After sleeping in an hour after I'd planned to, I finally got my @$$ on the water at around 8. Met Pete and Mike already tossin plastic. Pete had a nice legal on his stringer and said he'd released another legal and Mike said he'd released a couple legals too, along with shorts. I threw the 4" keylime fishtrap on a 1/2oz. head. I hooked a short pretty quick, then lost one, then hooked a legal then lost another one. Rob showed up at 11. It was a pretty steady pick all day long. Mike went home at noon with one legal that he kept and two more released. Pete took off at about 1 with the same count. I discovered that my barely legal halibut had somehow gnawed it's way through my stringer, and when I looked down I found a shredded end of a rope where my halibut used to be... Oh well, he was barely 22 anyway. Hopefully he's still swimmin and the stringer didn't mess him up too much. Rob got himself a legal, and then later in the day was pitching the swimbait into the holes in the eelgrass when he hooked a drag smoker. Turned out to be a legal seabass!!! Middle of the day, middle of the kelp, middle of the dirty water. Definitely weird. So, I ended up with 2 or 3 shorts and my legal. Rob had his legal flattie and a legal wsb, along with 4 or 5 shorts, Pete and Mike both had 3 legals (they only took home 1 each) and probably 15 or 20 shorts between them. The conditions this morning were kinda nasty. Windy, choppy etc. but it layed down quite nicely by 11 when Rob showed up. So, yet another great day of fishin at Goleta Beach.
-Brian

Yes indeed, a fun day out there today. I really miss the inshore fishing at SB. It seems to get better every single year. 4" green sardine on a 1/2oz fishco head caught all of my fish today. I actually had 9 shorts Brian, I thought you were counting. Har!
Catching that seabass was the highlight of the day. I had made a short cast into a pocket in the eelgrass and gotten bit. I missed it so I threw right back in. It hit again and instead of the little halibut I was expecting, the fish went ripping off through the grass and generally kicked my butt. A great fight in shallow water. I also had two halibut come up and hit my swimbait right on the surface as I reeled it in. One was a short but the other was around 25-27 inches. I had it hooked for a second but it pulled off. I love that stuff.
I also wanted mention how important it is to be conservation minded at a spot like Goleta. Take time not to brutalize your short fish. If you can release a short by just grabbing the leadhead and shaking by all means do it. It's not always necessary to bring a fish into your boat or grab it. Don't net undersized fish, and do like Pete and Mike did. Keep a fish for the bar-b-que but don't keep more than you need. I kept a halibut and a seabass but planned by all means to release any more legal halibut I may have caught. I'm not saying any of this because anything happened today, I'm just trying to encourage everyone to be responsible with our good inshore fisheries.

Great to be back in SB and with some good company!
Here's a pic of the legal halibut and seabass

http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3b5a6ac219872fe2.jpg

9??? jeez, you must've snuck in quite a few behind my back... And on top of that, you got 4 more hours of sleep than the rest of us!!! Just wait, we'll take you to the slough side next time and show you the fine art of fastrac fishin...
-Brian

LAST EDITED ON Jul-22-01 AT 08:39 AM (PST)

Yep, Rob had a spot right before I left when he was pullin' in shorts one after the other (hence - 9).

Conservation - along with just trying to be conservation minded letting go a 27 inch halibut and watching it swim away feels very good. Try it - you'll like it! My personal best halibut is 27", I have caught two of them - both released.

"Don't net your short fish" - actually try not to net any fish you're not planning to keep. There is a spot on the halibut's head that seems to keep them from moving if you grab it right. If you do need to grab the fish to remove the lure learn where this spot is. I grabbed my 27" no problem (I did get a little wet trying to get the spot but if you don't want to get wet you shouldn't be fishing :)) removed the lure, took a picture and let him go. After I had "the spot" he didn't move once. Nets will cut fins and tail and remove the slime coating.

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Man you guys tore it up! I was planning on hitting G beach on friday in the Yak. After those reports I am really gonna try and get out there. Which side of the pier were you on? Hopefully I will see you guys tomorrow night at the meeting.
Thanx
Another Brian

We launched at the Marine Research building and fished right in front of the stairs, on the campus point side of the pier. See ya tomorrow.
-Brian

Did the tide level seem to effect the number of fish caught? The few times I've been to Haskulls, a couple of hours before high tide seemed to be the most productive.

Like you said, the rising tide is normally the best because as the tide rises, the fish come up shallow to feed. We had a rising tide on Saturday with high tide at about noon.
-Brian

This is the area I am trying to save from being closed by the MLPAs so get off your butts, look at my proposal, sign my petition, and come to the meeting tomorrow night - otherwise you may never get the chance to get into a bite like we had!

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

It's true, it's true. Sign the petitions, and go to the meeting. Or, go to Harbor Tackle and sign em there (you can use it as an excuse to go to the tackle shop... hehe).
-Brian

Proposal: http://leapinbass.com/proposal.pdf

Petition: http://leapinbass.com/petition

Now scroll up and look at Rob's picture and imagine you instead of Rob - then scroll back down and FILL OUT THE PETITION!

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Great job guys... Looks like another great day on the water. I have a trip planned to Jalama (North of SB) for next week, and was wondering if there was a place to rent a "yak" in the area. Or, if any shore accessible spots near Goleta produce well. I plan on surf fishing up at the campgrounds near Jalama, but I'll be in the area 8/6-8/9 so I'll have time to look around a try a few differnt things. Any advice? Seems like you all have the area pretty well scoped...

Thanks in advance....

- Paul (SocalFlySlinger)

"Only keep what you can eat today, and let go what you intend on catching tomorrow"

LAST EDITED ON Jul-26-01 AT 02:01 PM (PST)

Alot of fly guys (I'm slowly becoming one - built the rod, bought the gear, but haven't made it out yet) like the beach East of Goleta Pier (down past the slough to the first rocky point you come to). Also the sandbar at the end of the breakwater at the Santa Barbara Harbor is a good spot as well as the beach between the harbor and Stearn's Wharf - actually you can continue east as far as you want along that beach and pick up halibut.

E-mail me closer to the date (leapinbass@yahoo.com) - maybe I can join you. I probably won't be fly fishing but I fish the surf quite often.

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Will do!! Also.. While we're on the subject.. Surf Perch / Corbina in the area? Doing all that well? What about the area near Gaviota Pier. Much to talk about up that way? My last trip to Jalama was great, but I'm still looking for some people to hook up with in the area. I drive up from the north LA-ish area, and it's nice to hook up for an morning / afternoon / day on the water -or in the surf.

http://www.momentsoffame.com/snapshots/MomentOfFame/l7550.jpg

LAST TRIP TO JALAMA 7/4

- Paul

Haven't seen the perch lately. I couple months ago we ran into a big school of huge ones (14 - 17 inches) while halibut fishing. They were eating the swimbaits we were throwing for halibut.

There are lots of corbina in the surf but I've never caught one and we're not really throwing the right stuff.

I don't know about the other areas you mentioned.

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You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.

Mike, Rob, and me with our legals.

http://www.mindspring.com/~petenjen/images/3halibut_calfishing.jpg

Cool! I forgot about that picture. Thanks for posting it Pete.

Yeah - I really need to get a digital camera!