The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

Headed for local potluck today. Fish were finicky and we traveled all over the place to try and find a bite. After a few hours of a fish here a fish there we decided to come closer and do halibut drifts. Found more rockcod and a nice blue lingcod but only a scratched bait from a halibut.

Took a while to get the fish to bite but once they started it was non-stop action for limits of blue, olive, canary, brown, and red pacific snapper. Mom said “our best fishing trip ever!”.

No salmon around so went for local potluck. Great day on the water and plenty of fish caught too! Five limits of olive, blue, black, brown and red pacific snapper.

Decided salmon fishing wasn’t going to produce much so we opted for Jurassic Park and boy are we glad we did! After jigging up sand dabs for bait, headed to the big fish. First drop we got lingcod. After a couple hours of lingcod fishing came in closer to shore to start on the snapper and the fishing was on fire! Best bite we’ve seen yet. Finished up with all four rods with doubles. Great day. 13 yo Michael had his first lingcod and Page caught a beautiful five pound red pacific snapper.

Got our sand dabs for live bait then went to work on getting our lingcod. Nice lingcod to 15 pounds then limits of quality olive, blues, canaries, brown, and red pacific snapper.

Supposed to be a salmon trip but since salmon are scarce our party opted to go for Jurassic Park fishing instead. Brilliant move! Loaded up on live bait then headed out our lingcod to then nearshore for limits plus of big olive, blue, black, canary, and red pacific snapper. The big red weighed in at nine pounds! Wild day and fun fun fun.

Local potluck today and the fish were waiting for us! On our first drop we started pulling in fish one after another non-stop. Limits for all of beautiful olive, blue, copper, brown and red pacific snapper. Happy Birthday Kim!

Salmon trip today. High winds kept us close to Santa Cruz. Trolled all day but no fish to take home.

Headed out for our first local potluck trip and it was a blast! After one slow drift we switched up our bait and it was game on with doubles of red, olive, blue, canary and brown pacific snapper. Limits plus for our party of four. Reds to four pounds. Real nice quality fish today.

First MEAT RUN of the year today and it was a wild one. Weather was pushing 20mph winds all day which made things a bit more challenging than usual to say the least. Caught our live bait then headed out for lingcod limits then on to rockcod. Rockfish were a bit shy but managed 1/2 limits for all then trolled for salmon. Had a four-way hookup! One nice king salmon, two coho that went back in the water and one no-show. Picked up another shorty salmon that went back too. Fun day!

Another Jurassic Park trip (supposed to be salmon but the salmon fishing is dead right now) today and after catching our live bait headed out to the reef. First drop we had a four way lingcod hookup! Boated three and one no show. Spent the next five hours working on the lingcod and snapper. The boccaccio bite was unlike anything we’ve seen before. We must have landed 20 + boccaccio but only kept the younger ones.

Jurassic Park trip – Our first charter of 2020 and it was perfect. What a blast and what a bite. Started with catching our lingcod bait then headed to the lingcod reef for limits of lingcod plus crew. Then went on for snapper and again the bite was incredible. Big Copper’s! Headed home with limits for all and big smiles (under our masks).

Had to squeeze in one more crab trip for our good friends. Great crab and great fun. Love watching these ongoing fathers and sons trips. See you all in April when fishing season opens back up. Have a great New Year!

Nice weather today with a sizable swell and lots of happy campers. After getting our crab came in closer to shore and got blues and olive rockfish. Slow bite caused by the new ground swell.

Beautiful day on the water and great fishing for limits of canary, olive, blue and red pacific snapper and a couple lingcod.

The weatherman was right!  It rained! Drizzle for the most part with an occasional pour but zero wind so the water was flat as a pancake. And, the fish were very happy to see us. We had limits of quality black (28 blacks at that), blue, canary, olive, and brown snapper coming over the railing this afternoon. It was a blast!

Perfect weather this morning for our crab and rockcod trip. Ran out to the crab grounds and once again nailed limits of dungeness crab to 3 pounds!  Then headed in closer for snapper and cranked out blues and olive pacific snapper. Great time! Rain’s coming.

Wowza. 150 pounds of crab plus 40 pounds of snapper today. This is awesome!

Pretty chilly this morning but a great sunrise and clear skies. Had to work for our rockfish today with the bigger swell in town. Ceviche and rockcod tacos tonight! Happy birthday Austin!

Yay, another storm has passed and the fishing is back on big time! Ran out to get our crab limits then closer to home for some excellent rockfishing. It was non-stop action of BIG blue, olive, brown and starry pacific snapper. Awesome time.

January 2 -6 we are running a special discounted crab only trip for only $99 per person or $500 for the whole boat (max six people). This is as good as it gets!

What a gorgeous day after the storm from yesterday passed. Headed out to the crab grounds but unfortunately someone had already visited our string of gear and we were shorted crab. Came home with 30+ crab then headed in for rockfish and it was a steady pick of snapper and lingcod. Six lingcod hooked and we kept four. Nice quality olive, blue, canary and copper pacific snapper too.

Our season will be closing in just two weeks!  We still have a few openings on 12/24, 12/26, and 12/30. We have private charters available for 12/24 and 12/30. Crabbing is going very strong. Having a crab feast is a great way to wrap up the year! Availability Calendar <www.montereybaycharters.com/calendar.htm>

Another awesome day in the bay. Headed out to the crab grounds for limits of crab then in closer for our lingcod and rockcod. Limits of rockcod and limits of crab made for a great day. Big crab feed tonight!

Back in the saddle for the remainder of the season, yay! Thank you Ray for covering for me.  Today was awesome. Great guys and great crabbing and fishing. Got our limits of crab then headed in closer for rockcod and lingcod. Fish weren’t big but we nailed limits plus of quality blue, olive, canary and red pacific snapper and a lingcod. Water really settled down too. Big crab feast tonight!

Happy Customers again with limits of jumbo crab to three pounds and plenty of pacific snapper for a taco party.

Today our Customers were wanting crab and petrale sole. The crab we were able to supply. Full limits of really large, fresh from the ocean floor, dungeness crab. The fish were another story. We set up over a proven petrale producing spot only to come up empty. We moved over to a rockcod spot and were only able to put a few in the boat. Great marks on the fish finder but they were not biting.

There was still a little slop on the water earlier in the morning but it leveled out nice throughout the day. Spent some time fishing at first until the weather laid down then ran out to the crab grounds for really big crab! Came home with blue, olive, canary and black pacific snapper and limits of big dungeness crab for six. We have flat clam water all week!

Crabbing is still going very strong and limits (ten each) are the norm. Remember to bring big coolers or boxes to take your crab home… Oooops!

Got out between storms and nailed the crab to three pounds then went in closer for rockfish and nailed limits for six of blue, olive, copper and a dozen red pacific snapper. GREAT DAY! We have storms until Tuesday. Crabbing is the best I’ve seen in 20 years.