“Here Fishy Fishy” started a few weeks ago when the White Seabass, ghost of the coast, started biting around Santa Barbara. Our family recently obtained a sweet little aluminum skiff for surf/fish missions and we figured it was time to start dialing this thing in. Our first mission we were a child taking our first few steps. Awkward, clueless, extremely curios, EXTREMELY unprepared, but we didn’t lack passion or persistence. I proceeded to scavenge our area for any tips i could get on catching these illusive fish. After another three missions in the tinny, we were beginning to get a feel for making it off the floor and slowly walking across the room. The comfort level began to grow, the sea legs were developing, and hell, we were even slightly prepared! My dad and I, as well as my good friend Adam at times, had spent many a hour bobbing around hoping we would see our poles getting bent. Don’t get my wrong, this made for some killer father son time and tons of laughs. So today feeling confident, we put the boat in in a thick fog bank, took a wave over the bow, soaked our gear and warm dry clothes, cell phones too, and bailed and putted our way through the dense fog hoping to find the bite. hmmm, are we having another shocker? After an hour of hunting down and battling kelp forests for squid (DAMN I THOUGHT I FINALLY HAD THIS SQUID THING DOWN!?!?!?!), we made bait, dropped anchor and posted up. Two baracuda and 5 spastic mackerel later, we got the bite were were looking for and we had a solid fish on. After about 15-20 minutes of battling this fish we finally got a look at it and I about jumped out of the boat after it! A beautiful White Seabass. The same fish that had been alluding us all these days and hours at sea. Alex patiently waited as i slowly hoisted the fish right up to the surface. A swift motion of the gaff and he pulled the beauty onto the boat. I let out some sort of absurd scream and couldn’t help but give Alex a bear hug.
