Caption: Many of the White Sea bass schooling in Monterey are big ones, like this 40-pounder caught last week.

Heavy winds offshore continue to annoy the tuna anglers. We're hoping the fall weather pattern becomes entrenched soon, to allow more than a couple days at a time on the tuna grounds. Meanwhile, fishing closer to the coast remains very steady for rockfish and halibut, with the added bonus of a good White Sea Bass run right now.

We have a few resident groups of White Sea Bass in Monterey, that live here year-round. They are shy fish and spook easily, and are not easy to locate or catch for most anglers. Occasionally during the fall season, transient schools of large Southern California Sea Bass swim through our area while on far-reaching feeding forays. We have not seen a significant influx for a number of years, but this year seems to be the exception. Anglers are catching a few White Sea Bass in Santa Cruz and Capitola, but the main bite has been on the southern end of Monterey Bay. For the past week or so, boaters have enjoyed a productive bite in the area off DelMonte Beach in Monterey. There is a small squid spawn occurring in that area which is likely holding the school in place. Anglers are jigging up live squid and catching the big croakers in 100-120 feet of water.

Dead squid works as well, according to Jim Rubin, skipper of the Becky Ann. Rubin hauled a few friends across the Bay on Wednesday, and reported two fish in the 40-50-pound class caught within a hour of dropping their bait in the water. Rubin was using a halibut-type rig below a sliding four-ounce sinker to get the bait down 40 feet, where the bites occurred. Gerry Brookes from Reel Sportfishing fished the same area earlier in the week and came home with a 32-pounder, caught with live sardines. The coming weekend will probably be crowded in that area as word of the bite spreads.

Bayside Marine's Todd Fraser fielded a few reports of successful albacore hunting earlier in the week. Boats reported catching 6-30 speedy longfins, depending on the day and conditions. The offshore winds kept boats closer to home most days this week. The coming weekend looks daunting as well, with winds forecast up to 35 knots on the offshore tuna grounds. With any luck, the weather will remain calm and allow more boats to get out to the productive albacore areas later in the week.

In the meantime, rockfishing is still productive near Santa Cruz, with the bigger fish being caught off the North Coast spots, and a few halibut are still being reported caught in our area. Again, the larger fish are located along the North Coast from Wilder's Ranch to the Scott's Creek area. Bait is still plentiful at the Capitola Wharf, which saw a few small halibut this week as well as a couple nice leopard sharks caught by anglers using live sardines.

Bushnell can also be heard with a live fishing report Friday mornings at 6:45am on KSCO radio 1080 AM. Send your photos, comments or questions to scruzfishing@yahoo.com