The cold California Current, flowing down the coast from the north, enters the west end of the Santa Barbara Channel between Point Conception and San Miguel Island, and pours chilly water onto the front (north side) of the westerly islands in the chain — San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and much of Santa Cruz Island.
This jump-starts the low end of the food chain and promotes kelp forest growth.
I’ve seen numerous times over my decades at sea when kelp beds around the western islands go through rapid growth periods and quickly become healthier and more widespread than usual.
This can happen in a matter of weeks under the right conditions, and suddenly our fish and other marine life have healthy and abundant habitat for foraging and hiding from predators.
A warm water current flows up the coast of SoCal, from southern waters. This current brings warm water game fish to our coast and along the back side of Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands. The northward flow of this important current is terminated by the blockading Channel Isles.
Some small part of the warm water current flows between islands, and into the east end of the Santa Barbara Channel along the coast.
Once inside our channel, the warm water mixes with the cold water from the north. This pattern of major current flow leaves one magical area where great, long, active temperature breaks are found consistently.
A few miles off the back (south) side of Anacapa Island and Santa Cruz Island, is where these powerful currents collide, slither and slide like warring armies. The battle line twists, yields, and advances in each direction, over time.
For our fish hunting purposes, the area holds our greatest chance of a local surface gamester.
Big swells uproot new kelp plants from the western Channel Islands, and the cold current pushes them southeastward to the big mix-out zone. Once there, the paddies are found by foraging gamefish, such as yellowtail.
The giant current breaks are not far from major underwater escarpments which create upwelling and prime hunting conditions for big mako sharks. Swordfish, an occasional striped marlin, a stray school of tuna, plus smaller surface feeders.
Many gamefish species hunt this magical zone where temperature breaks can be several degrees.
Fisherfolk can easily reach this productive area from several harbors. The closest are Channel Islands Harbor, Port Hueneme, and Ventura Harbor, all in Ventura County. It is a comfortable run from Santa Barbara Harbor, and a doable if lengthy run from Marina del Rey.
