Stearns Wharf — Santa Barbara

(IGFA)World Record book … possibly the largest Bat Ray ever officially documented as caught on a California Pier.

And pierfishing.com was there … the first fishing board to offer complete coverage of this historic event! Pierhead, Proud Supporter of UPSAC

Sevengill shark

Date: June 8, 2006; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Ken Jones; Subject: Hey, nobody wished me a happy birthday! (In reply to: Happy 21st, Ross!)

 The day was Tuesday, the 6th, (anniversary of D Day) and I got to go fishing at Goleta with Santa (Mike Spence) and Pierhead (Boyd), two of my favorite people. Later on I headed over to Stearns Wharf (too many pelicans and people that do not know how to fish around them) and Ventura (amidst a jovial group of drunks out at the end–and I do not say that with any malice intended. One guy kept showing me his “Ugly Stick” and telling me about the 35-pound lobster he had taken in the lights at the end. He was happy, I was happy, everybody be happy. Even caught a few fish (41 for the day). Happiest event was catching a new species—at Goleta—which, when combined with the new pier I fished on Saturday (Stillwater Cove Pier at Pebble Beach) means it is now 122 California piers fished and 122 species. It was a nice birthday present.

Date: June 11, 2007; To: PFIC: Message Board; From: Ken Jones; Subject: Short trip to the southland—

…The next morning Hashem and I headed down to Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara for another couple of hours of fishing. It was still somewhat slow although I did manage a half dozen fair-sized Spanish mackerel, five Pacific mackerel, a couple of sanddabs and a shiner. The main highlight was a guy who hooked a large bat ray and fought it for twenty minutes or so up and down the pier before deciding to cut his line and letting it go at the net.

There was one other highlight of sorts when Hashem decided to cast out a small swimbait using the rod and reel GDude had given him in Catalina. He made a beautiful cast from the east side of the pier where we were standing and thought it amazing that the line kept streaming off his reel. How could he cast that far? When he tightened his line he found that it was headed over his right shoulder toward the southwest corner of the wharf. He ran over to that corner while continuing to reel in line and finally realized a bird had grabbed the swimbait mid-air and was headed out to Hawaii. Luckily the bird wasn’t hooked and finally dropped the lure but Hashem attracted quite a crowd to his bird-flight-fight.

An ill-tempered onespot fringehead

Date: June 12, 2007; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Ken Jones; Subject: The Mysterious World UNDER Stearns Whar

http://www.ocean.com/film.asp?locationid=44&resourceid=7409&ProdId=&CatId=11&TabID=&SubTabID=

Date: November 16, 2007; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Ken Jones; Subject: New policy at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara.

Frank at the bait shop mentioned to me how he watched a teen yesterday dragging a bat ray down the pier. What? The kid had caught a bat ray and then snagged it with a treble hook gaff. The kid then proceeded to go up and down the side of the pier with the ray on the gaff while a friend filmed it on a cell phone. Frank said it changed his entire way of thinking.

Regulars at the pier, including Frank, have always gaffed bat rays. He said no more. He’s going to limit his equipment to nets, he’s only going to post pictures at his shops where nets are used, and he’s going to try to convince all the regulars to switch. He said he doesn’t know why it took him so long to realize that gaffing them is wrong. I told him that similar conversions have taken place with most of the PFIC regulars. One day you just realize there is a better way to do things. Yesterday was his day.

PS., they caught a bat ray estimated at 150 pounds a few days ago. Frank said it was huge.

Date: January 9, 2010; To: PFIC Message Boad; From: seabass_seeker; Subject: Stearns Wharf crabs 1/09, AM  

Sorry for the late report. The plan was to hit Stearns Wharf for some crabbing with buddies. The second ring of my alarm clock meant that I had overslept; guiltily on purpose. Paying for my somnolent nature on weekends meant hoops in at 9:30am. Without ego, I can say kids on a college budget are some of the most resourceful people. Bait was about $6.00 total for a whole chicken and a pack of squid. The caveat, you must have seabass_seeker’s surgical precision when it comes to butchering the white meat fowl.

Our timing in pulling nets up at perfect 15 minute intervals, rival that of a Swiss watch. The labor did not go unrewarded, as 15 red, rock, and slender members of the genus cancer were invited for lunch.

Mission Accomplished. Short Version: Winter, 9:30am-12:30pm — 5 guys, 3 hoops nets — Squid, Chicken — 15 assorted crabs; red, slender and mostly rock (note on that, red crabs are usually huge, and most slender crabs are too short). Note: Also caught was a Xantus Swimming Crab. Awesome creature, it had a death grip on one of the rock crabs. I’ll try to get a picture.

The Golden Years of Fishing

A Big Fish

Santa Barbara Independent—Captain Larco arrived this morning in his new fishing-boat from a week’s cruise to the different islands that lie in the channel, on a fishing expedition, and while off the east end of Santa Cruz Island yesterday he caught a 300-pound jew-fish… The fish is now on exhibition at Mr. Lardo’s residence on State Street… At certain seasons of the year this variety of fish is frequently caught off and near Stearns’ Wharf and their meat is eagerly sought for. Jo Delaney, last fall, while fishing for sharks at the wharf caught one that weighed 250 pounds.

—San Francisco Chronicle, April 22, 1887

500-POUND JEWFISH

The Santa Barbara Press says: “A monster jewfish called at this port yesterday afternoon, and hundreds gazed upon the creature as it languidly swam around at the wharf. The water was unusually clear and while the fish remained near the bottom it could be plainly observed. It is believed the fish weighed close to 500 pounds.”

