I would like advice for pot-luck fishing from a skiff drifting along Santa Barbara reefs, kelp, and flat areas. By pot-luck I mean the use of one general-purpose terminal rigging, when not targeting a specific species, that might attract a variety of species.

Specifically, suppose that one practices catch-and-release for calicos and the plan is to maximize one's chance of bringing home fish for dinner (other than macks or barries which my wife does not like)by not focusing on a specific species.

In Northern California I used two successful riggings for this purpose, and I am wondering if these techniques, or a modification of them, might work here. The first rigging was a white bucktail jig (striper type)with a white grub on the hook. About one foot above this jig was a dropper loop with a motor oil grub on a white or yellow and red shrimpfly hook. This rig was bottom jigged above the reefs and attracted medium to large rockfish, cabezon, and lings, and sometimes halibut if the drift went beyond a reef.

The second successful rigging replaced the bucktail jig with a swimbait, with or without the previously described dropper loop above it. The swimbait was jigged on the bottom, not fished on the fall or retrieve because the fishfinder indicated no worthwhile fish above the bottom at those locations.

I am hoping that the recommended rigging will attract rockfish, halibut, sandbass, and an occasional calico, depending on where the drift occurs. Here are some specific questions.

1. Would either of the described techniques, or a modification of them work here?

2. Do swimbaits and Blams work only on the fall and retrieve, or can they be jigged on the bottom?

3. Using a swimbait or Blam, how about the following sequence: casting, fishing the fall to the bottom, jigging a while on the bottom, then retrieving slowly to the highest depth that the fishfinder indicates fish, the fishing the fall to the bottom and repeating this sequence over and over?

4. How about using a small grub on the swimbait hook or Blam hook placed so as act as a kind of weedguard (kelp or grass guard) and as an attractant, the grub being small enough so as not to interfere with the action of the swimbait or Blam.

5. If using a squid strip on the swimbait hook or Blam hook instead of a grub what size and shape of squid strip would be best?

6. If using a dropper loop can a swimbait or a Blam be used without a leadhead in addition to whatever is used on the bottom loop of the leader?

7. I have heard that the rockfish are small in local waters. What is the range of size of rockfish in close-in kelp out to, say, the One-Mile.

8. Is there a particular moon phase or tidal stage that would be especially good or bad for this kind of fishing?

9. Other than using a drift sock, if the current is too strong for this kind of fishing what kind of adjustment can be made? How heavy a leadhead can be effectively used on the size of swimbaits and Blams that would be used? As an alternative to a heavier leadhead would my northern technique work: using an 18" leader (fluorocarbon) for the lightweight swimbait or Blam leadhead, and using a torpedo sinker (of minimum weight to do the job) in-line between the leader and the mainline. If so, how about using a small shiney hookless diamond jig instead of the torpedo sinker to serve as an attracting as well as a weight?

Thank you. I hope that a thread develops that can be of use to many.

Bob