White Seabass off Capitola

A small squid spawn has established over off Pleasure Point and three white sebass, 40-60 lbs, came into the Santa Cruz harbor today. There's a pretty large resident school in the kelp off the northern end of Capitola. These fish are the ghosts of the Monterey Bay. They spook easily, and only eat at dawns first light.
If I was going to target them, I'd jig up a few live spanish maks and flyline them into the kelp on spider wire and a fluorocarbon leader. You hook up onto one of these beasts and they'll head straight to the bottom, wrapping you up in the kelp. I've used spiderwire in the past, and it cuts right through the stringers when you put the pressure on em.
I'd recommend using 25 lb line and up. I landed a 48lber from my kayak about 4 years ago when the bite went wide open off Monterey. This fish towed me around for a good half hour before I had it strung up on my old Scrambler. That's my best "old man and the sea" kayakfishing tale.  
Aside from that, a red tide and  the small south swell we've got kicking through has turned the halibut and rockfish bite off from Moss Landing north to New Brighton and up the coast. I'd wait for it to drop off before trying to hit the bay for any flatties.

Thanks for posting the info Brendan.  Keep it coming, its very helpful.

Stuart

No problem. I'll make sure to let you guys know anytime anything interesting happens. I've been really busy lately, guiding up to three times a week, so I haven't really had the time to give you guys the lowdown on the Monterey Bay conditions.

PRIVATE OR COMMERCIAL,  THESE FISH CAUGHT !

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