Salmon Fishing Update:

Much of the best salmon fishing off the California Coast is happening right in Santa Cruz which is part of the Monterrey Bay.  There seems to be some great action for quite some time now just a few minutes ride by private boat or charter boat from the Santa Cruz harbor, and salmon are being caught with sardines and others from trolling lures in the 70-100 feet range.

Most of the salmon fishing has been the best while bringing your fishing gear down below the 80 foot mark, but for those of you who enjoy fishing much higher to the surface, there is always a decent chance you will get a strike up higher too.

With fishing conditions being very good so far in September, many of the party boats and private yachts have come back to the docks with averages of 1 salmon for every two people, and often the numbers have been much higher.  There have also been some larger than normal salmon caught over the past two weeks.  There was one confirmed 36 lb. salmon caught with an anchovy three miles off Capitola in 80 feet of water, and there have been numerous 20 lb. salmon reports over the past month too.

One suggestion would be to contact the local harbor master before you plan to leave your house to find out the local weather conditions.  It’s definitely worth the quick phone call to find out what might be happening on the ocean during your salmon fishing before you head out of the driveway.  And what a great way to head out if the harbormaster tells you the water is flat calm and no wind expected the rest of the day.

Good luck with your salmon fishing in September!

Sacramento River limits

Kewsick Damn down to the Deschutes Bridge, the river is closed to all salmon fishing right now and for the forseeable future. But, you are able to fish for trout and keep one trout up to 16 inches long, either wild or a hatchery fish.

From the Deschutes Bridge down to Red Bluff Diversion Dam, the river also is closed to all salmon fishing until Oct. 9 through Oct. 31. After that, there is a limit of two salmon and two hatchery trout or steelhead. Note that on page 7 of the booklet there is a chart describing the differences between a plain rainbow resident trout and steelhead. The main difference is that the steelhead migrates to the sea and the resident trout sticks around in the river. If the resident trout gets to 16 inches, it is then classified as a steelhead no matter whether the trout migrates or stays at home.

***Make sure to inform your friends who are fishing for the salmon on the Sacramento of the changes that are going into effect.  It is a hefty fine for anyone caught breaking the fishing rules and regulations whether intentionally or not intentionally***

Below the Red Bluff Diversion Dam there is an open season for salmon from Oct. 9 through Dec. 12, with the same limits as the upstream section of the river. This extends all the way down to Knights Landing.

From Knights Landing to the San Francisco Bay, there is an open period from Sept. 4 through Oct. 3. Again, the same limits apply as upstream.

We took hundreds of pictures on the trip to Deep Creek Fishing Lodge in Kenai, Alaska. Here are a few of them.  The pictures are all from early June 2010. During the fishing trip, we fished the salt water for halibut, the river for king salmon, and a remote glacier fed lake for lake trout.  Some of the greatest times were spent just sitting around the fishing lodge which was located just next to Deep Creek, Alaska.  The staff and the guides and the owner of the Deep Creek Lodge are all excellent people.  With the views across the channel that were to die for, it was a vacation of lifetime that will not ever be forgotten.

One of the most spectacular parts of the fishing lodge experience was taking the float plane to the desolate lake to go fishing for trout. We caught all kinds of trout within just a few hours and then we fried them all up afterwards.  It was super tasty and alot of fun at the same time.

The fishing lodge is called Deep Creek Fishing Club and it is located in Kasilof, Alaska.  There is another deep creek fishing lodge so you need to make sure you fish the one with the captain called Captain Crusty.  Otherwise you won’t be getting the same experience you see in the pictures above.  The first night that you spend at the lodge, you will probably dig into a massive dinner of Alaska King Crab legs which should get your fishing vacation started off right.

Here is a brief overview in video of my first fishing trip to Alaska.  We visited the Kenai Peninsula and fished for halibut, trout, and salmon at the Deep Creek Fishing Club.

This place is amazing.  The first day we went out on the ocean and fished for Halibut.  There were two boats of us, 4 people on each boat, and one captain and another crew member per boat too.  All eight of us caught our limit of two halibut each.  The largest halibut of the day was 69.4 pounds on the scale outside the lodge.  It was great fun.  The weather out on the water was a bit choppy, but nothing too bad, infact nobody even got sea sick.  It did get a bit windy towards the end of the day

Kasilof float fishing

On the second day, we went fishing on the Kasilof River on the Kenai Peninsula.  Some of the video is also from salmon fishing on this river.  The fishing that day was pretty good for our drift boat.

