The Santa Barbara Channel has a large and healthy population of groundfish (rockfish, lingcod, etc.).
Anyone who believes the media hype generated by those seeking to use fisheries management as a reason for implanting Marine Protected Areas (to lock out grandpa and the kids) should schedule a trip to go out and sample our rockfishing opportunities.
On a recent trip, we went out specifically to find big rockfish. The WaveWalker was chartered by a veteran firefighter, Debra Maki and her family.
Maki is a freshwater-bass angler with great skills. Now she is learning more about local ocean fishing. We were blessed with flat seas and calm winds, so we were able to go to a favored reef zone off the north side of Santa Rosa Island. The results were spectacular. Maki and her family went home with plenty of filets and wide smiles.
The very first fish of the day was the one we went out after — a monster vermilion (red snapper) rockfish weighing 9 pounds 6 ounces. In all my decades of sportfishing, I’ve never seen one so large. The filets were 2½ fingers thick. Reeling up a fish like that from better than 250 feet is a challenge. A very fun challenge. Check out the picture and you will see what I mean.
We happily hauled up heavy loads of quality-size reds — chucklehead (copper rockfish), bocaccio, olive rockfish and lingcod up to 3 feet long — until we had our legal limit of some of the best-tasting, healthy and well-managed fish our ocean has to offer. You can do the same.
For those who are technically interested, we used double dropper loop rigs, 25-pound lines on medium action parabolic rods and medium conventional reels. We baited up with a combination of live sardines, strips of squid and whole shrimp. We dropped down over rocky structure, and often found willing biters the moment our baits got near the bottom.
Fishing is good.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help.
