01-12-2003, 02:21 AM
[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]
[signature]
[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]
[signature]