Jan. 11 - East & West Beach - Santa Barbara

[LeapinBass]

Fished for a couple hours from the surf this morning at East and West Beach in Santa Barbara. Started about 100 yards West of Stearn's Wharf and worked our way down to the mouth of Mission Creek. We ended up with a few short halibut to about 18 inches, one nice surfperch, and... a steelhead! I think. I'm not a salmon or steelhead expert but this thing sure did look like a rainbow trout and it did not have black gums. So it either had to be a steelhead or a Coho (Silver) Salmon. It was only about 14 inches long but an interesting catch none the less. Mike got it on a 3 inch 'Chovy colored Big Hammer right at the mouth of mission creek (the creek was not currently connected to the water). All fish caught on 3 inch Big Hammers. 'Chovy, Mackerel, Sea Wolf & Pepper Trout colors. We also had a few other hookups that were farmed - a few of them felt like larger fish but with halibut you never know.

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[center]Trout fishing at East Beach[/center]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][font "Times New Roman"][size 3] I lived in Santa Barbara for several years and worked the same stretch of beach lots of times. Caught everything from horned sharks to three species of bass, to surf perch to halibut, etc...but never a steelhead or salmon. Caught quite a few silvers and a few nice chinooks out between the rigs and the shoreline...usually about February during the years they showed up.[/size][/font]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]I'm guessing your fish is a steelhead. The state lists Ventura Creek to the south as an official steelhead waterway, and they do forage in the surf zone more than salmon do. Although, the tail almost looks like a Kokanee (sockeye). The coloration is more like a rainbow (steelhead).[/size][/font]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]As the story goes, there are still steelhead genes in the rainbows in Lake Cachuma, on the other side of the hill. When they completed the dam, they trapped some steelhead fry upstream on the Santa Ynez river. I've taken a few up there that made my string sing, and I wouldn't bet against them coming from salty stock.[/size][/font]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]I know of several steelhead taken from the surf farther north. The area from Vandenberg to San Simeon can see steelies in the surf at almost any time of the year. They are never plentiful, but always memorable.[/size][/font]
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[LeapinBass]

I've recently found that even Coho Salmon have some black in their mouths. This one's mouth had no black anywhere so I'm guessing steelhead. We have seen a few salmon in the past from the surf and tubes in that area. A couple years ago I hooked a nice white seabass right next to Stearn's Wharf on 6 lb. It took a long run (to the point where I couldn't see it clearly) and then started jumping like crazy. I thought I had a salmon as it was just after I heard reports of a few salmon being caught there. After quite an amazing fight (one of the best I've had) I got the thing to my tube to discover it was a legal WSB.

Thanks for the info!
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[davetclown]

note the similarities, above is a long jaw cisco (black and white) there are several verieties across the US, several went extinct in the late 1900's.

the fish on the bottom is your fish

cisco are part of the trout family and are often called haring

Knowing the habits and habitat of these fish, however, can be more important than the bait you use to try to catch them. Cisco are not always associated with bottom-dwelling species like whitefish and therefore need to be fished for differently. Schooling fish, cisco cruise mid-lake depths over the 60- to 150-foot (18- to 46- m) range and can often be seen swimming just 10 feet (3 m) below the serface. Anglers rely on sophisticated electronic LCD or flasher-type depth sounders that display the suspended fish.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][font "Times New Roman"][size 3] Sorry, Dave, we're in salt water here. The American Shad is the only potential cisco lookalike [/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 3]that might make it far enough down the coast to smack a jig in Santa Barbara. And that is highly unlikely.[/size][/font]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]My vote stands for a poor misguided steelhead puppy that was just trying to find a meal along the beach...so he could grow big and strong and swim up some stream with the girl steelheads in a couple of years.[/size][/font]
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[davetclown]

American Shad (not related to the trout family)

[size 3][#30308f]Physical Characteristics
[/#30308f][/size]The American shad has a deeply compressed body with a row of dark spots on its side. Shad are dark blue above, silver below, and have a deeply forked tail. Consistent with all members of the herring family, shad have no lateral line or adipose fin.

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[size 1]Female Steal head (related to the trout family)[/size]

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[size 1]long jaw cisco [#ff0000]"[/#ff0000][#ff0000]extinct"[/#ff0000] (related to the trout family)[/size]

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juvenile


adult female


adult male
[size 1][/size] Importance[/url]

Steelhead trout are an important component of California´s diverse wildlife heritage. They are a good indicator of the health of aquatic systems because they use all portions of a river system, and require cool, clean water. Steelhead are a sport fish, with about 100,000 steelhead anglers throughout the state. If the current population of steelhead in California were to double, the state's economy from fishing revenue would increase by an estimated 37.5 million dollars. [center]----------------------------[/center] [center][url "http://www.sandiegotrout.org/"]old news[/url][/center] [left]San Diego Trout is actively pursuing its dinosaur hunt--by attempting to locate native San Diego Coastal Rainbow Trout (those not polluted by hatchery genes in any way)--by searching for stranded populations of "pure strain" fish. Research by Greenwood and Pottorff, with corroboration from hikers, [url "http://www.sandiegotrout.org/flyfishers.html"][#0000ff]seasoned flyfishers/pioneers[/#0000ff][/url], and [url "http://www.sandiegotrout.org/indians.html"][#0000ff]Indians[/#0000ff][/url] have provided the impetus for a pack trip into hidden corners of San Diego's back country. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the National Marine Fisheries Service anxiously await the results. View the historical chain for this [url "http://www.sandiegotrout.org/dinosaur.html"][#0000ff]dinosaur hunt[/#0000ff][/url]. [/left] [left]If fish are found, and if they are "pure" Southern Steelhead, or, if there are no fish, or if they are not pure, expeditions will return during the Spring rains to intercept the run of smolting fish from our other known, albeit impure, populations of fish (there were no rains or runs this year), and, those fish will be taken to [url "http://www.seaworld.org/"][#0000ff]Hubbs (Sea World) Institute[/#0000ff][/url], where they will be raised in grow out pens, graciously made available by Mr. Don Kent (who is a major architect of Southern California's recovering White Sea Bass, Halibut, and Salmon Fisheries). The San Diego County Fish and Wildlife Commission, a partner of San Diego Trout, has partnered with Hubbs Research Institute and has approved the purchase of a chiller/pump to nurture these fish. Hopefully, subject to permits, these fish will become the broodstock of our restoration efforts. [/left] [left]Click here for a comprehensive look at [url "http://www.sandiegotrout.org/theplan.html"][#606420]the plan.[/#606420][/url]
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