Launched the yaks with Brian and Daniel at 0600 and paddled to campus point. I had first hookup which was probably a cuda which snapped off my fastrac. The fish gods smiled upon me this day and returned my crankbait when Daniel found it floating. Slow to steady pick on small bonita most of the morning. I hooked another cuda and met that one face to face. On the way back in we stopped inside to see if we could pick up a halibut and Brian #2 made short work of a well legal fish. Kept a few fish for tonight, tossed the rest back. Although they aren't the biggest bonita, it's really cool to see em back in SB. The old timers always talk about em but I've never seen em in SB until now, hope they stick around.
-Brian

Ahh the thrill of the bonita. I'm pretty sure I was in 3rd grade but it's kind of foggy... The bonita went nuts on the Santa Barbara Pier. Guys were pulling in tons of big bonito each day, I'm sure some were 10lbs plus. I tried like hell to catch one, but alas I was undergunned. I still remember flylining a live chovie off the end of the pier on 6lb test and getting mowed by a big bonita. That lasted all of about 5 seconds. I was devastated. That same day I saw one guy catch three legal halibut off the pier. They had a derby of some sort on one of the days and there was a big box of ice in the middle of the pier that was filled with bonito and some halibut. It was truly wide open Pier fishing. If the big ones come, it's gonna be pretty fun out there.