Half Moon Bay

Shallow Water Rockfish Bite On Local Reefs

EL GRANADA - The recreational rockfishing season is in full swing! The season is the same as last year: May through September as well as November is coastal rockfishing from shore to no deeper than 120 feet. April, October and December are deep sea rockfishing, fishing depths outside 300 feet.

There's only one change in the regs from last year: there is no minimum size limit on cabezon or seatrout (kelp greenling). Local rockfishing trips on Mondays ARE departing at 10 am and returning by 3 pm.

We have a 2025 recreational salmon season! It will be short...but hopefully sweet! Open dates in California are June 7-8, July 5-6, July 31-August 3 and August 25-31...or until no more than 7,000 salmon are landed.

There is also a separate Fall fishery off the Bay Area coastline scheduled for Sept. 4-7, 29-30, October 1-5 and 27-31...or until no more than 7,500 salmon are landed during that time period. Limit will be 2 salmon per person with a 20 inch minimum size. Those dates are on our online booking system, so grab your spot(s) as soon as possible! They're going quick!

Folks are catching perch along the coastline, but there is still not much bait around the harbor at this time. Lots of folks are enjoying catching both rock and Dungeness crab off the fishing pier inside the harbor as well as on the jetty.

Recreational Dungeness crab season is open through the end of June in our area, but recreational crabbers are restricted to using hoop nets and crab snares only (no crab pots) through the close of the recreational crab season. If you're interested in monkeyface eel, there's loads of them available hidden in the jetty rocks for poke-pole anglers. It might not be a bad idea to try to find a few stripers along the beaches, too.

The Queen of Hearts is coastal rockfishing through September, deep sea fishing October and December, and is also scheduling salmon fishing during June through October. Spots for the limited salmon season will fill quick, so if you're looking to grab a spot, book it asap! Dungeness crab and rockfish combo trips begin the first Saturday in November.

• Half Moon Bay Sportfishing Center