White seabass and halibut stack off Santa Cruz as south swell rolls in

A long-period south swell from hurricane Marie is pounding Santa Cruz beaches this week, but Allen Bushnell’s Sept. 11, 2026 NorCal Fish Reports Santa Cruz brief says boats are still in the game. Surfcasting is messy — violent shore break and floating kelp — while charters and private boats are working around the swell.

Rockfish and lingcod are paying limit-style returns nearshore in 40–70 feet and in deep water around 300 feet. Bushnell says lingcod are getting bigger as fall runs toward their winter spawn. Halibut have been driven off the warm, placid inside sand into clearer, deeper water: daily limits are coming from Westside Santa Cruz down to the Pajaro and Moss Landing flats in 40–70 feet, with Sand City and Del Monte Beach still turning legal fish to about 30 pounds.

The same stretch is in a weeks-long white seabass bonanza on live mackerel, smelt, and squid. Resident croakers are always here, but tanker fish migrating up from the Channel Islands are in the mix now and may stick around another month. Offshore bluefin have been scarce on the scoreboard this week — Bayside Marine’s Todd Fraser told Bushnell that is more wind and lack of boats than a lack of tuna from Big Sur to the Farallones.

September ocean salmon is open. The best kings right now are to the north toward Half Moon Bay; Captain Tom Joseph’s Sara Bella four-pack has been posting full eight-fish limits on recent trips near Pacifica as fish stage toward the Sacramento system.

Photo: Allen Bushnell / NorCal Fish Reports (Cosgrove Mold with white seabass near Capitola).

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: NorCal Fish Reports — White seabass among targeted species (Allen Bushnell, Sept. 11, 2026).