Capitola and Santa Cruz Boat Rentals

It was trickier to find bait today - once again pinhead anchovies in shallow, and sardines and mackerel out a bit further in 40-50 feet of water.

The swell remains very very down - it’s not completely gone, but the halibut that we’ve seen today is evidence that it’s not bothering the groundfish any.

Otherwise - beatiful day - overcast in the morning, sunny around noon through til now - wind picked up out of the west about 1 pm. Forecast calls for the same tomorrow - that’d certainly be nice.

One other little detail - when Kurtis got back he was all breathless cuz he had a mako shark on - somewhere in the 200-250 pound range (it was a good 8 feet long). They saw it finning, and they chased it around until Kurtis hooked it. It was on for 30 seconds before it broke the line (it was only 25 pound test). He’s going to target them tomorrow (which will be his 63rd consecutive fishing day) - hopfully we’ll see a monster mako in here tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway - they caught the thresher on a swim bait off O’Neil’s - same for the halibut. They also lost a nice lingcod and a halibut in the same area - the halibut got off at the boat (doubtless that was the chip’s fault).

Perch fishing on the wharf is still very good - we saw lots of walleyes and shiners and some jacksmelt coming up on various bait jigs and surf leaders with small hooks and little pieces of shrimp. And all this despite the fact that the swell is way down today - usually the perch and such get a little less active when the break goes away but they’re still hungry - good news for wharf fishing.

Bait wise, Ed saw a bunch of pinhead anchovies popping all around the wharf early in the morning. Some of these were caught on bait jigs this morning (they went into hiding later in the day). We’re still waiting for the regular influx of anchovies - it really hasn’t happened yet. When they do, we should see more stripers and halibut around - chovies are tastier (or something). Paradoxically, some boats were having trouble jigging up bait today, but there was a good bait ball off New Brighton - it was a matter of being in the right spot. If the swell continues its downward trend, there should be no problem getting bait.

Anyhow, here’s Myron the Mariner with his catch for the day - a 26 inch halibut and a grass cod. He caught them this morning off Capitola reef using frozen chovies on a halibut rig. We only had four boats out today - Myron the Mariner was not the highliner today as you’re about to see. But he was very happy with his catch - he’s definitely getting the hang of this fishing thing. Congratulations Myron.