This is the longest calm weather and flat seas period I can remember during the month of June, which is typically overcast and windy at sea.
I celebrated good fortune by heading across the Santa Barbara Channel on calm seas with two great friends to fish Santa Cruz Island.
One friend mentioned that he always wanted to catch a California sheephead. I have favorite sheephead hotspots, and we made a beeline for one that is very close to boiler rocks. It can be a dangerous place when big swells are crashing against those craggy rocks, but on such a calm day it felt sufficiently safe.
We rigged up our custom Vague rods and Penn reels with double dropper loops, and baited up with shrimp, which sheephead love to gobble up.
The spot was shallow, so we only had to drop the line down about 40 feet to the rocky sea floor where I knew sheephead would be actively foraging.
These red and black baddies take a bait and fight like brutes, thanks to their sturdy build and scrappy attitude. In the span of 2.5 hours, we had six tasty sheephead onboard, along with a half dozen rockfish.
Some folks say sheephead tastes something like shellfish. Since shellfish are the favorite foods of sheephead, this is clear evidence of the old saying, we are what we eat.
After catching plenty of fish for our three families, someone asked: “What shall we do now?”
Noting that the seas were still calm and inviting, and swells were small, I suggested, “Let me show you my own spiritual home.”
The response from my friends was, how can we argue with that?
Twenty minutes later we were floating outside of Painted Cave, on the north side and fairly close to the west end of Santa Cruz Island. My companions agreed it is a fascinating and perhaps somewhat ominous looking place from the sea.
I eased the boat into gear and idled into the entrance of the long sea cave as their jaws dropped in surprise. When I continued moving deeper into the cave, they were astonished, but looked around wide-eyed because the inspiring place definitely has a spiritual aura.
As I moved yet deeper into the cave, the walls narrowed and the ceiling lowered, but I’ve been in that cave many times and I’m confident with maneuvering a boat in close quarters. This allowed us to hang out in there for about a half-hour to soak up the special feelings of this awe-inspiring place.
Finally, we slowly exited the cave and set a course for Santa Barbara Harbor. We cruised slowly at first while our catch was being filleted and initial saltwater cleanup was done.
Then we opened up the big Yamaha outboards and ran comfortably at 30 knots on the calm sea. Once we docked the boat, we shook hands and called it a fantastic trip.
