Santa Barbara: The pristine coastline offers anglers a picturesque
back drop when fishing the coastline for Calico Bass. Bass fishing along this stretch of coast can be Phenomenal this time of year.

WELCOME TO NORBULAND!
North of Malibu...

...............So you're making the trek up to the Northern most region of our beloved Paralabrax and you're asking yourself now what? Well the Santa Barbara county coastline isn't so different than the rest of Southern California; it has lush kelp beds, rocky bottom, hard bottom, reefs etc. What it may lack is the mass amounts of visible shoreline structure that you might find along the L.A. /Orange County coast line, but rest assured there is plenty to fish!

....What I am going to do is give an overview of what's on tap so you can choose which direction to look based on the types of structure you like, as well as a few other tidbits that might be useful.

....The Santa Barbara County coast is approximately 60 miles long from Pitas Point to the south, up to Point Conception to the north, so what I am going to do is break it up into three areas I like to fish.

OUT FRONT
Just outside the harbor

....To begin we have the the area we call out front. First of all, unfortunately, the break wall in Santa Barbara is useless as a bass fishery as it is high and dry at negative low tides and has no structure in the water that holds more than surfperch!

"Not to fear small boaters there is tons of stuff out front to fish if you have a meter on your rig".

....Let's start with the One mile area, head out on a 145-160 degree heading as the reefy area starts in about 60ft of water and extends out to about 100ft and covers an area that's at least a mile in every direction, keep in mind it's not all real tall relief most is just hard bottom so take some time to meter around. Another spot to look for on the charts is Camby's Reef as well as the Ledbetter area up to the light house, this area has great little kelp beds with ribbon reef and some cobble.

BELOW THE HARBOR
Down the line working South to North:

....From Pitas point to the far South to Arco Island you find kelp and small amounts of patch reef, there is Arco Island itself if you want some visible structure to pitch to, up close it looks like giant jacks that have tons of places for the bass to hide. Continuing North you have Rincon Point Reef right off Bates Point, again mostly hard bottom with some kelp, then there's Carpinteria Reef that you can actually see breaking from the freeway some days, huge area with kelp, hard bottom and even some boilers on the inside. Then there's Horseshoe Kelp, Horseshoe Rock, Summerland Kelp, and if you meter around you would be surprised what you might find off Carpinteria!

UP THE LINE
Above the harbor working South to North:

....This is where it gets a little more tricky as this is forty plus Nautical miles of coast line, some of which I haven't even explored in my 20 years of fishing Santa Barbara so I am going to mention a bunch of areas to look for, Mohawk Reef, the Mesa, Hope Ranch, Goleta Cove, Campus Point, and Devereux Point. Then there is the Haskell's area, Ellwood Pier (killer spot out in front of it) Naples Reef, El Capitan , Refugio, Tajigas and miles and miles of kelp to fish all the way up to Point Conception where you will find some killer looking shore line stuff!

....Now all of the spots mentioned are well known spots, but if you come up in explorer mode I am sure there tons of spots in between that are over looked that somebody who is not stuck in regular spots mode will find. Look for movement, as in this region most spots respond to uphill or downhill currents rather than in or out, look for forage, look for birds or anything else that looks fishy! Also remember like most areas in Southern California (especially P.V.) Santa Barbara can be like a light switch in regards to the bite, and the killer bite can come at any time of the day, not just in the grey!