We brought 3 salmon to the boat, and had a total of 5 salmon strikes.  We released two of the salmon because they were wild king salmon, and we kept one that was a hatchery fish.  Our guide Todd who works for the Deep Creek Fishing Club was excellent.  He had been guiding tourists who come to Alaska to fish for over twenty years now.

On the final day of our trip, we chartered a small airplane to fly us to some remote lake across the channel.  We landed and started fishing for lake trout.  We were using salmon eggs, and our group of eight caught about 15 trout in about one hour.  Next, our guides and Capta

fly-in lake fishing

in Steve aka Captain Crusty fixed up all the fish on the side of the lake with a bunch of charcoal, and we had some awesome fish tacos.  They setup a nice table and there was everything you could need for a great meal including wine and beer and best of all fresh caught trout for our taco meat.

Please enjoy the video of the fishing trip to the Deep Creek Fishing Club:

Fishing in Alaska is something brand new for me.  Going to a true fishing lodge is also something brand new for me.  It’s been just about 7 hours since we landed, and I think I just might be hooked for life.

Alaska is such a beautiful place, and by the looks of all the pictures on the walls of the Deep Creek Fishing Lodge, we are probably going to be in for some super great fishing over the next four days.  Tomorrow we are heading out on the ocean or salt as our captain Steve who is the owner of the Deep Creek Fishing Lodge says.  We are going to be in search of some halibut, which he says we will be sure to catch within minutes.  Our plan is to go salmon fishing in the local river the next day.   I can’t wait, this is exactly what I have been waiting for, the chance at catching a monster halibut up here in Alaska.

So here is the quick summary of this Alaskan fishing trip so far.  1) We left San Francisco airport for Seattle, then took a second plane to Anchorage, then a final 3rd small plane to Kenai.  All of the travelling was a total of about 9 hours.  Once we landed in Kenai, a woman from the lodge picked us up and we took the Hummer about an hour until we arrived at the Deep Creek Fishing lodge.

The Deep Creek Fishing Lodge is amazing in many ways.  First off, it is a true wooden log lodge.  All of the smaller cabins that are for guests to sleep in are wooden logs too.  And it sits on a bluff which is about 50 feet above the sea level, so you have a perfect view across the 38 mile channel to the other side where there are several 11,000 foot peaks/volcanoes to look at.  Please enjoy the pictures of the lodge as well as the videos, its super impressive.  If the views and the background aren’t enough for you, you will definitely be impressed with the staff and owners of the lodge.  Steve who is the owner is full of all kinds of fishing stories. Tonight at dinner (king crab legs and a massive mix of cold seafood for starters) Steve said that he has been fishing these exact waters for over 25 years now and is one of the top captains in the area.

He said he won 9 derbys within that time period, so I am feeling pretty good about our chances at a nice halibut or two or five.  The rest of the staff is also super great, and very helpful and there to help you out whenever you need anything.

Since it is early June, the one odd thing so far has been how light it is.  It’s 11:30pm right now, and although I know I need to go to sleep to be rested for fishing in the morning, I just can’t.  It’s so light outside, and I am getting ready to take some pictures of across the channel to get some good sunset shots of the volcanoes…. Who could blame me.

Some good stories to come soon, I’m not sure if I will be able to sleep at all tonight.  Sarah is coming to wake us all up tomorrow moring at 5:00am for a 5:30 breakfast…. life is great up here at this Alaskan fishing lodge.

Here is a photo looking past the Deep Creek Fishing Lodge and out over the water.  The mountains with snow on them across the channel are 38 miles away.

That’s right, its time to get your salmon gear together and make your way down to Santa Cruz or Monterey California to get your 2 daily salmon limit.  The fishing has been the best its been all year for several days now, and its not too far of a crawl to get to the fishing grounds.

Most of the anglers are choosing to fish salmon at the Soquel Hole which is just a 30 minute run for most boats from the Santa Cruz harbor.  If you are planning on coming from Monterey it will be a bit longer run to the fishing grounds.  And of course if you are making the trip by boat from Half Moon Bay harbor, it will be even longer again. The Soquel Hole is known for great salmon fishing because it is a collection pot for all types of bait fish with the massive depth changes it has.

