The Salmon fishing has been luke warm still in the Monterey Bay. The bets have still been the Soquel Hole off of Santa Cruz with some anglers catching their limits of reasonable sized salmon.
The fishing a bit north in Half Moon Bay has continued to be less attractive to the small skiff fisherman, and many have opted to launch their boats out of Santa Cruz in search of a faster ride to the more productive fishing grounds. But, this surely doesn’t mean that fishing has been a complete waste out of Half Moon Bay. There have been a few limits of salmon reported there as well.
The fishing out of Monterey has been reasonable, just under one fish per rod on some of the boats, and of course some limits and some skunked salmon fishermen mixed in too. Most of the party boats are dropping anchovies and sardines down to relatively low depths of 150 feet or more to find the salmon while on the mooching rigs. Overall, there seems to be a very high percentage of fisherman trolling hoochies and all sorts of other rigs for the salmon. One of the common lures last week was a yellow Crocodile lure.
This week coming up should have some decent days for getting out and making another stab at the salmon if you are still in search of your first fish of the season. There were several reports of boats who kissed their first salmon of the season over the weekend, and if you are still searching, don’t get discouraged.