Every August is a powerful month in the world of coastal fishing and an August during an El Niño year is stellar.
Unusual fishing opportunities abound, and a trip can be put together to fit the needs of kids, novices or experienced anglers.
As water temps rise surprisingly high, the surface gamesters from far more southern waters ride the warm water currents up the coast and fan out along both the mainland and the islands.
This is when we tie on casting iron such as jigs and spoons, and give our drag systems a good test on bonito, barracuda, yellowtail, dorado and sharks.
For example, there was a dorado caught this week right near Anacapa Island, and boaters running several miles south behind Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands are finding long current break with kelp paddies holding yellowtail and the occasional dorado.
The major underwater mountainside several miles behind Santa Cruz Island is also a prime place to deep drop for swordfish. That requires a specialty rod, and you can find what you need or learn to build a rod yourself at vaguerods.net.
Our Santa Barbara Channel and Channel Islands are the northern extremity of the typical range of bonito, barracuda and yellowtail, and they come to feed on our rich abundance of inshore bait balls.
I have enjoyed the best bonito runs of my entire life just a few miles out of Santa Barbara Harbor.
I’m talking about 10-15 pound drag-burning bruisers. When they show up, troll Deep Stingers, Crippled Herring, Slammers or feathers through the schools of fish on the surface when birds are wheeling and diving on a feeding frenzy. This is heart-pounding, adrenaline-pumping fun.
Thresher sharks are our inshore big-game option along the Santa Barbara area coast. Successful sharkers troll Rapalas or drift live mackerels near Rock Island, Carpinteria, Goleta, and the Gaviota Coast.
Calico bass are joined at this time of year by hordes of big grumpy sand bass scouring nearshore clam beds and feeding around inshore reefs.
It is quite common to catch a mixed limit of calicos and sandies. The calicos will usually move up higher in the water column, while the sandies generally stay just a little lower.
Halibut haunt the shallows all throughout summer and autumn. Drifting lazily and dragging a live bait along just outside of the surf zone is a delightfully decadent way to spend a summer afternoon.
Folks who want to increase their catch by working harder can try the bounce-ball technique which is a form of slow-trolling.
White seabass treat us very well during the summer, and we even get some inshore squid spawns. The best summertime bite is usually near squid spawns which show up well on electronic fish finders.
White seabass, halibut and even yellowtail gather around squid spawns for easy meals. Anglers jig up live squid, pin them on a hook and send them right back down.
