Monterey Bay Charters - Sport Fishing Charters on the Monterey Bay

June 30 - Hmmmm. Water got cold and the south swell came in. Was tough fishing but we got our limits. Tried for halibut for about an hour but nothing to report. Flat water and no wind today but a cool 65 degrees most of the day.

June 29 - WAM!!! Pretty much non-stop fishing madness today with some secret weapon lures! Limits for all and limits for crew.

June 28 - Oh no... no halibut this trip. Well, how about over 100 pounds of pristine and BIG rockcod including a 4 pound vermillion! Great group. Great time. Great weather.

June 27 - HALIBUT HALIBUT!!! Real hard fishing again but thanks to 8 year-old Dyllan we got our halibut and some really nice brown rock cod and some vermillions.

June 26 - Can you say HALIBUT ON! Oh yeah, the halis are in town. Tough fishing today (bumpy) but we toughed it out and did real good filling up the box with nice brown rockcod and a nice fat halibut!

June 21 - BINGO! Halibut, Lingcod and rock cod. What a great Father's Day! Everyone had a great time and we finally got our first trifecta of the season! Wow!

June 19 - We scored big time. Weather was supposed to be blowing but we gave it a go anyway and turned out the water was mostly flat calm all day! We got into the olives and browns big time! Lots of dolphin, whale, sealion and otters all around the boat today. Great time!

June 15 - Fun fun and more fun. Great day on the water. Full limits plus a nice lingcod and a whale show around the boat. Lots of lingcod take downs. Great time and a great group.

June 14 - Much better today. Got some really nice fish today to 4.5 pounds. Couple halibut take downs and a short lingcod too. Great day on the bay. Happy birthday Shirley!

June 13 - Not so good today. We had both the south swell and the south winds which as they say "from the south, fish shut their mouth" syndrome today. It was tough but we did manage to get half limits.

June 11 - Smack down! Even with high winds and a south swell we came through with limits for all and crew limit to boot! Thanks to 11 year old Grant for hauling in most of the fish today. Way to go Grant!

June 7 - Water temps getting warmer which is great news but the bite is still low due to the southerly winds and swell. No live bait today. We spent an hour or so trying for halibut then went to the rockcod grounds with not much success. Then came back to the hali grounds and started whacking the brown rockcod and missed a couple halibuts. Good group and they toughed out the high winds to 22 mph!

June 6 - Water was better and the winds were low for most of the day. Fish were still a little spooked so we tried halibut for an hour or so then ran out to our rockcod grounds. Started a slow bite then things went wide open. Did real good for a couple hours then the bite went cold again. Came back in for another shot at halibut and got lots of strikes but they were all no shows. Came in with half limits including a BIG vermillion and lots of browns. We used both live and dead bait today. Great day.

June 5 - Expecting bad seas and thunderstorms we headed out with a full boat of Air Force men to see what we could scare up before it got too nasty. It was slow going due to the south swell and seas until later in the morning when the wind switched west. We got almost 1/2 limits for all and one "almost right" halibut that we carefully put back to grow another inch. Also caught and released a number of lingcod to grow up for another day. Great bunch of boys and sunny all day. Thanks men.

June 4 - Weather forecast called for scattered showers and thunderstorms so we weren't expecting too much action. The winds were whacky coming from the east, then the south and eventually from the west but reached 20 mph. So to make a long story short, we could have done better than the 1/2 limits for all. We had a lot of fun and good food but we didn't get any lingcod or halibut. Next time.

May 30 - Nice day on the water today. Not much wind, no swell, warm temps and a lot of nice olive rock cod. Pace slowed down after a while then we came in for a shot at halibut and scored another 20 rock cod (browns) and three keeper lingcod! Lot's of fun and rockcod limits!

