Caption: Squid strips on a surf leader resulted in this pair of nice cabezone caught from the Captiola Wharf last week.

No one is leaving the safe haven of the Santa Cruz Harbor while these giant winter storms pummel the coastline. Shoaling at the harbormouth and huge waves has made it all but impossible. Intense rainfall in the surrounding mountains has raised the San Lorenzo River and other local streams, though, and steelhead anglers are anxiously awaiting the waters to drop and clear. There should be a big push of sea run trout making their way up river now.

Before the storms began on Sunday, Captain Gerry Brookes from Reel Sportfishing made it out with a small charter. Brookes pulled his crab pots in the morning and "plugged the boat." We assume this means limits of Dungeness for all aboard. Later they fished for "big" sand dabs and found some mackerel in the mix as well.

Most notable last week was the unexpected white sea bass bite in Monterey. Late September featured a rare run of sea bass near Del Monte Beach in Monterey. These were transient fish from southern California, according to Department of Fish and Game tags recovered from fish caught at that time. The sea bass had followed a large school of market squid into the bay and the bite was on for a week. When the swell and winds picked up, the squid and the sea bass disappeared. Last week the squid came back, and the white sea bass were right behind them. This is very unusual for this time of year.

Rumors started circulating toward the end of the week as word got out. By Saturday there were 30 powerboats and a gaggle of kayak anglers working the area off the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the sea bass. "I saw a lot of fish boated," said Fred Horio, who was targeting the bass from his kayak. "I couldn't get a bite, but saw others catching 4-5 fish per boat. These were high-grade fish, from 36 inches to nearly 60 inches long." Ed Burrell from Capitola Boat and Bait made it out with companion "Sherriff" Larry Roland. Burrell was one of the lucky ones on Saturday. He came home with a 56-pound white sea bass, caught with dead squid. By Sunday the weather had turned only a few fish were caught.

Burrell reported another somewhat unusual catch from the Capitola Wharf last week. A pier fisherman working the area between the second gate and the beach caught two legal cabezone from the wharf. Though rockfishing season is closed to boats right now, we can legally retain rockfish and cabezone if fishing from shore or pier all year round. Lingcod are not included in this DFG rule, they remain illegal at this time. The cabezone were caught with squid strips on a surf leader with an eight-ounce torpedo weight, according to Burrell. Once the storms subside, The Capitola and Santa Cruz wharves might be a good place to try your luck and catch some dinner.

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