Capitola and Santa Cruz Boat Rentals Fishing Report, Santa Cruz, CA, 7-26-10

[Saltwater Fishing]

Capitola: Ho Hum pretty much says it

The Wharf To Wharf race today put a damper on our everything. In particular the fact that parking was nigh on impossible within 1/4 mile had a lot of folks cancelling and understandably so. So – we did not have a lot of boats out today – just 8 boats fishing.
Happily however none of those boats came home skunked. Four boats had a mix of kingfish and rock cod, two had two limits each of small rock cod, and the other two had just a few small rock cod. The boat with the most fish was fishing in the kelp bed off Capitola reef using squid and anchovies on surf leaders. The other boats tried out by the red buoy and up toward O’Neils by the kelp bed.

Jim here however had the largest fish of the day – this 13 pound salmon. He caught it on the east side of the hole in 270 feet 80 feet down using a purple haze thing behind a red thing. We heard a lot of radio fish today – it sounded much more productive on the east side of the hole.

Bait was cat and mouse game today. Early this morning it was easy to get but it got trickier as the morning wore on – balls got thinner and harder to find. This afternoon bait started gathering in the marina again and was actually pretty easy to catch – it was just occupying a layer about ten feet down through the south east side of the marina.

Dave kept a steady flow of sardines moving toward the live bait tank today to no avail; we are unaware of any remarkable catches. There were the usual perch and king fish, and that’s about it. There is of course still daylight and the magic hour around dusk, so of course anything could happen.

Capitola: Yes this is a photo of a fish in a tank

Roy Boy once again left his suspenders home and was able to set the hook on this small but feisty striper! This is the only catch of any significance that we’ve seen today on the wharf other than someone walking from the end of the wharf with a sardine shimmering from his bait jig. Regarding Roy Boy’s fish however, we *would* have taken a photo of him with his catch, but he caught his fish and “top wharf angler for the day”, and split on us. Darn.
Other good news (though we don’t know from where yet): Bocci seems to have come across some of the largest anchovies we’ve seen yet this year.

The bait scene around here has seemed a bit thinner today. There were a lot of boats jigging up bait early in the morning, but there was a lot of jostling around to stay on the bait balls. We haven’t seen any bird signs or darker water in the marina yet, but it will likely happen at some point in the nearish future.

One thing we need to note as we think some people who’ve made reservations for tomorrow may not be aware of it: The beginning of Capitola Wharf is going to *closed* from 5:00am to noon tomorrow for the Wharf to Wharf race. You will not be able to drive out on the wharf during this time, nor will you be able to park at the top of the cliff where the meters are. Your best bet is to get here early and try to find a spot up in the residential area behind the usual cliff parking area.

July 24, 2010 at 6:34 pm

Capitola: Hey brother of Steve in Colorado …

…the stakes have been raised!
Steve here caught this 20 pounder on a live sardine fishing the second kelp bed out from the wharf. Steve is our highliner today, though this may be due to the fact that we missed something; all of our rentals came in very close to literally at once, and we were hard pressed to find time to breath. So we have this picture and the next one (wich you may note is kind of a “cheap” one). With that in mind, we’re sticking with Steve.

Steve has asked that we ask his brother in Colorado, with whom he has had a life long fishing competition, to “send him some more bait”. We are certain that in its proper context this is hliarious, though we will leave it to your imaginations to fill in the blanks. Anyway – message passed, and congratulations again Steve!

Elsewhere on the ocean, it was another tough day for salmon fishing. Fish seem to have closed their mouths, possibly due to the fact that they’ve been gorging themselves on the vast amount of bait that’s in the bay right now. Larry surprised us mightily today with a shiny new skunk! Woot – something different! On the bright side however, the seas were alive with whales and other large creatures: blue whales, pilot whales, dolphins, and basking sharks were among the top level critters that were about today.

Capitola and Santa Cruz Boat Rentals
831-462-2208 Capitola
Santa Cruz 831-423-1739
http://capitolaboatandbait.com/home