Date: June 11, 2007
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Ken Jones
Subject: Short trip to the southland—
Headed out early Friday morning to Goleta and a meeting that afternoon to discuss an UPSAC project.
Detoured for a short hour and a half to the Gaviota Pier where I found the action dead. If you ever wanted to raise shinerperch this was the place to get your broodstock but I didn't see a single other fish come over the railing during the time I was there. Should be some hallies lying on the bottom looking up at all that food but they wouldn’t touch my bait. But I will be back later in the summer when the fish will be there. Still, the $8 cost to enter the park was a little steep considering the lack of fish.
Next up was an afternoon meeting with Boyd, James and people from the Santa Barbara Parks. Sounds like we will soon have an official announcement to make (but you'll have to wait).
Went to dinner and then we went out on the pier to test the non-action for one beautiful hour. No wind but also no current and no fish with the exception of a single roncador that croaked a greeting.
Next morning was the day for the “Ethical Angling” class and all arrived early with Ben getting in, I believe, at around 6:30. Hashem was next and then some pudgy fat guy with all the lesson plans and handouts.
The class, in a nutshell — [In June of 2006, United Pier and Shore Anglers of California (UPSAC) was awarded a grant by the “Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary Foundation.” The grant proposal, titled “Goleta Pier, A Platform For Education and Conservation,” stated, as its premise, the following: “The project is primarily an educational and outreach program designed to (1) teach local youth the importance of piers to the aquatic community, (2) teach them rules and regulations pertaining to saltwater angling, and (3) give them the opportunity to experience first hand the beauty and mysteries involved when dealing with our saltwater friends.”
The initial endeavor was the development of six lesson plans:
Lesson 1 - Introduction to Goleta Pier
Lesson 2 - Responsible Fishing
Lesson 3 - Managing The Resources
Lesson 4 - Data Collection
Lesson 5 - Pier Fishing Basics
Lesson 6 - Fishing, Research and Observation
The initial introduction of these lessons took place Saturday, June 9, at the Goleta Pier. The teachers/mentors were a group of individuals from the United Pier and Shore Anglers of California (UPSAC). The local youth were Boy Scouts from several different Santa Barbara troops.
Teachers and mentors were Ken Jones (The Pier Fisherman), Ben Acker (Dompfa Ben), James Liu (GDude), Hashem Nahid (Mahigheer), Mike Spence (Santa), and Boyd Grant (Pierhead). The Science Advisor was Carrie Culver.
I believe I can truly say everyone had a good time, both the old guys who were forced out of their normal day-to-day, humdrum duties and the padawan's who got a chance to learn a few facts and catch a few fish. There was lots of food, lots of handouts and books, and lots of goodwill both from the teachers and the students and their parents who came out to the pier.
We're now going to revise the lessons with a second presentation slated for September/October. The lessons then will be distributed to California teachers for their enjoyment—and hoped for use. Hopefully some of the other teachers will post pictures since my camera connection is not working.]
We had a great day teaching the classes but I, for one, was nervous watching all the kids fish while not being able to grab a rod myself. Finally, when we were done, I grabbed one of the loaner rods, baited up and dropped it down by a piling. One hour’s effort produced two rainbow seaperch, three walleye surfperch, one white seaperch and a couple of wayward bound staghorn sculpin. Also farmed a large pileperch that would have won the derby if we had a derby.
We then proceeded to go to dinner where we discussed the day's activities and revisions we will make.
Back to the pier at 7PM for three hours of slow fishing. A trio of roncadors, a trio of mackerel, a baby bocaccio, a sanddab and a couple more staghorns. It was the worst fishing I've had at Goleta since a trip in June of 1995.
The next morning Hashem and I headed down to Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara for another couple of hours of fishing. It was still somewhat slow although I did manage a half dozen decent-sized Spanish mackerel, five Pacific mackerel, a couple of sanddabs and a shiner. The main highlight was a guy who hooked a large bat ray and fought it for twenty minutes or so up and down the pier before deciding to cut his line and letting it go at the net.
There was one other highlight of sorts when Hashem decided to cast out a small swimbait using the rod and reel GDude had given him in Catalina. He made a beautiful cast from the east side of the pier where we were standing and thought it amazing that the line kept streaming off his reel. How could he cast that far? When he tightened his line he found that it was headed over his right shoulder toward the southwest corner of the wharf. He ran over to that corner while continuing to reel in line and finally realized a bird had grabbed the swimbait mid-air and was headed out to Hawaii. Luckily the bird wasn't hooked and finally dropped the lure but Hashem attracted quite a crowd to his bird-flight-fight.
At 11:30 I headed back to Lodi and while fighting sleep all the way finally arrived home at 6:30. Another short adventure completed.
(Soon after I would get a C-Pap machine.)
