I don't see a post on our trip yet, & I saw Eyeatbay is interested, so here goes...
   The forecast was ok, so I did a drive-by of Davenport on my way up the 1. FAC, swell only about 3-4, sweet! Put that flip flop to the pedal & lets get goin! I met EricB and Sail Fisk at the pullout above Bean. OTW by about 7am I think. I think tide was incoming. Wind was light from the SE, just about perfect for drifting with a 3ounce leadhead. I just drifted between coodinates from the last trip until my GPS went out, then lined up with a certain house on the bluff.
    I tried a megabait early, then switched to a big green scampi. Caught a couple gophers, then got on a nice fish at about 8:30am, a lingcod, taped out to 31". Used my gaff for the very first time, and now I'm sold. One stick, one bonk, and fish is on the clip & in the tankwell, no tangled anything, no fuss . I released a trio of gophers after that, plus a beautiful rockfish that I have yet to identify, maybe a copper but a little different from others I've seen. Near 10:30am, boom, another nice fish on, thought it was a ling at first, but it turned out to be a nice vermilion, 22". That was plenty of fish for me. I would have like to target some halibut, however once out there I found I had NO white lures??? Need to go shopping apparently...
So, overall pretty nice conditions out there. Fishing was just happening enough to keep things interesting. No halibut this trip, but no GWS either, so no complaints here .
One thing about BH, it feels like every strike might be a biiig fish, you just never know.
Eric & Sail Fisk, it was fun fishing with you, lets do it again!

I'll be at 4mile early, about 6:30. Looks like the swell is smallish & hopefully the wind will be down in the am. It'll be a shortish trip, need to be outta there by noon to prepare a fish taco feast for a bunch of belly dancers. yeah, life's rough .
If you are interested, you'll need wheels. I consider 4mile my "elk training ground".

Fished Natural Bridges area on Saturday. Pacific was FAC, looked like a tropical paradise at 7:30am. By 8:30 the wind was up, the sheep were out and by 9am I was done. So, when will the wind wait until noon like usual for summer?!!!!
Anyway, I managed one nice red on my first drop with a white swimbait, then a constant scratch of smallish black and yellow RF and gopher RF. Got one underling at about 22". Fish tacos for lunch were worth the early rising.
-Sean

Fished north of SC on Saturday hoping for the perfect halibut tide to stir the bite. No dice for me. Got two little RF, black & yellow and a gopher, on a bounced hoochie. Chilly out there, and swell was rising. Water still pretty murky.
While I was tossing a white swimbait I hear a "whoosh" behind me. I figured it was just a big male sea lion, as I could see its whole back...wait a sec, that's just it's head??? Then the young elephant seal raised his head straight up out of the water about 2 feet. The whole animal might have been 12 feet long, at least. His nostrils looked a double barreled 8 gauge, and his eye looked about as big as my fist when he turned it on me. He slipped back beneath the water, and that was all I saw of him. It turned a basically skunked day into something interesting. I think that's the first elephant I've seen here in SC in the last 5 years.

Have you heard anything regarding algae blooms here around Santa Cruz and the central coast? I haven't seen anything about it locally but down in socal last week it was the talk of the SB harbor.
On 4/28 there were articles in the local Santa Barbara news press and the LA times warning that shellfish and some finfish might be unsafe for consumption due to the buildup of domoic acid in their systems. The articles mentioned that the concentrations are primarily in the organs of finfish, but that the flesh may become contaminated (possiblly during cleaning if not directly from the fish's digestion-the papers were a little vague considering the fear they were pushing) . While I was down in SoCal last week I walked a local beach and counted over 20 dead birds, apparently a sign of domoic acid in the ecosystem.  Recently a  friend of mine here in SC mentioned that they got sick from eating local salmon and suspected the recent algae bloom.
Anyone out there got any info to contribute? With the opening of RF season and appearance of halibut sign around I'm ready to fish, but...

(I will mention that I ate some vermilion caught at the channel islands on 4/27 and suffered no ill effects. Fish was caught off a deep reef though, and the algae blooms have been only noticed near the immediate coastline).
-Sean

Got a few hours out on the water Sunday. Nice conditions early but wind was building. Made a number of comfortable drifts N of the landing. Managed to scratch out a few decent size black RF on a rootbeer scampi, but released 'em. I was looking for something bigger. Eventually found one, and brought a 26", 6.5lb Ling into the net. Promptly broke off my only brown scampi on the next drop and then called it a day at 10:30am. Beautiful almost-fall day out there. Saw another fisherman in the parking lot with a rod & paddle but didn't run into them on the water.
Hit La Cabana on the westside for a steak super burrito lunch.
Life is good.

-Sean

Not much action but fun time regardless. Took some in-laws out for the morning hoping for them to score on a nice ling or something, but all we could mange was a few nice sized black RF. We used various swimbaits in both dark & light colors & some iron. I did bring up a just barely legal cabezon, but released it because it was just to pretty to eat ( I gotta get a kayak digi camera). Only got about an hour on the water before the wind & swell became too much to deal with, although the fish were still hitting. If we'd had another hour I'll bet we'd have had our lingcod. Anyway we scraped a tasty fish taco dinner for 4 out of what we had caught, so who can complain?
Oh yeah, and talked to a surfer who told us a great story about a guy who mooched, I mean brought, in a 22lb halibut on his kayak last week in similary ugly conditions, right there at the landing. Hmmm, I thought, think I might know that guy he was talking about...
I'll probably try again next weekend somewhere, gotta keep up on the artistic research don' 'cha know. My November art show will have several new yak fishing inspired carvings.
-Sean