The sea conditions the past few days have been relatively nice and calm compared to several weeks ago.  There has been a really nice calm feel out there early in the morning, and of course the afternoon winds have kicked up every single day so far this week, so get your fishing done early.

As the fish are now being caught closer to the surface, mostly between 30-80 feet of water, more and more people are stopping the trolling and opting to save some gas and energy with their mooching gear.  Of course, you won’t escape the numerous troll fisherman who are have tons of success with rigs like pulling a anchovy around or pretty much any other lure these days.

Most of the fish that are showing up at the docs in Santa Cruz have been in the 8-14 pound range, with 20 pound fish coming in daily as well.  Good luck, and if you are going out for the whole day and don’t catch anything, we’ll, better luck fishing next time.

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.

monterey bay

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.

The 2nd Week of April, 2010:

A salmon dodger used for trolling for salmon

Well, the salmon fishing has been decent for most people fishing near and around the Soquel Hole.  But, weather has started to take the fish counts down.  As the weekend went on, there wind and the waves and the rain made fishing conditions not worth it for many of the anglers, and the launch ramp at Santa Cruz harbor became a ghost town.  A big difference from opening weekend a week ago.

The overwhelming majority of salmon being caught from private fisherman is happening with trolling gear.  Most of these fish are being hooked at depths ranging from 120-200 feet down.  There was even a report of a kid fishing for halibut near the Soquel Hole bouncing a anchovy off the bottom who landed a keeper salmon (not confirmed though)

It’s too difficult to say what is working best, there is the usual mix of hoochie and dodgers/flashers and dead bait being dragged off the downriggers for the trollers.  And the few fisherman who are mooching are doing the typical sardine/anchovy rig with anywhere from 2-8 ounces of weight depending on the conditions.  If you asked me, mooching with anything over 6 ounces is not too much fun, especially if you are down deep.

So here’s the deal, we are all going to hope for some good weather these next few days off of the coast of California, and if that works out, there just might be some reports of some 30 plus lb. salmon next week.  If anyone has any reliable mile buoy reports for salmon fishing from either Monterey or Santa Cruz of even Half Moon Bay, please submit them via comments below.  There are quite a few smaller craft fisherman who are dying to know if they can just creep out of the channel and have some decent luck at catching their first salmon of the season.

The Salmon Season has officially begun in the Monterey Bay of California in 2010.Here is a video of the first salmon of the year caught off of Santa Cruz, California.

We left the Santa Cruz, California harbor at about 8:30 in the morning and were back at the dock at 11:30am with just one fish, but it was a nice one, and the first in two years!
What was the most amazing part of the day was the number of boats who went out looking for salmon. There were literally hundreds of boats out on the water according to California Fish and Game officials. The boats started leaving Santa Cruz Harbor before 5am, and were nearly lined up heading out of the channel until around 7:30 when it finally slowed down.

Here is a picture of the salmon that we caught in about 300 feet of water at about 10:00am Saturday April 3, 2010 off Santa Cruz.

King Salmon from Santa Cruz

As a bit of a follow up on how Half Moon Bay did with Salmon the first weekend, they did horrible compared to Santa Cruz.  Although I wasn’t up there, the reports are that the fishing was way less than one fish per rod, and more like 1 fish per 10 rods.  Also, the weather for the opening weekend was much nastier than down south in Santa Cruz.   So, if you are considering going fishing April 10th or 11th, my advice would be to fish Santa Cruz before leaving from Half Moon Bay.  The Soquel Hole was very nice to us, and to many other fisherman, and it sounds like the Soquel Hole might have been the best place in Northern California to be fishing for opening weekend of the Salmon Season this year.  If there are any other reports from Northern California salmon fishing trips, I will try to post them ASAP to get a better feel for what happened.  I am yet to hear anything from way up North at this point about the salmon fishing.

