All the talk about the Santa Ynez River gave me the urge to skip my morning class at Cal Poly and head up for some Smallie fishing. I stopped of at Wal-Mart on the way over and picked up 1 rebel wee-crayfish, 1 rebel wee-grasshopper, and a small rebel minnow. When I got to Paradise road the construction wait was 30 minutes, this put a temporary damper on my excitement. But my excitement was quickly heightened when I arrived at the Live Oak area and on my first cast watched my grasshopper get slammed on impact with the water by a nice 12" SYR Smallie. After this I knew I was in for some nice fishing. I left my car at live oak and hiked up river for 5 hours fishing various holes being careful not to spook fish as I approached them. By the end of the day I caught 23 smallies, 7 sunfish and 2 trout. It was great fun. Thanks to all who replied to my post on Best SYR bait and also my post on the “raping of the river”. It is good to see so many people who care about preserving such nice areas.
Charlie
P.S. I took a trash bag with me and me and my girlfriend filled it up with everything from beer cans to diapers in only 15 minutes. That was about the only sad part of the day.

Right on. Don't underestimate that rebel wee-frog either, that used to be my money bait when I was learning to bass fish. Pick yourself up a little popper for the mornings and you'll have some real fun.

Right on! Congrats on a great trip.

Diapers... that is just plain sick! What the hell is wrong with people?

Nice job on the clean up!

Yea Brian, the frog sounds good. I actually got some good bites on an 83 cent pan fish spinner bait from Wal-Mart. Also have you ever used the Rebel giant ant or bee? They looked interesting. Let me know what you think

Never used those other ones, but they'll work. As long as it's small and looks like something that lives in a river, the smallies will go stupid on it :)

Sweet, i am going to try out a new lure from bomber up there, it is really small so i am going to try it out. I am going up there on Saturday, i will let you know what happens.

Sounds like a sweet trip! What was your largest smally of the day? That place seriously is a hidden jewel. I am glad people like you are fishing it C&R... That trash bag idea is really a good one. Maybe we can make up for some of the idiots out there! Thanks for the report! Did you take any pictures?

Yea the biggest of the fish were around 12-13". I also caught some abnormally large sunfish in one small hidden pool. I did not take any pictures but after this weekend i should have a new digital camera that i plan on using on all of my fishing trips.
Charlie

Nice! 12incher smallies! That is a great sign that those fish are still up there! Thankfully it seems like not all of the people who toss trash around etc are interested in hiking back and exploring back there. I love that place... your hidden pools comment is right on. I have found some of those small lil holes that you wouldn't suspect would exist back there... Talk about small waters! How big were those "abnormal" Greens? Can't wait to get back up there soon and get catch myself some. I think I may try to hit it up Saturday morning as well. All this talk has mentally there already.

The abnormal sunfish were about 7-8" in length and about an inch thick. Those little bastards fight nice and hard. Most of the time i catch the sunfish in the 4-5" range. I am going up on Saturday so if you go we will both post results and compare notes :)

Great report. Good to catch and release fish while catching and not releasing trash. If diapers are up there I should plastic gloves to my recommendation always to take a trash bag there.

How far up the river did you go; about how many pools above the one with the rope swing (#5?)? Did you go all the way up to Gibraltar, or to the last legal pool (# 7 I believe; the second to last below Gibraltar?)

It's good that you try everything except crawlers.

Bob

Counting the crossing after the Boy's camp as #1, i proceeded through crossing 2 and 3. Just after crossing three there is a BBQ area called live oak. I parked here at live oak and fished from live oak and up river for about 2 miles. It is a hike and in some areas the vegetation is thick but it has always been a productive route.