After sleeping in an hour after I'd planned to, I finally got my @$$ on the water at around 8. Met Pete and Mike already tossin plastic. Pete had a nice legal on his stringer and said he'd released another legal and Mike said he'd released a couple legals too, along with shorts. I threw the 4" keylime fishtrap on a 1/2oz. head. I hooked a short pretty quick, then lost one, then hooked a legal then lost another one. Rob showed up at 11. It was a pretty steady pick all day long. Mike went home at noon with one legal that he kept and two more released. Pete took off at about 1 with the same count. I discovered that my barely legal halibut had somehow gnawed it's way through my stringer, and when I looked down I found a shredded end of a rope where my halibut used to be... Oh well, he was barely 22 anyway. Hopefully he's still swimmin and the stringer didn't mess him up too much. Rob got himself a legal, and then later in the day was pitching the swimbait into the holes in the eelgrass when he hooked a drag smoker. Turned out to be a legal seabass!!! Middle of the day, middle of the kelp, middle of the dirty water. Definitely weird. So, I ended up with 2 or 3 shorts and my legal. Rob had his legal flattie and a legal wsb, along with 4 or 5 shorts, Pete and Mike both had 3 legals (they only took home 1 each) and probably 15 or 20 shorts between them. The conditions this morning were kinda nasty. Windy, choppy etc. but it layed down quite nicely by 11 when Rob showed up. So, yet another great day of fishin at Goleta Beach.
-Brian