Goleta Pier 4/15 and 4/20/19

SC McCarty

Well-Known Member
#1
On 4/15, a friend and I went to Goleta pier. The surf was light and the water crystal clear. I rigged a multihook bait line with squid and shrimp, dropping 5 ft from a bobber. My friend fished a baited sabiki off the bottom. She quickly caught a 4-5" smelt, and then a 5" shiner perch. Using her smelt, which died in the bucket, on a dropper line, I cast under the boat launch. On my first cast, I almost caught a cormorant (I think it grabbed my bait, but fortunately let go). On the second, I caught a fat 12+" kelp bass (returned).

We were hoping to fish Ventura on 4/20, but it was cool, windy and drizzly, and we had my 88 y.o. mom with us, so we decided to try Goleta again. Very little was caught by anyone. I tried squid off the bottom, on a multihook line, an later a Carolina rigged camo sandworm, as I moved toward the shore. The only "bites" I got were pigeons flying into my line. As someone wrote in another thread, they did not seem bothered by it. My friend tried a hand tied jig line, with small brightly colored lures, and a sabiki, with no luck. She caught a purple comb sand star. One person reportedly caught a nice mackerel, and I saw one guy leaving with a 2½' headless carcass, that I am guessing was a guitarfish. Those were the only fish I know about being caught. Just before we left I noticed scummy trail on the surface or the water, that may have been coming from the pipeline, but I did not know how to report it.

Steve