Santa Barbara - Amazing
 

Spent the weekend with the misses in Santa Barbara. What a beautiful little town with some great people. Awesome food, great (cheap!) drinks and really, REALLY spectacular looking water. Plus it was only about two hours away from our place. We loved it!

I didn't get a chance to fish it at all, but man I'm looking at that whole little area and licking my chops. Surf was very manageable and the harbor/marina was really close to a lot of great looking spots. Plenty of places to stay and the non-holiday weekend prices aren't too steep (we paid out the nose for the holiday. Lesson learned there....)

Anyone ever spend some time fishing that area? I'm seriously considering planning a trip at some point to go exploring...

My wife and I try to go there at least once a year, its a nice place to visit when Mother nature isn't pissed


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My wife and I were on the beach when all this started. I saw it roll over the hills and (because I grew up in SoAZ and know storms like this) said "Um, we should go now." We got the rain, but thankfully dodged the major energy of the storm.

We had dinner reservations on State St that evening and it was a mess. Trees down, streets closed. A bunch of the restaurants and bars were out power, and the ones that were open were slammed with people.

The only positive of that whole thing was it finally cooled the area off. It was sooooo humid the day before. Too bad that didn't roll through on Thursday instead of Saturday....

My wife and I used to go frequently to Solvang, which is about 45 minute north of SB. Not so much now due to my wife's looking after my grandson.

On the way over and back I would always fish the Stearns Wharf. We like to eat at Anderson's on the State St. as well as Moby Dicks on the wharf.

The only problem is that with my fishing gear and cart, I always have to park on the Wharf itself. Not a big parking lot, but we have been lucky.

We were camping at Refugio from last Tuesday to today. I took the boat out for a day of fishing up the coast from Santa Barbara. We saw the storm roll in as we were heading back to the Marina. We hit hard rain for about 1/2 an hour on the way back in but no wind. We even fished the 4 mile reef before coming back in. We could not believe what we saw. Downed trees everywhere, couple of trees on cars in the marina parking lot it was crazy. Glad we were not caught up in it for sure. As for fishing there is halibut out front and along the beach. There is a nice reef one mile from the entrance for rockfish. Gets regular pressure but can produce some tacos for sure. If you really want some great fishing go up the coast to Cambria. Off season places on Moonstone Beach can be had for a deal. There is a tournament in a couple of weeks if you are interested.

Cheers Roberto, glad you guys are safe (you and strop i imagine :P) and good info, gracias! :cheers1:

Some excellent fishing up that way.

I get up there a few times a year to visit SB or camp at El Cap, Refugio or Gaviota. Generally there is minimal surf from Rincon to Pt. Conception throughout the summer months. During spring, winter and fall, swells from a more westerly direction can get by the Channel Islands. In Santa Barbara you can usually launch from the beach or the marina, even when a big swell is running, but at spots like Gaviota it can be pretty challenging when the surf's up.