Goleta Beach
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posts
September 27, 2007
Water:
Clarity:
Level:
Wind:
Baro:
Goleta report
Fished goleta off of goleta beach in my kayak. Drifted from just behind the moored sailboat all the way to the pier for one mackerel. I has been full moon so maybe the halibut have been eating at night. Nice day on the water though and since UCSB is back, good beach scenery to boot. Used 5 inch big hammers with calico cocktail.


posts
July 29, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 2-4 feet
Level:
Wind: 5-10 knts
Baro:
Nice Legal
Nico has been down for some fishing here in SB, so we tried Goleta Beach today. We launched out by the point at about 9:30am. Waves were small with dingy water in close but very clear out off shore.

We paddled around and I picked up 2 small calicos. Lots of small funny bites which were probably ronkies based on the fact that Nico managed to catch one on a 5" Big Hammer. I thought we might get seabass or halibut but nothing was happening. I had one very small halibut follow my lure up and that was it.

After 2 hours we decided to go up to Haskells. I thought it would be doable, but I think the swell is coming in from the north right now, because there were 2-3 foot faces at Haskells, and the waves were moving fast to the beach. It was definitely not a good idea to launch so we went back to Goleta and tried by the pier.

Paddling out there I got a bite on my 3rd or 4th cast and caught a 25.5" legal Conditions seemed pretty good so we felt optimistic. It wound up being slow for a while but then Nico found a pod of fish and caught 3 shorts in a pretty quick flurry. They were 18-20" type fishes. We got everything on 5" #13 Big Hammers like always. We both missed quite a few bites and had fish follow up to the boat.

We quit about 2pm. I won't mention about how Nico got knocked off the seat of his u-boat by a random big wave on the way in He survived. We had a good time




posts
June 28, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 2-5 feet
Level:
Wind: 5-10 knts
Baro:
Halibut in my lap
Went by myself this evening for about 2 hours. I had the funniest feeling when I got out of the truck that it wasn't going to be good. There was just an odd feel in the air. The conditions looked ok, bigger swell than yesterday but do-able.

I paddled my way out off the beach and fished around. I had a lot of short strikes right away, just the slightest taps as the bait was sinking or a sudden 'stuck in the kelp' feeling. My bait was getting shredded but I wasn't landing any.

That seemed to be the theme today, short bites and funny-ness. I had two fish boil on my bait as I lifted it out of the water, one of them was a legal for sure. Finally I caught a short, then another one. Caught one on the 5" #13 Baitfish and the other one on 5" olive herring (discontinued color). You can tell I was desperate to switch baits When I unhooked one of the fish, it swam straight up in to my lap and got stuck under the apron. Nothing like having a halibut in your lap lol

One cool thing that happened was very tight to shore, maybe 200 feet of the bank, I suddently heard a very loud spooooosh noise, startled, and looked right to see dolphins just flying up through the shallows. They were purely hauling ass and they were within underhand casting distance of my tube.

Another weird thing that happened today was that my fin came unclipped after about an hour. I heard the click as it came free and luckily it did not fall off my foot. After some contortions, I got it secured again. Toward the end the water started really moving, the kelp got churned up and the waves started to pick up, so I left.

So I think overall, today was just slightly off at Goleta. Maybe the fish bit earlier, or just didn't bite today. They're still around.


posts
June 30, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 6-15 feet
Level:
Wind: 0-5 knts
Baro:
Short Kayak trip
We borrowed some kayaks from a friend and had a beach day at Goleta today. Mostly we just paddled around but I fished a little. The weather was nice, the water was nice, fishing was a little slow.

I tried the seabass spot and had three bites. The first bite I actually saw two seabass following my bait, free spooled it and one ate it, but I missed. Then I hooked one that was probably close to legal but it shook off the hook, and quickly missed another one.

Caught one little halibut close to shore, then headed off toward the pipe about 3/4 mile out but didn't find anything there but bait and small mackerel. The mackerel would be nice bait size for big fish, they're mostly 10" mackerel it looked like. Now I'm itching to go somewhere new with the kayaks


posts
June 27, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 4-12 feet
Level:
Wind: 3-10 knts
Baro:
Calico / Halibut combo
Today I went for a little adventure... I parked down by the pier side of the beach, walked out to the point, launched there, then fished all the way back. I tried way out in the middle of the bay along the way which was fun, having never fished out there before.

The first 30 minutes were slow although the conditions were very nice with clear water and decent current. I tried the spot where the seabass were the other day and got nothing. But I had a secret weapon with me this time in the form of a Lucky Craft Pointer 128. I figured it looked like the baitfish I keep seeing swimming around so why not give it a try.

About 5 casts with the Pointer Minnow and I got a nice hit and caught a 4lb calico, stoked I took a pic of the fish, turned around and fired in the same spot and caught another one exactly the same size. That was cool. I sat there for a while longer but got nothing.

