Rockfish Season Ends With Superb Fishing Off Big Sur Coast    By: Dan Bacher January 27, 2007 More Articles by Dan

The arrival of good, fishable weather on the weekend of December 30-31 drew anglers to Monterey to get in their last chance for six months to nail limits of rockfish. The final two days of the season capped off one of the best rockfish seasons in years along the Central California Coast.

When I signed up for the rockfish trip aboard the Star of Monterey out of Chris' Fishing, 23 anglers were scheduled to go out. However, other anglers, encouraged by the fishable weather, also decided to make their final trip of he season, so there were a total of 42 anglers on the boat by the time that Captain Nick Lemon drove the boat out of the harbor.

Monterey Bay was a flat horizon stretching for miles. However, the wind began blowing up to 20 knots as we went around Point Lobos towards the Big Sur Coast. Fortunately, the swells were light.

This steep, scenic coastline, celebrated in the novels of John Steinbeck and the poetry of Robinson Jeffers, is one of the most beautiful and remote areas of the West Coast. It is also one of the most productive areas to pursue rockfish and lingcod.

After a two-hour ride, we arrived at a spot at Point Sur. "There's a lot of fish about 20 to 30 feet off the bottom," said Lemon. "Don't leave your baits on the bottom; work them up and down."

I started off by a using a Sumo Bar with a Fish Trap teaser, but the lure's weight wasn't enough to get down to the bottom because of the strong current that resulted from the storm a few days earlier. So I put on a Super Fly rig above a 1 pound weight and was able to keep my presentation relatively straight over the bottom.

I began hooking rockfish on every drop as soon as I put the additional weight on. I caught a 6 lb. bocaccio, 4 lb. vermilion and 2-1/2 to 4 pound olive, yellowtail, widow and blue rockfish. The quality and variety of the fish was excellent, with the average rockfish bigger than those caught on just about any trip I went on during the season.

After I filled my bag with my 10 rockfish. I began taking photos of other anglers catching fish. Rich Alaniz of Salinas and his daughter, Samantha, nailed two limits of beautiful rockfish, including their limits of big bocaccio.

Nick Barbaro of Modesto and his son, Jake, also caught an outstanding limit of rockfish. Other anglers who caught exceptional bags of rockfish include Harvey Johnson of Milpitas and Emma Hays. The 42 anglers ended up with full limits of rockfish by 11:30 am.

We fished in 120 to 175 feet of water, with the majority of fish holding 20 to 40 feet above the bottom. The rockfish landed included yellowtail, olives, widows, blues, vermilions, starries and bocaccio. One angler also landed two legal-sized lingcod that he had to release since the season closed on November 30.

Deckhands Larry Schumacher and Alan did a superb job of untangling lines - a tough task considering the fast current and the large passenger load - and cleaning fish.

The rockfish were all fat and very healthy looking, the result of them stuffing themselves with abundant anchovies and other forage.

 "There are a lot of anchovies around  - I've seen more anchovies along the Monterey County coast over the past two years than I've seen all my life," disclosed Captain Lemon. "I think the larger abundance of anchovies may have been a factor in the slow salmon season we saw in 2006."

Lingcod fishing was relatively slow off Monterey, a contrast with the good lingcod fishing anglers experienced at Ano Nuevo Island, the Farallon Islands and the Marin Coast in 2006. "We had some days when 12 to 20 lingcod were brought aboard the boat, but they were pretty rare," Lemon noted.

On the same day I fished with Lemon, Captain "Tinker" Harry Neece made a crab rockfish combo aboard the Checkmate. The 16 anglers aboard the Checkmate bagged limits of off Cypress Point while fishing the crabs, according to Chris Arcoleo.

The crab fishing was tough, due to the high winds that blew the pots around the bay so they were hard to find, but they still ended up with 25 crabs.

The last rockfish trip of the season out of Randy's Fishing Trips was on Friday, December 29. The 27 people on the Sur Randy returned with limits of rockfish and 54 crabs.

Until the salmon season begins on April, the Monterey fleet will be concentrating on sanddab/crab combos. The charter boat skippers may also book Humboldt squid trips if the big cephalopods show in good numbers. For more information, call Chris' Fishing Trips, (831) 375-5951, and Randy's Fishing Trips, (831) 372-7440. 

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