This week's rain was a welcome change from our month-long dry spell. With any luck, we'll see a few more Pacific cold fronts sweep through our area, bringing more of the much-needed moisture. As it stand now, the National Weather Forecast predicts dry weather for the coming week.

Prior to the rain, steelhead must have been stacking up at the river and creekmouths. On Wednesday morning after the rain, Tim Wright, pictured from the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project trap team was astounded to find nearly 50 big trout trapped at the Felton Diversion Dam. Wright processed the wild fish from hatchery fish and kept a full month's quota of wild hens and half the bucks needed to meet February's quota. All fish taken to the hatchery for spawning are released back to the San Lorenzo river to continue their natural spawning.

Wednesdays are a "fishing days" for steelhead on the local streams, and those that could make it found a good number of steelhead racing upriver, past the shallow spots that held them back all month. Hopefully, it's not a mater of "too little, too late." Steelhead can continue spawning well into March, and lack of water seems the only hurdle this year. Numbers of fish coming through in spurts has been healthy. For fishing, it's most likely to return to just the occasional steelhead once in a while, as the water clears and the flow level drops.

Sand dabs of course are still plentiful on the bay. Just about any area from 120 feet of water on out can be very productive for the small, tasty flatfish. Dungeness crab are still big and firm but it's getting a bit more difficult to catch them. Local angler Mike Baxter crabs at least once a week and notes "It's still fairly good, avaraging two to eight crab per pot. It is getting more difficult though. You really have to know where to go to get those numbers."

And, in a positive sign of things to come, Frank Ealy at Capitola Boat and Bait reports good numbers of sardines being caught from the wharf this week, Todd Fraser at Bayside Marine received similar reports. "There have been big balls of sardines in 25-50 feet of water, from the Harbor to Steamer Lane. There may be a few early halibut to be had with live sardines."