Natural Lefty
01-02-2011, 10:55 AM
My wife and I finally managed to get in a fishing trip just in time for the year's end. We had fished in Santa Barbara Harbor at least briefly near the year's end each of the past two years with some success, so we decided to make it 3 years in a row on Thursday.
The plan was to go to Santa Barbara on Thursday, and fish Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, my wife's various requirements for detours and errands on the way there, resulted in us getting to Santa Barbara after 7 p.m. and we decided just to go to a motel and have a long fishing session the next day (New Year's Eve). Actually, we stayed at a place in Carpinteria because it was cheaper.
After some confusion and wrong turns -- I always seem to get confused going to Santa Barbara Harbor with Cabrillo Street, Carillo Street and Castillo Street all in the same area -- we made it to the harbor around 11 a.m. (I think). First, we noticed the water was somewhat murky but not too bad, and the tide was really low. We looked for Opaleyes along the shoreline, but only saw a few little ones which mostly seemed to be hiding among the rocks, so I suggested we go to a short pier that we have fished these past two years. We asked the Harbor Patrol about fishing permission a couple of years ago, and they said you could fish anywhere that wasn't behind a locked gate in the harbor. They are much more generous than most places in that way.
We made it to the pier, which seems to be a parking place for seafood trucks, and isn't used much, put mussels on our hooks (2 poles only) and started fishing, with no success at first. At that time, a young man showed up and asked us for fishing line, weights and bait. We obliged and wished him good luck as he and his uncle went elsewhere along the shoreline to fish. After a while, I decided to try for Opaleyes along the shoreline, anyway. Even though I saw a decent one, I couldn't get anything to bite, so I headed back to the pier, and noticed that my wife's line was really tight, with her pole just sitting on the pier. I suggested she pick up her pole before it wound up in the ocean. Sure enough, there was a good size White Seaperch on the hook. A moment later, I caught a small Grass Rockfish which I put back. Then we ate lunch at The Minnow Cafe, which can be seen from our fishing spot.
There is a bunch of 90 minute parking in the area, so at my wife's behest, I kept moving the car every 90 minutes, which is probably something we aren't supposed to do, but we did buy the food at the cafe. Eventually, I parked the car at a place where you can park for 3 hours for $3. By the time the 3 hours were up, it was after 6 p.m. and you could park anywhere.
Anyway, back to fishing, we continued fishing from "our" little pier with increasing success as the afternoon went on and the tide went up. At first, most of the fish were concentrated a little ways past the end of the pier, but later, they were all around the pier. The whole time we used nothing but Mussel for bait, since I had brought lots of it. Jacksmelt and Grass Rockfish were the most common catches. We ended up with 4 Jacksmelt, which we kept, and caught about 10 Rockfish but only kept the 3 largest ones (7-8 inchers) since most were 4-6 inch dinks. At one point, I hooked a rather massive Jacksmelt, which I had trouble tiring out. When I finally got ready to pull it out of the water, a Pelican suddenly appeared, grabbed the fish, broke my line, and made off with the whole kit and kaboodle, including a 1/2 ounce pyramid weight. I hope the bird managed not to hook itself or swallow the weight. Another Jacksmelt was so stupid that we hooked it and lost it, but it continued biting about 10 times until we finally hooked it.
Eventually, I caught a Sanddab, a good size Opaleye and 2 very beautiful perch which I identified as Rainbow Seaperch. They have orange and blue stripes and blue lines on their heads. We kept all of the fish except for the small Rockfish which we let go.
We also tried hooping for Crabs from 3 -6 p.m. but came up completely empty on those.
I am out of time so will post photos later.
The plan was to go to Santa Barbara on Thursday, and fish Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately, my wife's various requirements for detours and errands on the way there, resulted in us getting to Santa Barbara after 7 p.m. and we decided just to go to a motel and have a long fishing session the next day (New Year's Eve). Actually, we stayed at a place in Carpinteria because it was cheaper.
After some confusion and wrong turns -- I always seem to get confused going to Santa Barbara Harbor with Cabrillo Street, Carillo Street and Castillo Street all in the same area -- we made it to the harbor around 11 a.m. (I think). First, we noticed the water was somewhat murky but not too bad, and the tide was really low. We looked for Opaleyes along the shoreline, but only saw a few little ones which mostly seemed to be hiding among the rocks, so I suggested we go to a short pier that we have fished these past two years. We asked the Harbor Patrol about fishing permission a couple of years ago, and they said you could fish anywhere that wasn't behind a locked gate in the harbor. They are much more generous than most places in that way.
We made it to the pier, which seems to be a parking place for seafood trucks, and isn't used much, put mussels on our hooks (2 poles only) and started fishing, with no success at first. At that time, a young man showed up and asked us for fishing line, weights and bait. We obliged and wished him good luck as he and his uncle went elsewhere along the shoreline to fish. After a while, I decided to try for Opaleyes along the shoreline, anyway. Even though I saw a decent one, I couldn't get anything to bite, so I headed back to the pier, and noticed that my wife's line was really tight, with her pole just sitting on the pier. I suggested she pick up her pole before it wound up in the ocean. Sure enough, there was a good size White Seaperch on the hook. A moment later, I caught a small Grass Rockfish which I put back. Then we ate lunch at The Minnow Cafe, which can be seen from our fishing spot.
There is a bunch of 90 minute parking in the area, so at my wife's behest, I kept moving the car every 90 minutes, which is probably something we aren't supposed to do, but we did buy the food at the cafe. Eventually, I parked the car at a place where you can park for 3 hours for $3. By the time the 3 hours were up, it was after 6 p.m. and you could park anywhere.
Anyway, back to fishing, we continued fishing from "our" little pier with increasing success as the afternoon went on and the tide went up. At first, most of the fish were concentrated a little ways past the end of the pier, but later, they were all around the pier. The whole time we used nothing but Mussel for bait, since I had brought lots of it. Jacksmelt and Grass Rockfish were the most common catches. We ended up with 4 Jacksmelt, which we kept, and caught about 10 Rockfish but only kept the 3 largest ones (7-8 inchers) since most were 4-6 inch dinks. At one point, I hooked a rather massive Jacksmelt, which I had trouble tiring out. When I finally got ready to pull it out of the water, a Pelican suddenly appeared, grabbed the fish, broke my line, and made off with the whole kit and kaboodle, including a 1/2 ounce pyramid weight. I hope the bird managed not to hook itself or swallow the weight. Another Jacksmelt was so stupid that we hooked it and lost it, but it continued biting about 10 times until we finally hooked it.
Eventually, I caught a Sanddab, a good size Opaleye and 2 very beautiful perch which I identified as Rainbow Seaperch. They have orange and blue stripes and blue lines on their heads. We kept all of the fish except for the small Rockfish which we let go.
We also tried hooping for Crabs from 3 -6 p.m. but came up completely empty on those.
I am out of time so will post photos later.