Along my way to the parking lot I picked up one very small white seabass on the jerkbait but that was the only bite. At the end of the day I went back to the 5" #13 baitfish Big Hammer and caught 3 halibut, one 23" legal, one that was probably legal but I released it without measuring, and one short. I missed about 6 other bites, they were short striking a lot. I was going to release the legal halibut but it had the hook down around it's gills so it went on the barbecue tonight. Fun trip, good exercise

calico



halibut




posts
June 25, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 4-15 feet
Level:
Wind: 5-10 knts
Baro:
White seabass action
I fished the harbor earlier in the day, but left because it seemed dead.
I saw Brian and Brian launching but didn't hear much of a report other than that they had one calico bass bite about an hour later.

I didn't get out to Goleta until late. The waves weren't big, but they were big enough to make you sit and watch for a few minutes before paddling out. I decided to be gung ho and head out to some of the kelp beds a ways off shore.

This produced one 2 and a half pound type calico bass and a short seabass that railed me with about 10 feet of line out That was pretty entertaining. I had another seabass follow my bait up and missed one more bite all in the same spot. There were fish there but they didn't seem aggressive after I caught the first one. After that I tried for halibut again and only had one small strike. Everything caught on 5" #13 Baitfish color Big Hammers as per normal.

short white sea biscuit, about 25"




posts
June 21, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 1 foot
Level:
Wind: 0-5 knts
Baro:
Red tide and black sea biscuit
Tried for a repeat of yesterday. The bad thing was that the red tide had moved in completely and covered all the water in the cove I almost didn't even launch. But figured what the hell and went out.

It was much tougher than yesterday. I had a fair number of short biters, lost one small halibut and caught two shorts, like 16-18 inchers.

Brian #2 and Brian... we'll just call him Brian #3 for now - they came out in the dinghy again and Brian #2 caught a short right away before they motored off to try around the point and stuff (which was even worse red tide and crappier fishing apparently).

While they were gone adventuring around the point I hooked something big on the sink in about 8 feet of water. At first I thought white seabass because of the head shakes but it didn't really run very far. Then it laid down and acted like a really... really big halibut. I thought I had a 20 pounder for sure. I was fishing 15lb and just took my time with it. A good 5 minutes later I finally got a look at it and was very surprised to see a black seabass Very cute little guy, probably 8 or 9lbs. I was amazed a fish that size pulled that hard. Everything I caught was on 5" #13 baitfish Big Hammers. I sometimes wonder why I bring any lures besides that lure in that color for ocean fishing




posts
June 21, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 4
Level:
Wind: 0-5 knts
Baro:
Waking up at Goleta
I told myself I wasn't going to try inshore fishing for two weeks, but this week the water crept up to 60 degrees and I was feeling bored so I headed out after work to catch a few hours fishing before dark at Goleta.

Launched my float tube, paddled just past the 1 foot high surf and on my second cast I hooked a halibut and lost it. I was fairly surprised but this was a good sign of things to come. There was thick nasty red tide out in the cove but right along the shore the water was good. It turned out the good water close to shore was loaded up thick with small halibut.

I wound up getting a ton of bites and catching 7 shorts and 2 legals in about 2 hours. The legals were small, like 23" apiece. I kept one fish for the barbecue and released the other one. Brian #2 came down with his buddy (appropriately his name was also Brian). The two Brians caught 3 shorts while I was there. They were still fishing when I left.

Of the fish I caught, two small ones came on 3" rainbow trout Big Hammer, one was on 4" #13 baitfish, one legal was on 5" everclear, and the rest were on 5" #13 baitfish. The 5" made you miss a lot of fish but when you hooked them they were better sized. It was a fun little trip, there's something about inshore halibut fishing that is utterly addicting to me. Grilled up some fish for dinner tonight, mmmm delicious




posts
June 10, 2007
Water:
Clarity: 4 feet
Level:
Wind: 10 knts
Baro:
Chilly day at Goleta
Waves were small today so I decided to try goleta beach from my float tube around 4:30pm. There's been a few changes since I fished there 10 years ago like the roundabout at the entrance, the speedbumps, and the utterly confusing parking situation.

Since there was a cop right by the parking lot I asked him politely what the deal was. He told me he had no clue how the parking situation worked because he didn't enforce it. Ok, thanks for the help buddy... The signs made zero sense, so I tried to pay by credit card, and the machine wouldn't authorize it. Retardation! Dug up in change finally in my truck and got what I hoped was the right pass.

Anyway, I paddled out there, made a few casts and caught a short halibut That seemed promising. A few casts later I had another one bite the tail off my 3" Big Hammer. I fished around then headed out to try to get a calico or two off the kelp. Only one bite out there, most likely a bass, which cornholed me with 5 feet of line out.

The water was freezing cold and there was a little 10knt type breeze going so I headed back toward the launch. Pretty soon a fog bank rolled in and the swell picked up a little so I took that as my queue to leave. The newspaper says water temp in SB is 58 degrees. I think it needs to warm a up a little before things happen. I took cell phone pics but of course my card reader is packed away for that memory card. Gotta work on that.

I think next month inshore fishing will improve. I'm going to try a little more in the mean time.

 
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