Here is a recap of my first angling year in Santa Barbara after years of fishing on the East Coast and in NorCal. Here is what I have learned or think that I have learned about salt and freshwater fishing here this year. If locals contradict anything that I write viewers should accept the opinion of the locals because So Cal fishing is new to me and I could be wrong about many things.

1. The female halibut are the bigger ones in the catch and they are more likely to be offshore. So the ratio of short to legal halibut is likely greater for the yaking and tubing anglers than for those in boats in 70+ feet of water. (I am talking about offshore SB, not the Islands). The bigger sandies and calicos also seem to be in the 35 to 100 foot depths.

2. Skates, rays, and sharks are more numerous fishing east of the SB Harbor than west. I try to avoid them when bass are near the bottom by fishing west or straight out.

3. Smelly Jelly has little respect as a swimbait smear in SoCal, even among those that use smears. There are other great smears, but Smelly Jelly stays on longest. Someone complained that he did not like Smelly Jelly because he could not get it all off of his hands after washing them. I consider this to be an endorsement, not a complaint.

4. I read in the Kovach saltwater fishing book that SoCal anglers have been slow to try bucktail jigs in the ocean, and I have found this to be true. In spite of great success in the NorCal salt with white bucktail jigs, and some success here the few times I tried it, I too am becoming addicted to swimbaits.

5. If sandies are at or near the bottom, so fishing the fall is not much of an issue,they will take a much heavier leadhead ( with the appropriate length swimbait) than the usual 1/2 - 1.5 oz. I do not know yet if this is true of calicos, which are more selective.

6. In the opinion of many in SoCal, trout only means bass food. I am almost ashamed to talk about trout fishing here, especially about planted trout, because many SoCal anglers think trout fishing is a joke. However, I have caught holdover planted trout that fight very well. I use ultra light glass rods and micro spinning reels with 2 to 4 lb test line. I do not know much about SoCal trout plants, but sometimes (not often)in NorCal the private plants (not DFG) would consist of exceptionally strong trout. I once had a limit of such newly planted trout,in a city lake, that made very long fast runs and jumped 5 or 6 times.

7. I have found that limits of c&r smallmouth can be caught in the SY River in the fall and winter, weather and Gibraltor releases permitting.

8. There are many very knowledgeable anglers on this cite who are very generous with their information. They contribute very much to whatever success I have been having. I no longer check any of my other bookmarked angling sites because they all have a greater ratio of junk/quality posts. Looking at this site daily is a great pleasure. Thank you.

Tight lines, but not tight lips.

Happy New Year