Fishing King Harbor with ultra-light tackle is a blast. I've had three trips down to Redondo Harbor (October, December and January) and have fished live bait on 4-lb test spinning gear each time. It's remarkable how hard one of those 17" bonito can pull on 4-lb test. They usually make three or so good runs taking quite a bit of line on each run. Just about the time you get them up to the boat, either pelicans, seals or the boat itself will usually set them off running again.

Last time (Jan 4th) was the first time we had big problems with sealions. I lost four good fish to sealions. Three times the sealions broke me off after they grabbed the fish and once I was able to land just the head of a nice bonito. It seems a sealion chomped down on the body of the fish, took a big bite and all that was left was the head.

I wouldn't want to go any lighter than 4-lb and 6-lb might be a bit more appropriate but the light stuff is pretty exciting.