Yakkin yes squids are easily available. My friend was out on his boat today and they were thick in front of the aquarium as well. Also found a good amount in front of the tides hotel in 80ft last week while fishing for halibut.

I launched from the coast guard around 830 this morning. I got into some squid and finbait right outside the harbor in 90ft and had two lines in the water a little after 9. The squid was 30-40ft down. I only grabbed about 20 squid for bait but I’m sure you could’ve filled buckets if that’s your thing. There were pacific Mack’s and smelt hanging around the same depth as well. Anyways I got on a decent halibut in 75ft about 30minutes into my bait soak. She measured 32” 14lb. I circled that spot a couple times and couldn’t find another one so I went closer to the structure and couldn’t keep the rockfish and lings away. I called it at about 1230. The halibut fishing has been tough here lately I’m sure anyone trying around here will tell you. This time last year was 3 fish limits most days and this May it’s only been 1 or 2 halibut bites per trip. Anyways that fish wasn’t picture worthy, but here’s two that I caught the end of April/early May that were. 42” 30lb and 41” 28lb.

Heres what it looks like suspended on the fish finder.

Here’s a school of sardines on bottom for reference.

Overall pretty slow day, not too much action but we did manage a few halibut.  We got on the water around 9 from the coast guard. We targeted the area off cannery row, from 100-130ft. Bait was VERY hard to come by. I didn’t get any bait until about 1030 when a school of sardines came on the fish finder around 80ft down and I was able to pull up 3. I dropped a couple times on squid marks and managed a few throughout the day on the sabiki, it wasn’t thick enough for me to want to designate a rod with a squid jig but they were there. Anyway, I walked the sardines for over an hour before I found a halibut. I got bit in about 120ft of water, and while I was bringing the fish up my other rod got hit but got away with my sardine. Ended up landing a nice 20lber but was out of bait at that point. I paddled around and got a few squid, which I sent down on the 3 way swivel. About 20 minutes go by and I hear Sonny say he’s on a big one, so paddle over to take a few pictures then my rod gets hit. I get a hook in the fish, feels good, got it about halfway off the bottom and my knot failed. I’m guessing it had a fray in it or the fishes teeth hit it just right but we’ll never know. After that I decided to check my other rod. I reel up and my squid caught another squid, trying to mate with it I guess, so I took it off and sent it back down. As soon as it hit the bottom it got hit by a hali. On the drop! Doesn’t get too much sweeter than that. I brought up a little 11lber and we pretty much called it a day.

December hali in the bay! Nice

Wowzers!! Congrats.  I didn’t know halibuts are still around this late in the season.

Yea in monterey I don’t think they don’t go anywhere. Some would say deeper in the winter, like these fish were caught in 90-100ft, but my buddy just got two in 50ft last week so who knows. There’s still bait around and the waters 58.

Got on some jumbos today! I launched from the coast guard around 830  and conditions were perfect. Bait was somewhat hard to come by even tho my fish finder was lighting up, but managed a few sardines and squid. The 44” came on a live squid mid morning. About 30 minutes later in the same spot I got another one in the 20lb range.  As I’m putting the 2nd on my stringer both fish start thrashing around and I lost control of the 20lber and back to the bottom she went. I had no bait left at that point and didn’t find another sardine for around a half hour. I threw him down in around 90ft of water or so and took it for a walk and about 20 minutes later it got hit by a freight train. I thought for sure it was a shark the way it ran but after I got it straight up and down I could tell it was a big hali. That fish suprisingly fought me all the way up, and I got her on my light rod, it was a blast. Put an extra rope I had through the mouth and out the gills instead of fumbling around with the stringer again. 2 jumbos secured and called it a day after that. The 1st fish measured 44” 36lbs and the 2nd 42” 32lbs.