Monterey Bay anglers have enjoyed fairly decent weather this week, and the trend looks to continue over the weekend and into next week. Winds are forecast generally at 10 knots or less for our nearshore areas, and the medium size west swell is expected to persist through the week. Big changes could be coming soon though. As we move through the fall season towards winter, weather and waves will increasingly impact our coast from the northwest. Already, just a bit of northern inflection on the west swells we’ve seen for a couple weeks have contributed to cooling ocean waters, and to our benefit, have started to create more distinctive structure on the beaches as sand shifts and dips. Surfcasting for perch has been noticeably better over the past two weeks on most beaches around the bay. A good number of striped bass are feeding close to shore as well. Most of the bass are juveniles but there are always some big fish in the mix

Speaking of big fish, we are still seeing good numbers of white sea bass in the bay. Near Monterey, Sand City and the “Hotel” area are classic seabass spots, while the Santa Cruz area has the big croakers spread out from Pajaro up to the Davenport area. It is that time of year when the north coast spots get very fishy. If the winds allow, it’s worth the gas money to head north. Big halibut are commonly caught this time of year in 70 to 80 feet of water just off the bull kelp beds. White sea bass are often in those same areas, and for the same reason- abundant bait. Matt Collins and his brother Mark took a rough trip north on Sunday and were rewarded with a 20-pound flatty for their efforts. Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine reports rockfishing as “great” for blacks and blues near Ano Nuevo on Wednesday.

The winds offshore have been quite spicy for a couple weeks, making it tough or impossible for tuna anglers to chase the bluefin. Those fish are still out there, and most hope the coming week’s wind will calm down offshore so they can get their tuna on. Salmon season is closed in our area, but remains open until October 31 (or until the assigned quota is reached) from Pigeon Point to Point Arena. Boats from Half Moon Bay and San Francisco Bay are reporting daily limits of big fat fall salmon, and the 20,000 fish quota is less than halfway counted at this point. Might be worth it to trailer the boat north and launch locally in that area for some king salmon action.