Monterey, CA Fishing Report & Live Conditions

Monterey, CA fishing report

Monterey Bay offers a rotating cast of species that keeps serious anglers busy year-round. Winter and early spring focus on rockfish and lingcod over the offshore pinnacles and rocky structure along the bay's edges, with lingcod becoming particularly aggressive as they move shallow to spawn. As water temperatures warm through late spring, Chinook salmon push into the bay following anchovies and squid, making the area around the canyon edges and submarine canyons especially productive. By midsummer, Pacific halibut become a real target, laying flat over sandy bottom areas inside the bay where baitfish concentrate.

For rockfish and lingcod, work vertical jigs or swimbaits tight to rocky relief in 100 to 300 feet, dropping during slack tide when fish suspend predictably rather than hugging bottom. For halibut, drift live anchovies or soft plastic swimbaits slowly across sandy flats on an incoming tide, which pushes bait onto shallower shelves and activates fish. Watch the upwelling cycles carefully — when strong northwest winds have been blowing for several days, cold, green upwelled water pushes in and surface fishing slows dramatically. A temperature break where that cold water meets warmer blue water is exactly where salmon stack up, so running parallel to those color lines while trolling anchovies or hoochies is often your best move.