Central Coast Fishing Trip
 

Last week, a buddy and I headed up to the central coast to fish lings. The plan was to fish Monday through Thursday but my buddy was having boat problems all trip so we had to head home Wednesday after I fished the AM session.

We stopped at Refugio State Beach on Monday near Santa Barbara to fish calicos, but didn't have much luck. We got some small fish but nothing special. It was super windy so conditions weren't great. We actually were there the day before the oil spill.

After that, we headed up to the central coast and set up camp. We headed out the next morning. I brought 3 lings to the boat, but lost one while trying to net it. I also hooked up on a few more but lost them due to a poor hookset. My swimbait was ruined and kept slipping over the hook, leading to hooksets that barely hooked the fish. I was just too lazy to change it out haha.

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The wind kicked up at about 12:30 so I headed in. I would love to stay out all day, but the wind gets to be about 20mph.

We barbequed ling on the beach that day, drank some beers, and just hung out until sunset. Then we drove up the coast about 30 miles and got dinner. We set up camp and got to bed pretty early then headed out pretty early in the morning.

This spot was kelp fishing, so I kept trying new spots until I got hit. I limited on lings by about noon this day.

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It was a great trip. I am definitely going to do it again soon.

Looks like fun! My first day ever ocean kayak fishing was last August at Cambria. It's a short paddle out and right away I caught my first ling, 34". Then I caught a vermillion so large I had to fold it to get it into a 20" milk crate. Second day, on the way out, I met a 20' GWS just cruising by. :eek: After rinsing out my shorts I continued and caught a host of rock fish and a short hali. No "exotics" up there but the bottom fishing is awesome. :cool:

Yaa you gotta watch out for those whites. I met some people on the water that showed me a good underwater pinnicle that they called "white shark point" because their diving friend saw a greatwhite down there when he was spear fishing.

Yaa the bottomfishing is amazing and its beautiful. Lings fight hard, not like YT of course, but it's always fun to switch things up and explore new places.

Nice fishing! You might already know this, but just in case, be sure to super glue your swimbaits to your lead heads.

I've heard that but never tried it before. Can you still get the swimbait off the leadhead pretty easily?