Santa Barbara Conditions Report "Perma-Thread"

[iamasalmon]

Dove tajiguas today on the rising tide.
Spent some time floating around waiting for something big to swim under me, to no avail. Was over it, started stalking calicos and sheeps. Got a decent calico, Sheepmaster wasn't home.
Viz was 2ft on the inside, 15 ft on the out. Water 62. Layer of haze on the bottom made finding hole difficult.

[kevtegr8]

I have been moving out of my house so I haven't had many opportunities to get out lately. The lake like conditions today finally enticed me to get in at dev unarmed.

Incredible dive, I was greeted with 30+ vis at the urchin beds and 20+ vis everywhere else. I stalked many fish including dropping in on a school of dozens of fat lazy opal eye. I herded them in the kelp. When I wedged myself in a hole two rock fish, a 18+ inch kelp bass and the above mentioned opaleye came right up to my face to investigate.

Saw a 4 foot leopard shark drifting through the kelp beds. Also found a decent sized male sheepshead, an undersized white sea bass and a lil stingray.

As I was heading in I crossed paths with the leopard again.

Amazing dives! If today is any indication the hunt is afoot in the morrow.

Happy Hunting

[SBH20Man]

Mesa looks like crap from the bluffs today. Tide was fairly low at 8:15 this morning, and there are some big swings from low to high, so that might be doing it. The mud line extended out past the reefs.

[Lompoc Local]

Fired up with CabMaster and hit a combo spot known for holding halibut and WSB yesterday after work. I figured with rumors of both being around we should give ourselves the best possible shot of landing some gamefish.

Vis was supermurk on the inside and patchy 8-15 in the kelp bed and on the outside - definitely good enough to hunt effectively. Water was a bit cooler than it has been lately and tide was medium going up.

Went through my usual routine by spending the first hour or so looking for WSB - nice and quiet, passing on everything else. Wasn't able to locate any so I changed modes and started looking for calicos or anything else interesting. Found this guy floating near the bottom, measured him up through a few kelpstalks and let fire. I haven't sharpened my Rob Allen tri-cut tip in a while so when it hit - it hit hard. The fish seemed to almost explode underwater with a huge entry hole - stoned him! Put him on the stringer and moved out to the outside bed.

Cruised through the outside until it got too dark - found a couple of shorts casually strolling through but really nothing else interesting. Spent some time looking around the eelgrass structure to no avail. Saw a large bat ray on the way back in and called it a day.

This is the largest calico I've landed from a shoredive and is about on par with some of the larger ones I've landed out at the islands - He went 18 inches and I'm guessing about 3 lbs. They never look quite as impressive in the pictures.

[surf-ratz]

Good looking calico dude! Diggin the Stella for reference too! haha

Originally Posted by Lompoc Local

Fired up with CabMaster and hit a combo spot known for holding halibut and WSB yesterday after work. I figured with rumors of both being around we should give ourselves the best possible shot of landing some gamefish.

Vis was supermurk on the inside and patchy 8-15 in the kelp bed and on the outside - definitely good enough to hunt effectively. Water was a bit cooler than it has been lately and tide was medium going up.

Went through my usual routine by spending the first hour or so looking for WSB - nice and quiet, passing on everything else. Wasn't able to locate any so I changed modes and started looking for calicos or anything else interesting. Found this guy floating near the bottom, measured him up through a few kelpstalks and let fire. I haven't sharpened my Rob Allen tri-cut tip in a while so when it hit - it hit hard. The fish seemed to almost explode underwater with a huge entry hole - stoned him! Put him on the stringer and moved out to the outside bed.

Cruised through the outside until it got too dark - found a couple of shorts casually strolling through but really nothing else interesting. Spent some time looking around the eelgrass structure to no avail. Saw a large bat ray on the way back in and called it a day.

This is the largest calico I've landed from a shoredive and is about on par with some of the larger ones I've landed out at the islands - He went 18 inches and I'm guessing about 3 lbs. They never look quite as impressive in the pictures.

[kevtegr8]

Nice catch, I wish fishing was allowed at dev or I would have one of my own.

Didn't get a chance to escape to the sea, bloody responsibilities...sure looked beautiful from Isla Vista though.

[SCOTB]

...."Didn't get a chance to escape to the sea, bloody responsibilities...sure looked beautiful from Isla Vista though."


That's pure poetry.

[SBH20Man]

Dove up and down the coast today as far up as Refugio. Water is still cold - about 61 on top and 57-58 at 30'. Only spots we found viz were deeper than 25' below the thermocline. In tight, the viz was awful pretty much everywhere with murky brown particulate in thick in the water column plus clouds of really tiny krill or fish fry in spots.

As sometime happens, we spent all day up the coast to find the best top-top-bottom viz right off the Mesa on our way home this afternoon.

Spent the day looking for WSB, but came home with a couple of calicos as a consolation prize.

[Lompoc Local]

"Spent the day looking for WSB, but came home with a couple of calicos as a consolation prize."

Boy can I relate to that my friend

Try to find solace in those calicos

[SBH20Man]

Originally Posted by Lompoc Local

"Spent the day looking for WSB, but came home with a couple of calicos as a consolation prize."

Boy can I relate to that my friend

Try to find solace in those calicos

I believe I will find ceviche in those calicos!

[Eytan]

Originally Posted by SBH20Man

I believe I will find ceviche in those calicos!

With a nice cold beer
Never under estimate calicos!

[ForrestG]

Anybody know what was going on off the coast of Carp today? i saw multiple coast guard boats as well as choppers flying over a small area for over an hour starting at about 2:30

[CIslandHunter]

They had county helos up as well. There were at least three to four Clean seas boats, one from Coho, also the Ocean Guardian(oil spill boat),Clean Ocean, and the Ocean Scout, which are the new boats they have been docked in Ventura Harbor over by the old Scotch and Sirloin. We saw it this morning started around 10:00. Then you could see the oil booms out from the bluffs here in Carp. I talked to my buddy that runs one of the boats within the last hour and he said there was around 100 barrels of backflow from one of the rigs burn off towers. The Platform that they were around all day was Henry, until the wind slowly started pushing it close to shore. You can got to this site and see the boats that are working it. Just go to the box for our area and click on the boats and there info will come up.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/def...m=2&level1=140

[Namor]

I dove near Hope Ranch yesterday, murky outside and some clearish water inside.

The dive was a total debacle. One diver had to cut it short because his mask is impregnated with gas. Another projectile chummed the water "Im feeling better, lets see if anything comes to this chum thats worth shooting". I couldnt see a thing because the mask I was using fogged up horribly about every 30 seconds. I might try to dive again today in between sessions of embarrassing my teen kids at the beach.

I got skunked, but one other diver got a perch and a monster grassy

Jeremy

[fish impaler]

Originally Posted by Namor

I dove near Hope Ranch yesterday, murky outside and some clearish water inside.

The dive was a total debacle. One diver had to cut it short because his mask is impregnated with gas. Another projectile chummed the water "Im feeling better, lets see if anything comes to this chum thats worth shooting". I couldnt see a thing because the mask I was using fogged up horribly about every 30 seconds. I might try to dive again today in between sessions of embarrassing my teen kids at the beach.

I got skunked, but one other diver got a perch and a monster grassy

Jeremy

And another diver never even made it in the water, arriving late and missing the shortcut, hiking the long way, scrambling down the cliff and up the beach, only to discover murk and no sign of the others