—Oxnard Courier, April 10, 1914

Jewfish Weighing 485 Lbs. Caught At Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, June 20.—Joe Foxen broke all local records when he landed a jewfish weighing 485 pounds at the local wharf this morning. Foxen had a strike within fifteen minutes after the big fish had been reported, and half an hour later hauled it to the shallow water, where it was killed with a club.

—San Francisco Chronicle, June 21, 1919

Santa Barbara Man Shows New Fish Trap

R. A. Hendricks, of Santa Barbara, who recently invented a new kind of fish trap, was a visitor at Hueneme beach yesterday, and used his trap to advantage from the pier.

Mr. Hendricks has been working on the trap a good many days and has just recently perfected it. The trap will or should be especially interesting to the fishermen who always has bad luck, because with it he is sure to come home with a good sized mess at all times.

The trap works something like a ordinary bear trap, but the springs are in the hinge and there are two rows of barbed hooks with the barbs taken off. When the trap is set those hooks are bent back and fastened with a lever which holds the bait, and when the fish touches the bait it closes and seldom does the fish get away. The trap has a signal and it is easy to tell when the trap is set off.

Mr. Hendricks did not only rid the bed of the ocean near the pier of those pesky sea spiders that eat the bait off one’s hook or tangle themselves in the lines but he caught a nice variety, including pile perch, skelpin and butterfly bass. His traps are also good for skunks, rats and other land pests.

Mr. Hendricks also showed a tackle which he intends to use for Jewfish, consisting of some 400 feet of very large line like a quarter inch rope, with cow-chain on the end with large hooks fastened to it.

—The Oxnard Daily Courier, November 27, 1922

Giant Sea Bass Landed After Long Battle — Biggest Fish of the Year

R. A. Hendricks brought in the biggest fish of the year late yesterday afternoon, when he landed a 453-pound black sea bass at Stearns Wharf after a hard fight that lasted nearly two hours. He was fishing on the side of the wharf opposite the pile driver when the big fish struck. He played the fish from the wharf until he had broken one of the handles on his reel and was nearly exhausted.

He said this morning that the fish made forty to fifty runs out to the end of his 150 yards of line. Each time the fish apparently tired and allowed himself to be towed back to the wharf by the fisherman. Finally Mr. Hendricks jumped into a rowboat that was alongside the wharf. The fish was tied to the boat and the fight continued. Several times the big fish was worked in alongside of the boat, but would suddenly break away for another run. A small .22- caliber rifle was brought into play as the fish came alongside of the boat for the final time and five shots stopped the fight.

The fish was hauled up the stairs to the wharf and then brought to J. L. Hendricks’ store on Estado. Many Santa Barbara fishermen saw the huge fish this morning. It measured seven feet three inches from tip to tip and two feet across the tail.

Santa Barbara Daily News, October 23, 1925 — (Four months after an earthquake leveled much of the town)

Potpourri — Possibly more than you may want to know about Stearns Wharf

<*}}}}}}}}}>< —  I received an e-mail message in 2005 asking if I happened to know the number of planks on Stearns Wharf? I had no clue but we had an interesting mathematical thread on the PFIC Message Board speculating on the number of planks. Soon after, the staff at Edhat.com, a local paper in Santa Barbara walked the pier and reported the following:

November 22, 2005 — Hook, Link, and Ed

Yesterday the dedicated staff of edhat.com was Gone Fishin’. We walked down all 2,027 planks of Stearns Wharf to check up on the angler activity going on at the end of the pier. You could say we were taking a poll of poles—counting the number of fishing poles dangling their hooks into the water in hopes of getting a bite and a tug on the line. We were counting fisher-people, as well. We’re getting kind of tired of saying this, but once again it was a beautiful day. The clouds began circling in the late morning. By 3:30 in the afternoon, when we arrived at the wharf, the clouds had gathered themselves nicely into picture-perfect patterns, a great background for photographs. It was warm, too. We don’t know much about the ideal conditions for catching fish, but these were definitely the ideal conditions for going fishing.

At the end of the wharf we met Frank, the owner of the bait shop. He sells everything one needs to cast a baited hook off the pier and into the ocean. He also rents fishing poles for $5/hr, bait included. Shortly after we got there, a group of two girls and a separate group of two guys arrived to put their own poles in the water. The dedicated staff recognized the girls as some of Santa Barbara’s finest water polo players, just back from a triumphant third place finish in the prestigious Speedo Cup tournament in St. Louis, Missouri.

As the dedicated staff headed back toward shore, Frank and the four kids were actively fishing. We were told they catch fish all the time, but we didn’t see any fish being pulled out of the water when we were there. But then again, it didn’t seem like anyone was very concerned.

<*}}}}}}}}}>< — I always love variety when I visit a pier. My best day at this pier in regard to variety was on June 28, 1995 when I took ten different species—white croaker, Pacific mackerel, jack mackerel, walleye surfperch, white seaperch, barred surfperch, sand bass, California scorpionfish, speckled sanddab, and queenfish. I also managed one crab and two starfish that day.

<*}}}}}}}}}>< — A couple of establishments on the wharf have been used for movies/TV. The Moby Dick Restaurant was used for a scene in a 1966 Batman episode where Batman tries to dispose of an explosive on the wharf. In the movie version of My Favorite Martian, Uncle Martin is found gorging himself at the Great Pacific Ice Cream Factory.