To: PFIC Message Board
From: Ken Jones
Subject: Short trip to the southland—
Headed out early Friday morning to Goleta and a meeting that afternoon to discuss an UPSAC project.
Detoured for a short hour and a half to the Gaviota Pier where I found the action dead. If you ever wanted to raise shinerperch this was the place to get your broodstock but I didn't see a single other fish come over the railing during the time I was there. Should be some hallies lying on the bottom looking up at all that food but they wouldn’t touch my bait. But I will be back later in the summer when the fish will be there. Still, the $8 cost to enter the park was a little steep considering the lack of fish.
Next up was an afternoon meeting with Boyd, James and people from the Santa Barbara Parks. Sounds like we will soon have an official announcement to make (but you'll have to wait).
Went to dinner and then we went out on the pier to test the non-action for one beautiful hour. No wind but also no current and no fish with the exception of a single roncador that croaked a greeting.
Next morning was the day for the “Ethical Angling” class and all arrived early with Ben getting in, I believe, at around 6:30. Hashem was next and then some pudgy fat guy with all the lesson plans and handouts.
The class, in a nutshell — [In June of 2006, United Pier and Shore Anglers of California (UPSAC) was awarded a grant by the “Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary Foundation.” The grant proposal, titled “Goleta Pier, A Platform For Education and Conservation,” stated, as its premise, the following: “The project is primarily an educational and outreach program designed to (1) teach local youth the importance of piers to the aquatic community, (2) teach them rules and regulations pertaining to saltwater angling, and (3) give them the opportunity to experience first hand the beauty and mysteries involved when dealing with our saltwater friends.”
The initial endeavor was the development of six lesson plans:
Lesson 1 - Introduction to Goleta Pier
Lesson 2 - Responsible Fishing
Lesson 3 - Managing The Resources
Lesson 4 - Data Collection
Lesson 5 - Pier Fishing Basics
Lesson 6 - Fishing, Research and Observation
The initial introduction of these lessons took place Saturday, June 9, at the Goleta Pier. The teachers/mentors were a group of individuals from the United Pier and Shore Anglers of California (UPSAC). The local youth were Boy Scouts from several different Santa Barbara troops.
Teachers and mentors were Ken Jones (The Pier Fisherman), Ben Acker (Dompfa Ben), James Liu (GDude), Hashem Nahid (Mahigheer), Mike Spence (Santa), and Boyd Grant (Pierhead). The Science Advisor was Carrie Culver.
I believe I can truly say everyone had a good time, both the old guys who were forced out of their normal day-to-day, humdrum duties and the padawan's who got a chance to learn a few facts and catch a few fish. There was lots of food, lots of handouts and books, and lots of goodwill both from the teachers and the students and their parents who came out to the pier.
We're now going to revise the lessons with a second presentation slated for September/October. The lessons then will be distributed to California teachers for their enjoyment—and hoped for use. Hopefully some of the other teachers will post pictures since my camera connection is not working.]
We had a great day teaching the classes but I, for one, was nervous watching all the kids fish while not being able to grab a rod myself. Finally, when we were done, I grabbed one of the loaner rods, baited up and dropped it down by a piling. One hour’s effort produced two rainbow seaperch, three walleye surfperch, one white seaperch and a couple of wayward bound staghorn sculpin. Also farmed a large pileperch that would have won the derby if we had a derby.
We then proceeded to go to dinner where we discussed the day's activities and revisions we will make.
Back to the pier at 7PM for three hours of slow fishing. A trio of roncadors, a trio of mackerel, a baby bocaccio, a sanddab and a couple more staghorns. It was the worst fishing I've had at Goleta since a trip in June of 1995.
The next morning Hashem and I headed down to Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara for another couple of hours of fishing. It was still somewhat slow although I did manage a half dozen decent-sized Spanish mackerel, five Pacific mackerel, a couple of sanddabs and a shiner. The main highlight was a guy who hooked a large bat ray and fought it for twenty minutes or so up and down the pier before deciding to cut his line and letting it go at the net.
There was one other highlight of sorts when Hashem decided to cast out a small swimbait using the rod and reel GDude had given him in Catalina. He made a beautiful cast from the east side of the pier where we were standing and thought it amazing that the line kept streaming off his reel. How could he cast that far? When he tightened his line he found that it was headed over his right shoulder toward the southwest corner of the wharf. He ran over to that corner while continuing to reel in line and finally realized a bird had grabbed the swimbait mid-air and was headed out to Hawaii. Luckily the bird wasn't hooked and finally dropped the lure but Hashem attracted quite a crowd to his bird-flight-fight.
At 11:30 I headed back to Lodi and while fighting sleep all the way finally arrived home at 6:30. Another short adventure completed.
(Soon after I would get a C-Pap machine.)