The first northwest storm system of the season is heading our way at the time of this writing. Ideally it will bring much-needed rain to our area. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts clearing skies for the weekend as well as a medium sized west swell. Winds could get brisk in the afternoons, but mornings look very fishable for the weekend and early into next week.

A wide variety of species are still available from the Monterey Bay as we move firmly into fall, though the pickings aren't quite as easy as summertime fishing.

Rockfish became rather scarce last week in Santa Cruz, possibly due to the powerful south swell we experienced. Most rockfishing this time of year is best along the deeper reefs of Capitola, South Rock and along the West Cliff reefs. The same goes for Monterey. Where there was a decent rockfish bite in 60 feet of water a few weeks ago, it will pay to go deeper to the 90-150 foot range to find concentrations of rockfish at this time within the bay.

The rockies and lingcod are still bunched up and biting well along our more wild coasts. For Monterey, that means Carmel and Big Sur, while Santa Cruz anglers head up towards Davenport, Ano Nuevo and Franklin Point. Moss Landing's Kahuna headed towards Big Sur on Monday for 23 rockfish limits. 54 of those fish were preferred vermilions, and they took full limits of lingcod as well. Chris' Sportfishing worked the same area for similar results over the weekend. They brought home limits of rockfish and limits of lings for each of their trips Monday through Wednesday.

Salmon are still on the menu in Santa Cruz, available to anglers who troll 80-150 feet of water near Natural Bridges, according to Todd Fraser from Bayside Marine. Fraser added some good albacore news for us to digest. "There were some albacore caught near the Gumdrop today but I don't think there were any big scores."

Dave Hurley with the Hurley Chronicles brought better tuna news from further north. On Wednesday Hurley reported "One boat ran southwest from Eureka to target albacore off of Punta Gorda, and they found them at 40'06/125.05 to 125.06 with the tuna in the 62 degree water break. The boat ended up with 24 albacore ranging from 22 to 38-pounds. This is the first real albacore report for the entire season. This week's storm may stir up the water and bring it in closer to shore. The location is 55 miles from Eureka, 40 miles from Shelter Cove, and 70 miles from Fort Bragg."

With any luck this weather front will have a positive effect on local offshore currents and bring some tuna down our way as well.

Send your reports and fishing photos to Bushnell at scruzfishing@yahoo.com.