Goleta & Gaviota Piers (Long)
Posted by Songslinger
on Jul-14-03 10:05am
I had a total blast at the Goleta Get Together and will comment further as threads develop today. For now, reports.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, July 11-13
First visit to both piers.
I walked on Goleta pier shortly after 10am on Friday. Excellent first impression! The place was fishy, I knew it right away. Went back to the car and got my gear and went out about 2/3 to the end. I was not sure about bait down here so I had brought a few dozen pile worms that did not fare well despite being kept cold. But they did catch some fish. Still, I was humbled by the realization that, as baits go, local offerings were superior.
Kelp beds were in fairly close so I pitched rigs into the clump. This is a proven method and is less prone to snags than people might imagine. For one, I use compact rigs with short leaders on a drift ball sinker. It smacks the kelp and filters down the forest nicely. (Most times, anyway! Other occasions will see the bait sitting on top of the bed like a golf ball on the green.) The deal is, you don't pull in unless you absolutley have to. You wait for the fish because it is a lot easier (so to speak) to recover your rigging with a fish on. Even then there is a bit of a workout! I discovered fairly soon that my 2500 reel was not up to the task.
I got two rockfish the first "shift," one on whole frozen anchovy and the other on a pile worm, took care of some business and talked with some familiar and new people, then returned for a quick late afternoon shot. Met up with Red Fish and we tried the sequence of catching live shiners and trying for halibut. Not much going on there other than bait. So one more rockfish on anchovy and then it was time to get ready for the UPSAC meeting.
Saturday was more of the same, a trip in the late a.m with Andy, aka Fishfishaj, who is a great source of knowledge and wisdom. First we gathered sandcrabs and tried to work the surf area for corbinas (his mom got a cool looking yellow fin croaker). Another rockfish and then it was time to go to the BBQ. Afterward I went out again and made some more casts, shot the bull with more people and caught some more rockfish.
But forget all that! Shortly before the sunrise (see Rich Reano's cool picture) and just into the moonrise (see Predator's cool picture), I saw five dolphins moving gracefully and majestically through the area. Just amazing and by itself worth the trip down!
Om.
Sunday morning I got up around 6am, pretty late, and got moving to meet Ken Jones at Gaviota. Fantastic morning cruise from Lake Cachuma with lots of deer around. I talked with him at the pier, in between all the fish he was bringing up, then I walked along the beach. Place said Halibut, all that sand and nice troughs, so that's what I worked for. First, it was catch sandcrabs the way Andy showed me, then back up to the pier to get some bait. Got a shiner, Ken gave me another, and two lines were in the water for the big wait. It occurred to me that I was going about this the wrong way. SF Bay methods do not apply. Nor do shoreline surf strategies from NorCal. The water is deeper and clearer, for two conspicuous examples, and the bait (as Ken pointed out right away) was holding about midway down. So all the fixed bait rig was accomplishing was shiner refuge, keeping the fish quite safe, out of harm's way. Float rigs are out because of water motion and kelp; Red Fish and I found that out at Goleta.
Suddenly the light goes on in Slinger's dim bulb. I got a fresh shiner and brought out a rig that Phishinpat gave me on Berkeley Pier a couple weeks ago, a two hook "stinger" line with snelled hook followed by palomar knot hook. Snelled hook went into the shiner's dorsal section--not the nostrils--and the rig was fastened by safety snap to my line which was already in the water. That's right, a trolley rig, weighed just enough to sink slowly.
"Bingo!" as Predator would say. Tip slams down and the fish is on! Sure enough it heads straight into the kelp and gets stuck. I know it's a hallie and have a hope it's actually a legal size. These are harder to get in SoCal for some reason. A few splendid runs and I got the fish to yawn at Ken Jones (salute from the fish to the skipper!) and then a helpful regular lowered his crab ring and we got the fish up to the pier. 22 inches on the dot. I think Ken got a picture, I admired the fish, and back into the water it went. Yay. My first legal halibut from SoCal. The wind came up and I had a trip back home to get moving on, and Ken had more fishing ahead, so we left. By the way, he got some cool fish, including one that was so huge I recognized it when I was on the surf more than 50 yards away. But that is his tale to tell.
Another treat for me, more dolphins circulating past Gaviota. Wonderful
Ugly Stick Tiger BWS 2200 (12-30)
Daiwa Regal Z 4000ia
Shimano TDR 2703 7'
Daiwa Regal Z 2500ia
Daiwa Regal S 4000a
P Line CXX 15#
Single bronze baitholder #4 on surf rig (perch, rockfish)
Single bronze baitholder #3/0 on surf rig (rockfish)
Double bronze baitholders #6 on surf rig (shiners)
Black octopus #4 with stinger (halibut)
2 Grass Rockfish
2 Brown Rockfish
1 Kelp Rockfish
1 Gopher Rockfish
3 Walleyed Perch
7 Shiner Perch
1 Halibut 22"
ALL RELEASED
Current thread:
Goleta & Gaviota Piers (Long)
Songslinger -
Jul-14-03 10:05am
Re: Goleta & Gaviota Piers (Long)
eelmaster -
Jul-14-03 10:12am
Nice report! Good going on the Socal hallie!
salty nick -
Jul-14-03 10:17am
Insert "Sunset" Instead Of "Sunrise!
Songslinger -
Jul-14-03 10:21am
Right on....
phishinpat -
Jul-14-03 10:23am
Re: Right on....
Songslinger -
Jul-14-03 10:26am
Way to go! Wish I woke up earlier
gyozadude -
Jul-14-03 10:28am
Re: Goleta & Gaviota Piers (Long)
Red Fish -
Jul-14-03 10:35am
Great report,'Slinger.
patrick333 -
Jul-14-03 10:56am
Fantastic Report!
baitfish -
Jul-14-03 7:09pm
Way to do it Slinger!
jason chin -
Jul-15-03 8:26am
Sweet report Slinger!
donblaze420 -
Jul-15-03 5:42pm