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 :)

http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/d/18467-2/7_29_07_25inch_halibut.jpg