Along the mainland coast, enough halibut are being caught to raise eyebrows and arouse appetites.

Pier anglers in both Ventura and Santa Barbara counties are scoring. Experienced anglers are catching and using live baits for flatties.

Kayakers and float tubers continue to score well inside harbors and just inside of points. Boat-based anglers from Santa Barbara are running to near Naples Reef and on up to Gaviota to score the flat ones, while Ventura Harbor and Channel Islands Harbor halibuteers are making runs south to below Mugu. Bounce-ballers are enjoying better success than drifters, though they work harder for their fish.

Halibut remain available near the east end of Santa Cruz Island and in the coves of the west end of that same island, though the best spot is Bechers Bay at the east end of Santa Rosa Island.

When the weather allows a longer run, another promising area is San Miguel Island, at the sand spit that runs off of Cardwell Point (outside the Marine Protected Area). Simonton Cove, at the west end of the island, is another highly productive halibut spot where barndoors have been pulled up over the past couple of weeks, when the sometimes-monstrous swells allow comfortable drifts or bounce-balling.

Lingcod season went out (ending Nov. 30) with good numbers. A couple of boats even managed limits. While any rockpile or shipwreck can produce an occasional keeper ling, the best action came from San Augustine, San Miguel Island, Santa Rosa Island, Santa Rosa Flats and the west end of Santa Cruz Island.

Late season rockfishing continues to be superb, albeit a bit nerve-wracking at times because of big swells and fierce winds. Santa Rosa Island is the premier destination for most anglers because of the quantity and quality of rockfish. Limits have been coming easy when the weather and sea conditions are fishable.

Off Carrington Point, in 180 to 260 foot depths, vermilion, chucklehead, blue rockfish and Johnny bass have come aboard fast enough to fill limits in just a few hours of effort. Some boaters are making longer runs to the west end of Santa Rosa to fish Talcott Shoals, where the same quality of fish there came from 120 to 200 feet of water.

San Miguel Island is outproducing all other locales, in terms of the size of the rockfish available in shallower water. Light tackle enthusiasts cast swimbaits with 2- to 4-ounce leadheads to target 6- to 8-pound vermillion rockfish in 100 to 180 feet of water -- off the west end of the island in the slot between the Marine Protected Areas. Jiggers report good success with fast-dropping models, such as Deep Stingers and Crippled Herring.

Anacapa Island and east end Santa Cruz Island sport anglers saw plenty of good action and reported success on shallow-water rockfish, especially in the gap between the islands.

For a break from rockfishing, some intrepid private boaters moved closer to the islands, where calico bass and Johnny bass (olive rockfish) bit for anglers willing to work swimbaits and Gulp! baits along the boiler rocks and cliff faces. At times, the bite was very good, with some sizable calicos coming to net and good numbers of Johnnies.

Bass are providing decent action along the mainland coast, at kelp beds and over shallow structure spots and kelp beds along southern Ventura County coastal spots, at kelp spots along the Rincon, west of Carpinteria, at Naples Reef and the kelp edges of Tajiguas. At the islands, they are surprisingly active along the edge of kelp stands near cliffs and rocky points of Anacapa and Santa Cruz. Tossing a couple of handfuls of live bait near kelp or boiler rocks is turning on the action by drawing the calicos out and getting them to chase baits.

While fishing for shallow-water rockfish and bass, anglers are scoring very well on both ocean whitefish and sheephead. The whitefish are running on the large side, with 6- to 8-pounders at the islands and 3- to 4-pounders at the mainland structure spots.

Squid strips are great baits for both fish, with Gulp! baits also producing prodigiously. When those baits are fished in the rocks, sheephead bites result. As the baits are lifted several feet off the bottom, the ocean whitefish respond. It’s hard to go wrong.

White seabass anglers and halibuteers have been jigging up some 5- to 7-inch mackerel, because it makes the next best bait to live squid. Meanwhile, the squid fleet is having a busy year, and much of the squid action has been around Santa Rosa Island.

White seabass will move around the islands at a fair clip during the winter, chasing squid spawns. It is important to follow the movements of the commercial squid fleet.

White seabass have been providing short but sweet flurries of action around the east end of Santa Rosa Island at Bechers Bay, Johnson’s Lee and near Rodes Reef. These same spots are expected to continue to produce white seabass as winter continues.