9/30/07 Goleta Beach Pier (Sunday's report) (CALICOS!!!)

[synenergy52]

Started at 9:30am and immediately seen that the water was EXTREMELY clear, you could see down to the bottom of the ocean even at the end of the pier. Superb clarity. Sardine schools were absolutely everywhere, the entire ocean was shimmering with sardines, mackarel, etc etc. And of course, the bigger (in some cases HUGE) fish were pushing the schools up to the top. Fish jumping everywhere. We started with the Sabiki and with the baitfish all panicky it was hard to get them to commit, even with jigging the sabiki in a massive school of fish. We managed to get one sarinde to commit after 10 minutes. Cut 'em up and used him for bait. No love. We did see some HUGE HUGE fish... at least 2.5 to 3.0+ ft. long (I told Jsause and he says they're probably bonito) they were just hanging out with the bait fish. I threw out a chatterbait and one of the huge fish followed it but didnt commit. I wa sso dissapointed!! Those huge fish hung around only for a few min then dissapeared! :( We continued down to the middle of the pier and tried some Gulp! worms for some more rockfish. Too easy. Landed about 9 or 10. We continued down to the end of the pier and used some squid strips. Within 30 seconds of each cast I caught two calicos. They were both about the same size. Our squid fell in the water cause it was getting windy so I ran out of bait. Later on in the day the water wasn't as clear. The fishing somewhat died down. Pretty good day at the pier.

Will be back in 2 weeks!!

Calico!!! (The other one was slightly bigger, but no pic, difficulty in removing hook!!) Both Callies were released.

http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/calic3333334o.jpg

Copper rockfish!! Poisonous?

http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/copperboy.jpg

Crab!! Caught on a piece of cut up fish

http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/crab.jpg

Starfish! Caught on a piece of cut up fish

http://fishingnetwork.net/images/tmp2/starfish.jpg



Lotsa fish in between.. mostly rockfish and sardines. Fun day!!

[FishermanStu]

that crab looks like a piece of cabbage. nice cali

[one_leg]

Nice report.

Thanks,
One_Leg

[synenergy52]

Thanks. Yeah the crab had stuff attached to him.. seaweed... hah. Anyone know if the rockfish are poisonous and if there is a minimum size requirement to keep them? I checked DFG but it wasn't too clear...

[ironshrimp]

all rockfish have some form of venom/irritant in their spines so proceed with caution...and I believe the minimum size is 12", but don't quote me on that

[Fisher-of-Men]

Great pics! The calico was one of the larger ones I've seen posted in a long time. It nice that you released it :) , but if it were me; I would have eaten it. The ocean has an abundance of them, so eating one every now and then shouldn't cause any waves.

Fisher-of-Men

[synenergy52]

Yeah I love to eat Calicos, I agree they're GREAT tasting. HOwever my GF and I didn't have any plastic bags to take him home in we were totally unprepared.. weren't expetcing to catch edible fish LOL. Usually we just catch the bait fish with the sabikis. Next time I'll be prepared!!

[corvina man]

That is a really nice calico bass! Hope you have the same luck next time you go!!!!


Tight lines---Corvina man

[sansou]

Great pics! The calico was one of the larger ones I've seen posted in a long time. It nice that you released it :) , but if it were me; I would have eaten it. The ocean has an abundance of them, so eating one every now and then shouldn't cause any waves.

Fisher-of-Men

Where do you live? Cause there isn't really an "abundance" of Calicos down here in SD off the piers and other public fishing structures. That which is abundant are the turd rollers....so go ahead an eat those.

Synergy52: nice Calico & even bigger props on the C&R.

[Fisher-of-Men]

Great pics! The calico was one of the larger ones I've seen posted in a long time. It nice that you released it :) , but if it were me; I would have eaten it. The ocean has an abundance of them, so eating one every now and then shouldn't cause any waves.

Fisher-of-Men

Where do you live? Cause there isn't really an "abundance" of Calicos down here in SD off the piers and other public fishing structures. That which is abundant are the turd rollers....so go ahead an eat those.

