Finally, another legitimate winter storm has moved onto California's Central Coast. The latest forecast predicts winds gusting to 30 knots; ocean swells up to nine feet and rainfall of at least two more inches in the next few days. These conditions are not appropriate for ocean fishing for the past few days, but the lingering effects will be appreciated. All our local streams are deep, swollen and running fast. Combined with the super-high tides this week, plenty of steelhead will likely make their way into our watershed system and provide good fishing later in the week, perhaps even as early as Sunday. Remember, steelheading is allowed only on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays only on our streams, and Monday is a holiday. Use barbless hooks, and all steelhead caught must be released. Treat them gently. The big waves and heavy currents along the coast will go a long way towards creating more habitat for surfperch. Channels and holes along our sandy beaches become feeding grounds for the barred surfperch, walleyes and the occasional redtail perch. Look for rip currents, or sections of deeper water where the waves are not breaking. Cast your lure or bait to these areas for success. Or, travel north to the points and beaches between Santa Cruz and Ano Nuevo for these same species as well as the large striped perch and black perch. Mussels, shrimp or sandcrabs work best as bait, and the artificial grubs or sandworms are also proven perch catchers.

Jim Rubin from Captain Jimmy Charters reports in from the Santa Cruz Harbor. He notes the commercial crabbers are still bringing in literally tons of sweet, meaty Dungeness crab right now. Prices are right; around $5.00 per crab right off the boats on "S" Dock. Or, check out the new Staff of Life Market and their awesome fish market. Their Dungeness come directly from the boat to the counter. Stagnaro's Sportfishing continues to run the popular  ?-day sand dab trips on the weekends. Last Saturday, Skipper Ken Stagnaro reports they had to "look around a bit" to locate the 'dabs, and returned to the dock with "only" 300 sandabs. Considering he hosted 14 anglers on the trip, the individual count is averaging around 20 'dabs per rod. Catch Bushnell's live fishing report on KSCO 1080AM Friday mornings at 6:45am. Send comments, questions and photos to scruzfishing@yahoo.com