Monterey/Santa Cruz
 Jacksmelt have moved into the Capitola area in big numbers, while anglers are hooking perch and striped bass off the Monterey Bay State Beaches.

“Jacksmelt fishing is wide-open off the Capitola Wharf,” reported Ed Burrell at Capitola Boat & Bait. “The fish are 12 to 14 inches long and are hitting anchovy pieces under a bobber. Black, walleye and rainbow perch are showing also.”

Stripers averaging 4 to 6 pounds and going up to 15 pounds are rewarding surf fishing enthusiasts off Rio Del Mar and Manresa Beach. The top lures are Kastmasters and Krocodiles.

Jim Franco at J&D Auto Repair Gone Fishing in Monterey confirmed the improving striper bite. “Surf fishermen are throwing a variety of striper jigs off Marina Beach and the mouth of the Salinas River,” he explained. “Anglers are still catching barred perch while fishing Fish Traps and bait off the beach south of the Soldiers Club.”

Charter boats are concentrating on sanddab and mackerel fishing. “The Sur Randy went out for sanddabs on Saturday, March 29, but they had to come back in early because of the rough weather,” said Chrissy Chonacki at Randy’s Fishing Trips. 

Todd Arcoleo of Chris’ Fishing Inc. confirmed the rough weather over the weekend, noting that sanddab and mackerel fishing has been good when the weather is calm.

“Ironically, there are a lot of king salmon in Monterey Bay now,” said Arcoleo. “Anglers are hooking them while fishing for sanddabs.” 

The 20 fishermen on board the Velocity on Sunday, March 30  caught 160 sanddabs, 90 Spanish mackerel and 75 Pacific mackerel. “Our next trip is Sunday, April 6,” said Captain Ken Stagnaro of Stagnaro’s Fishing Trips in Santa Cruz.

  Half Moon Bay
Beyond crabbing, there is little action available except for perch fishing along the San Mateo County Coast and that won’t likely change until the rockfish season opens.

“We’ve run a couple of productive crabbing trips recently,” related Captain Tom Mattusch of Hulicat Sportfishing. “We want to do some research fishing in deep water, but those trips won’t happen until the Federal Government issues permits,” added Mattusch. 

The folks at the Queen of Hearts are ready to run whale watching trips, but so far there has not been much interest from the public and the weather is making things all that much more difficult. 

The word is the same at the Huck Finn Sportfishing Center with no trips having run and no trips scheduled in the near future.

  San Rafael
Striped bass fishing on San Pablo Bay was "terrific" for over a week until the weekend of March 29-30 when fishing, for no real apparent reason, slowed down, said Keith Fraser at Loch Lomond Live Bait and Tackle. Meanwhile, sturgeon action is going strong during periods of moving tides.

“Both trolling and fishing bait on the anchor was productive,” disclosed Fraser. “We also have live shiners available for drift fishing now.”

Larry Bohannon of San Jose and a friend had a great day of fishing mud shrimp in San Pablo Bay near the Pumphouse on Sunday, March 30. “They landed two keeper sturgeon in the 46 to 50 inch range, two stripers, two starry flounder and a shaker halibut,” stated Fraser.

Ross Peterson of Stockton also had a good trip when he bagged a 54 inch sturgeon during a solo anchovy fishing adventure near the Pumphouse.  

  Emeryville/Berkeley
This is transition time at both the Berkeley and Emeryville Marinas. Saltwater anglers and charter boat operators are wrapping up sturgeon fishing for the season and are now setting their sights on trolling for halibut and bait fishing for leopard sharks.

“This is our last weekend of sturgeon fishing,” reported Rob Taylor at the Emeryville Sportfishing Center on March 30. “Yesterday’s trip aboard the New Huck Finn didn’t produce any sturgeon for the 12 anglers aboard, but they did end up wit 1 keeper halibut and 4 keeper stripers.”

“Next Saturday we’ll begin trolling for halibut. Quite a few halibut have been caught recently, so the outlook is pretty good,” added Taylor. 

“I’m moving the California Dawn down to Berkeley next week,” reported Captain James Smith of California Dawn Sportfishing on March 30. “I’m going to get an early start on halibut fishing. We’ll start out trolling and if all goes according to plan, live anchovies will be available by May 1. We’ll also be doing some leopard shark fishing. The halibut fishing for private boaters has been good so far, so I think we are going to find some productive action.”

If you enjoy fishing along the East Bay shoreline, consider picking up some ghost shrimp, pile worms or clams and getting out to your favorite spot. Stripers have moved into the bay and are being caught by bait anglers. At this point big numbers of fish are not showing, but it is certainly possible to bust a limit of feisty schoolies. 

  Martinez
The sturgeon fishing is picking up with the arrival of warmer water temperatures, but charter boat skippers are now getting ready to move to San Francisco and San Pablo bays to fish for halibut and stripers.

“We didn't catch any sturgeon on Saturday, March 29, but two anglers landed two sturgeon on the previous day," said Jim Smith, Captain of the Happy Hooker. "Larry Nelson of Oakland landed a 66 inch sturgeon, while Marquardt of Antioch bagged a 52 inch sturgeon. We caught the fish on roe and ghost/grass shrimp combos in Suisun Bay."

On Smith's best recent venture, the 10 anglers aboard the boat landed 3 sturgeon ranging from 46 to 66 pounds. "We will begin halibut and striper fishing on San Francisco Bay out of the Berkeley Marina by mid-April," added Smith.

James Smith, captain of the California Dawn, is also moving down to Berkeley for the live bait season now. "We're planning our first halibut trip of the season on Monday, April 7," said Smith.

A trip to the Mothball Fleet on March 29 yielded a 10 lb. bass and a 52 inch sturgeon for 18 anglers. On Tuesday, 10-year-old Gary Thompson of Concord landed a 65 inch sturgeon while fishing with Smith in Suisun Bay.  

  Bodega Bay  
Things couldn’t get much bleaker for charter operators and saltwater anglers along the Sonoma Coast. There are no fishing opportunities available currently, the smart money says there won’t be a salmon season and rockfish season won’t open until June at the earliest. Some charter boats are offering whale watching trips, but even those trips have been running infrequently due to rough ocean conditions. 

“There are no fishing opportunities right now,” related Captain Les Fernandes of Fish On Bait and Tackle. “We’ve run a few whale watching trips. On our second to last trip we saw quite a few. On our last trip we could only find one whale. I tried trolling for halibut off Doran Beach, but we didn’t get any bites.”

The story from Captain Rick Powers is much the same. Powers is running the occasional whale watching trip and doing little else. “The weather has been so rough, we been having a tough time getting out after the whales,” shared Powers.

  Fort Bragg
 Over the past two weeks salmon have remained virtually nonexistent for Noyo Harbor anglers and by the time this edition of the Fish Sniffer hits newsstands the season will likely be closed. 

On the bright side crabbing remains red hot off the North Coast and some skippers are planning to offer abalone trips for divers in order to stay on the water until the rockfish season kicks off, which will likely occur on June 1.

“We trolled for salmon this morning,” reported Captain Randy Thornton of Telstar Charters. “We didn’t catch any fish, but we did have one strike. After giving up on the salmon we pulled our crab gear and ended up with limits of crabs. We got out after crabs twice last week and got limits on both occasions. I’m dropping my crab traps about 6.5 mile to the north in 50 feet of water.”