Here is a Report From BaySide Marine from Santa Cruz
Feb. 17
The swells have started to drop here and things are looking much better at the Harbor mouth. The few reports that we have had this month include Seabass, Squid, Halibut, and Perch. There was a nice Halibut caught near the Mile Reef in Capitola. The Seabass and Halibut are still hit and miss in Monterey but there were a few good days last week. The Perch fishing has been good near Manresa and the Cement Ship. The best bet is to use Motor Oil Grubs and Coon Striped Shrimp. There is a Perch tournament on March 20 and once again I will have all the live shrimp and worms you need. Stop by the shop to get the entry you must sign up by Feb. 21.
JAN. 19
The fishing for Seabass has been good for the anglers who were in Monterey before the storm. The Squid is still the bait of choice. The swells and winds have become huge so there has been no action today. The Humbolt Squid are still wide open in the edge of the Monterey Canyon in 800-1200 feet of water. Fishing for crab has been decent on the north coast in 240 feet of water The Surf perch have been biting well on Coon striped shrimp.

Jan. 2 2010 Happy New Year!
The Squid fishing, crabbing, and Sand dabs are keeping anglers busy during these nice calm winter days. There has been a few swells but the winds have been generally light after the rain. There are big Squid in the Soquel Canyon and near Davenport. There was a good bite on Squid near 36’46/121’51. The Squid are in 800-1200 feet of water and the big Glow Ahi Jigs are working best. The crab fishing is still doing well up the coast in 200 feet of water. I still have crab pots rigged from Mc Kay’s with 300 feet of leaded rope for only $205.

Dec. 19
The crab fishing is still doing well for the anglers fishing up the coast. There have been a few good reports of Humbolt Squid being caught in the Canyons in 800-1200 feet of water. The swells have been up and down with the storms that have passed through. We have the 2010 Sport fishing License in stock along with Gift Certificates for stocking stuffers. We also have a great deal on McKay Crab Pots and Ace Line Hauler. I hope to see you soon. Happy Holidays!
Nov. 18
The crab fishing is still going well for the anglers up the coast in 180-220 feet of water. There were some Humbolt Squid caught in 1200 feet of water 8 miles from Santa Cruz in the Soquel Canyon.
Nov. 14
The fishing was great today near Franklin Point and there were some good scores near 4 Mile Beach. The best bet on crab seems to be up the coast in 200 feet of water. There was no wind in the morning but there was a breeze in the afternoon. The winds are reported to be calmer Sunday so come finish off the Rock fishing season in calm weather. The sun has been out with a little morning fog.
Nov. 13
The fishing was good today for the anglers who went looking for crabs. I spoke to one boat who had 30 crabs for 6 pots in 200 feet of water up the coast. The Rock fishing was decent for the anglers who worked the local reefs. There was some wind today in the afternoon which did not help. The winds and swells are expected to decrease all day Saturday and Sunday making this a great time to go fishing before the Rock fishing closes.
Nov. 11
The wind was down all morning and the fishing for crab has been great. I heard of good reports on the Becky Ann with Capt. Jimmy. The winds are going to remain light for the weekend so come crabbing and finish off the Rock fishing season.
Nov. 10
The crab season is open and there have been some good scores near Natural bridges and straight out of the Santa Cruz Harbor. The Crab are ranging from keeper to 6 + inches. The Humbolt Squid are showing in the deep canyons near the Soquel Hole and Davenport. There were a few boats up near Franklin Point in calm seas today and the action was good. The winds are down for the next few days and Rock fishing closes Sunday so come fishing.
PV Report
I was down for a few days fishing with my girl Regina in P.V. for a few days. I went fishing with Danny ” LuLu” on his father in laws boat “Balta” the first day and caught a nice tuna in the upper 180′s. We caught a few more Dorado and came home with the sun on our backs. I had Ryan “Salty” who works on Maximo as my deck hand for 3 days. Ryan was able to sneak out and pull on some fish for the first time this year. I can not say enough about how much this kid has become a seasoned Salty angler / deck hand. We had a great day one and my freezer was filled. The second day we went to the bank with Danny Osuna and Regina made her first appearance on the boat. We caught Tuna from 60-90 pounds on bullet Tunas on the troll. Regina did a great job on her first Tuna and had a great time on the water and in P.V. The last day things went slow at the Bank but we did end up with some nice Dorado. All in all it was a great trip and great weather. Thanks again to all my good friends in P.V. and in La Cruz! Until Next Time!