Synergy52: nice Calico & even bigger props on the C&R.

Turd rollers!........................ :rofl:

The bays up here in and around HB and Newport only get polluted when it rains. Since it rarely rains in So Cal; there aren't alot of turds rolling around in the harbors. I have seen and caught many calicos; so I know they're out there and they are not swimming with turds or eating them. :wink:


Fisher-of-Men

[sansou]

[quote="Fisher-of-Men":105c4]Great pics! The calico was one of the larger ones I've seen posted in a long time. It nice that you released it :) , but if it were me; I would have eaten it. The ocean has an abundance of them, so eating one every now and then shouldn't cause any waves.

Fisher-of-Men

Where do you live? Cause there isn't really an "abundance" of Calicos down here in SD off the piers and other public fishing structures. That which is abundant are the turd rollers....so go ahead an eat those.

Synergy52: nice Calico & even bigger props on the C&R.

Turd rollers!........................ :rofl:

The bays up here in and around HB and Newport only get polluted when it rains. Since it rarely rains in So Cal; there aren't alot of turds rolling around in the harbors. I have seen and caught many calicos; so I know there out there. :wink:


Fisher-of-Men[/quote:105c4]

Huh?

"Turd rollers" is fishing slang for sand bass. Well, at least for the locals here in SD. I don't know what you guys call them up there.

[Herbsman]

how did that slang name for sand bass come up?

[synenergy52]

Sand bass are good eating too. I live in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles but drive up to Santa Barbara often cause my girlfriend lives and goes to school there. So I'll be at Goleta Pier a lot!

[sansou]

how did that slang name for sand bass come up?

I don't know. I'm probably too young to know.

[synenergy52]

And thanks for the props, Sansou! What do you guys use for Bonita? I want to catch those big suckers I seen in the water! I'm assuming it was those.. the water was so clear, and they swam in a pack of 4 or 5. HUGE fish. (Maybe the water made em look bigger) haha

[n1ckxlam]

Great report and NICE pics.
Cast and retrieve style baits for bonita, plugs, swimmies, krocs, or live bait.
Thats a blue rockfish, not a copper.

Good man Adir, Ironshrimp is correct about the spine toxins. From personal experience, the only fish i really worry about is sculpin, but everyones reaction is different, and i barely worry about it at that.
Rockfish shouldnt give you any problems.

oh and btw. Bass taste nasty :wink:

Nick Lam

[synenergy52]

Thanks! But I honestly think it is a copper rockfish... that one just happened to look not as coppery... it had many head spines... contrary to the article here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastes_mystinus

The ones I caught look like this...

http://docushare.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/do ... F+dark.jpg (http://docushare.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-16838/Copper+RF+dark.jpg)

I caught about 30 of them. Most of them dinks. Maybe hooked up on 5 good ones.

I could be wrong though. But I'm pretty sure they're coppers... not a big deal =p

[n1ckxlam]

no worries mate, point is that you caught it, lol

[ikeman]

Nice report and nice calico! Nice pics!

[howardizzle]

the water was clear? how clear? all the way to the end of the pier? is it like catalina? that would be so exciting, is it worth driving 2 hours to go to goleta? i was gonna go to goleta, a 2 hour drive, picked upmy friend at 4am then we decided to screw it cuz its too far.. but is it reall worht it? i really wnna go to goleta pier to check it out, i think seeing clear water would be worth the drive since the only way i could see clear ocean water i thought was at catalina or hawaii or something. is it always clear? or is it a one time thing?

[synenergy52]

I've been there many times and that was the only time it was that clear. It was too however, the only time I was there early in the morning (9:30am) so possibly the water could be that clear all the time in the morning. The water became less transparent as the clock approached 12pm. You could see fish EVERYWHERE on the bottom when the water was clear. Besides that I would say the two-hour drive is worth it. You can catch a wide variety of fish at Goleta Pier. Very relaxed environment, hardly any drunkwards, and frequent patrol from law enforcement. Nice place to be.

[SanDimasLMB]

Mmmmmmm, Calico. Nice Copper too