Santa Barbara and Back

  Enjoyed our time on the water in both Santa Barbara and in Monterey.  Went more for a boat ride than doing any hardcore fishing but I did troll a rat'l trap arround while kayaking.  FAC in Santa Barbara (see pics) and our first time on the big blue (assuing the bay in Sausalito doessn't count) and all went well for us.  Not much fishing happening in SB these days though.  We did drop into Avila beach (Port San Luis?) on the way up the coast and that looked pretty fishy! Didn't see any great launch spots but there were yaks out there.  Bait was boiling all over the place though. 
  Trolled around Monterey yesterday after spending the night at the Monterey Plaza Hotel.  Did not see any fish caught but we wer only on the water for an hour or two.  Did speak to a guy who has been coming to this site for a long time and is a hard core fisherman. He claims to have caught hundredes of stripers this year and has had days where he has had to walk away from stripers boiling on the surface because of boredom hooking too many fish!  Super nice dude and shared lots of great fishing stories.   
  All in all it was great experience for us to be on the ocean and enjoyed some great weather!

  here are a couple of low quality pics of the birds diving on bait in Port San Luis. 

been a while since I have been down to SB, thanks for reminding me of what I have been missing.  Wonder how the fishing is if you are hard core about it?

I live in Avila and was at the PSL pier on Saturday cleaning the rock fish I had caught in Big Sur earlier in the morning around a group of guys cleaning thier 5 halibuts all over 20 pounds and the biggest weighing in at 28 pounds. I felt good about my catch until they showed up. They fished outside the breakwater and north about 3 miles...a place called P-Patch

I have very found memories of Avila bay. The first place I kayak fished back in 1998. This is great inspiration to get back down there.

-Brian G

That was me out in the water in Monterey. Nice to meet you. When I hit the beach there was a guy that I have fished from shore with, hanging out with his family. He said that last weekend that area was full of stripers chasing the sardines. I guess we were a week late.

  Great meeting you too!  Love to come down sometime and fish with you when I can be more serious about it!  Twas beautiful out there!  Let's exchange emails.   I am happy to host you up North!  J

Yah, come down some time if you want. I also fish Linda Mar pretty often still since my parents still live there. I would be happy to show you some of my spots either here or there, I'll PM you my email.