I learned about the Monterey Bay fishing scene from one of my favorite fly-fishing publications; The California Fly Fisher.  In the April 2009 issue there is an article written by Robert Keltey titled Monterey Bay Rockfish.  The article is terrific, but has a mistake and a slight ommission; Capitola wharf has a tricky ladder that you must climb down to get into your rental skiff, and Rockfish season doesn't open until May 1st.  Now that that's out of the way lets get to the good stuff.

Capitola has a wonderful cove within the Monterey Bay that keeps the wind to a minimum - or no wind at all - through almost the entire morning.  As Mr. Keltey stated in his article, if you rent a skiff the staff is more than willing to give you GPS locations and/or a map of the reefs and kelp patties.  A sinking line is important here at least until the White Sea Bass come in sometime in May.  The Bass hang near the edges of the kelp patties right near the surface, picking off small baitfish as they wander out of the safety of the kelp.

Be sure to bring at least one bucket and a length of rope as Robert suggests in his article.  Tie the rope to the bucket and throw it up current and tie the other end to the boat.  This serves to slow your drift... I found it really helped a lot when the bucket got caught up on kelp.  This works much, much better than the "anchor" provided with the boat.

Pay special attention to the calm water in these pictures.  All the shots were spaced out by about an hour, as you can see from the different light levels.

There are Striped Bass, Halibut, White Sea Bass, Calico Bass, Rockfish and several different breeds of Perch available at Capitola.  Truly a target-rich environment.

There are Otters all over the place resting in the kelp and barking at each other.  Whether you catch fish or not, this is really a nice way to spend the morning.  I was skunked - probably because I didn't bring sinking line and the White Sea Bass weren't in yet - and I still had a blast out in the boat.

According to the locals, the fly of choice is a sparsely dressed Lefty's Deciever and Clouser Deep Minnow dressed to look like an anchovy with a black back. 

Many thanks to Robert Keltey for his great article and California Fly Fisher for publishing it.