We’ are off to a good, if not great start to the 2026 fishing season on Monterey Bay. Charters boats are already racking up good numbers  of deep-water rockfish. Counts of chili peppers, bocaccio, vermilion and canaries are flowing in, limit style. We are even seeing a few exotics more common in high summer time. Saturday’s report from J&M Fishing Charters in Monterey recalled, “Incredible fishing today! Made the run down to Big Sur and found a wide open bite. Quality rockfish, some absolute monster lings, scattered whitefish, and even a bonito in the mix. We came just shy of limits, but with this kind of quality, everyone went home with heavy bags. Saturday’s fish count included 180 rockfish, 9 lings and even one bonito for the Kahuna, while the New Horizon reported 137 rockfish, 15 lings, and four ocean white fish. Boats launching from Santa Cruz mostly concentrated on deepwater rockfish this week. The charter operators all headed deep for fairly quick limits of vermilion, canary, yellows and bocaccio rockfish.

Halibut continue to move into the shallow waters of 40 to 70 feet, summertime habitat. Bounce balling and live bait seemed to be the best bet this week for bigger flatties, though casting white swimsuits in shallower water has been productive and more fun for some. Closer inshore, skiffs, kayakers and paddleboard anglers are finding good concentrations of brown and yellowtail rockfish as well as the occasional vermilion and lingcod. Halibut reports are coming in more frequently, even from the very shallow areas inside the kelp line of Santa Cruz’ West Cliff on down to the taller cliffs near Capitola. Casting smaller white swimbaits from shore, especially below the tall cliffs is a good bet. Even though it is early on the calendar, the fish don’t care. Water temps are a tick higher than normal and the baitfish can be close to shore.

There are some very serious anglers at our local harbors and the lure of big game beckons. We’re likely to start seeing serious tuna reports from the boys soon. A few more bluefin tuna were reported caught in the deep waters off Carmel, towards the Davidson Seamount. A few more adventurous skippers headed up to the Davenport Fingers area. About 10-12 miles offshore there’s been signs of bluefin for the past few weeks, and at least one boat brought home a double within the past few days. Those big fish are there, we just have to go after them.