns in the middle of the bay are keeping commercial boats busy catching multiple tons nightly. There are a good number of bruiser white sea bass on the fringes of the squid areas, and a few are showing up here and there between the Monterey Harbor, Sand City and Point Pinos. Rockfishing has been spectacular near Monterey, with weather conditions allowing boats to travel down coast towards Point Sur where the fish are more numerous and usually bigger. Party boats reported limits all week of a good variety including vermilion, canaries and yellowtail rockfish plus up to a dozen lingcod per outing.

Anglers launching from Moss Landing continue to enjoy very good halibut fishing on the sandy flats near the deep canyon edges. The flatties are now moving slightly away from the beach with the best bite being from 40 to 70 feet of water. Despite offshore conditions looking perfect, the tuna hunters from Moss are still drawing a blank. Monterey Bay anglers are all on the alert with recent news of an albacore catch by a boat from Half Moon Bay this week. The warm water and temperature breaks are out there and looking good.

From Santa Cruz, most private boats are going out with halibut limits in mind. And most are returning with limits of fish ranging from 10 to 30 pounds. Rockfishing near Capitola and Santa Cruz is steady and productive. Boats heading north towards Davenport are finding an increasing number of big fall flatties outside the bull kelp lines in 60-70 feet of water, especially near Three and Four Mile Beaches. This week saw an increase of reports for catches of big white sea bass and also scattered pods of feeding bonito close to shore.

The wild beaches north of Santa Cruz are ripe for the picking up bigger striped bas that have come down from San Francisco Bay. Unlike the giant schools of stripers near Half Moon Bay and Pacifica, these fish are loners or traveling in smaller schools. While the waves were down last week, anchovies were getting  pushed into shore by feeding humpbacks. When that bait is in there's a good chance the striped bass are there as well, or soon will be. A powerful southwest swell pulsed in over the weekend that will change things up a bit, but stripers like good wave action.Stripers continue to be caught down the  central coast towards San Luis Obispo and beyond. Perch fishing is ramping up, with both numbers and size of fish increasing all along the coast, though finding clean water was a challenge this week due to the south swell.