May 26 - Started out with really calm water and wind. Nice for people but not for fishing. Fish like it a little mixed up. Took a few hours then we got into the brown rock cod big time. Happy Birthday Angie was hot today with a lingcod, a double olive hookup and the first two keepers in the box. Lots of fish and lots of fun once the fish started biting.

May 25 - Hey hey, great day on the bay. Dropped in on one of our local spots and started hauling in the perfect size olives and big canaries (canaries returned to the water). Hooked into a couple short lingcod. One we got to measure and the other was a no show. Great mix of browns and olives and a really great fishing dad and sons. Josh and Kirin did a top job running the gear.

May 24 - WOW! Limits by 9:00AM! Nice olives and browns and a real nice keeper lingcod again! Great trip. Bit windy but very fishable. Spent a couple hours drifting for halibut and hooked and lost two but did get another 8 brown rockcod in the process. Got crew limit too!

May 23 - OK, that's better. We actually started getting into the fish in a big way. A few limits and a lingcod to boot. Water was warmer (54.8) than yesterday and the fish were more active.

May 22 - Fishing was a little difficult with the 53 degree cold water still around. Water was flat calm all day. The blues we caught were the biggest we've ever seen. And, today was the first day in 3 weeks we got to use live bait. Great crew of men from the US AirForce.

May 19 - Not good again! Had a lot of fun but only half limits. Wind came up early and the water is still cold but it did warm up to 58. Next few days should warm up the water to 59/60 and the fish will be back on the bite.

May 18 - Not good! Half limits due to the water getting colder over the past few days.

May 10 - Bingo! Great day on the Bay today. Limits of NICE rockcod including a couple vermillions!

May 9 - Yes! Water is now 59 degrees and the fish are on the bite. Weather was still a bit goofy in the morning then it got real nice with a little wind. We managed 3/4 limits for all plus a nice UGLY lingcod.

May 8 - Now we're talking. Water temp 58 degrees with a bit of a swell bump. Fish were starting to bite for the season. We had some really nice fish today including some 5 pound grass cod. Great day and great people.

May 3 - Happy Birthday Bill. Water was pretty ugly again and it rained all morning. Not much fish to be had but the water was warming up. Next week should be good!

May 2 - Water was less than perfect and unfortunately we got our trip cut short.

May 1 - We had around 20 fish for three people including this mean ugly lingcod. Great time!

Well it's 2009 already and we're getting ready for another banner year of fishing. 2008 was a very good year and we had a lot of fun. 2009 should be even better. Here's what I think we're headed into for the 2009 fishing season:

Lingcod and rockcod - The lingcod we saw a couple years ago that were too short got bigger and we caught some nice mid size lingcod in 2008. In 2009 the lingcod should be much bigger and average 9-12 pounds each! Considering each angler is allowed two lingcod each we should be loading up the coolers faster than ever. In addition to a limit of two lingcod per angler, each angler is allowed up to ten rockfish.

Halibut - Last year we had some really nice halibut up to 34 pounds. This year the halibut fishing WILL be even better. We saw hundreds of short halibut (we call chickens) that we had to release. This year they're keepers. Reason being just a couple years ago a law went into effect that eliminated commercial fishermen from dragging nets on the sea floor in Monterey Bay. The result we see is the halibut fishery has exploded. This is going to be a very good halibut season.

Albacore Tuna - Last couple of years have been bleak for tuna fishing due to cold water. The tuna ground warmer water was 200 miles offshore. This year we hope to see warmer water within 20 miles of Santa Cruz. If we get our warm water we're going tuna fishing! We troll six lines and we stop once the bite is on and switch over to bait. If you're never experienced a tuna trip you're in for a real treat.

If you want to know the current scoop on fishing call Captain Tom tollfree at 1-888-662-9800 and even if he's out fishing he will talk with you and let you know how the fishin's going and what's biting. Another resource for seeing how fishing's been is to visit our local baitshop's website, BaySide Marine. Bayside usually has daily FISHING REPORTs that include all sport & charter boat reports.