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California Salmon Fishing Opening Day 2012

April 7, 2012 – The Santa Cruz Harbor

Today is the day we have all been waiting for once again. Another long winter without any fresh salmon in the freezer is coming to an end. Saturday is the beginning of the salmon fishing season here in California, and for all the sport fishermen, that is the best news of the year. But that’s not all.

This year, the fishing is expected to be much better than last year. There have already, in the first few hours of the season been reports of many nice sized salmon being caught just off the coast in areas like Monterrey Bay, and especially in Santa Cruz. Since we will be fishing ourselves out of Santa Cruz Harbor in just a few more minutes, I can safely say that there are hundreds of boats heading straight out or near the Soquel Hole to try and locate the fish.

santa cruz fishing boats - california — 6:30 am salmon boats leaving Santa Cruz Inner Harbor

Bayside Marine, one of the local fish and tackle shops here in Santa Cruz was booming with customers up until about 9:00 pm last night. Although many of the people hanging around the tackle shop were pretty much loaded from sipping on beers all day, it was pretty impressive to see so much action all in anticipation for the opening day of the salmon fishery here on the coast.

If you start talking with the locals, you’ll get your usual mix of exactly how and what is the best way to catch the fish. Conventional thinking goes back to what I consider to be pretty boring – trolling around some lures. But, trolling for salmon, especially early in the season is the most common and popular fishing method. People love to attach different lures, or hoochies to the end of the line. And some people like using a flasher or dodger, which is thought to attract the fish as well.

But, for people like me, trolling around with your engine blasting out fumes all day is no fun. So, like you’ve seen before from past years, we’ll be mooching with some threaded sardines once again and hopefully getting the chance to put a nice big pink fleshed salmon in the box(or two or three).

Salmon fishing regulations are largely unchanged since last year. Each licensed angler is allowed to keep 2 fish, and the salmon need to be at least 24 inches in length. No silver/coho salmon are allowed to be taken. Only king salmon are allowed. You can figure out which type of salmon you have caught by looking at the gums of the fish. If the gums are white, that is a silver salmon and you must release it immediately. If the gums are black in color, that fish can be kept as long as its 24 inches long. More details about the fishing regulations can be located at the California Fish and Game Website.

Good Luck fishing this year, and hopefully we’ll see some 20 and 30 pound salmon on the first day!

Halibut Fishing in Santa Cruz California

The halibut fishing has been pretty hot. Take a look at the guys filleting their day’s catch below. This group of guys went out on their private boat on Sunday before Memorial Day and caught 4 halibut. This was their first day fishing for halibut of the season, so my guess is that fishing must be pretty good right now if you know where to go for the halibut. They mentioned that they caught the fish just right off the Santa Cruz point, which I think is just south of Santa Cruz harbor less than a few miles.

Some other halibut fishermen from Santa Cruz harbor said they too had some good luck over the past few weeks fishing for halibut at the Santa Cruz Point. Most of them seem to be using live bait when its possible to get that. Others are using dead anchovies or sardines as bait and then just bouncing that off the bottom until the fish strike. The guys from the halibut video said that all of the fish gave them a pretty good fight, so get prepared for a little workout.

One quick fishing tip, be sure to only gaff the halibut that you are positive are legal fish. If you are bringing up a fish and you are not sure it is of legal size, you are better off netting it, and then measuring it. That way, it will if the fish is undersized, you will have a better chance of releasing it alive compared to if you have gaffed a hole inside of it already.

Good luck with the halibut fishing!

Soquel Hole Salmon Fishing is Hot

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.

Salmon Fishing Monterey Bay Report

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.