Posted on November 6, 2019 by John Darling - Author
I have not been out to the Ventura Pier, my home base, for three weeks due to a vacation at the Grand Canyon, fishing with my son in Santa Barbara, CA, a big slow down in the fishing action at my home base, and…
Category: Bait, fishing, fishing pole, Grand Canyon, Mackerel, Pacific Ocean, Santa Barbara, CA, smelt, sportfishing, Stearns Wharf, The Grand Canyon, Ventura Pier, wishing poleTags: Anchovies
Posted on October 4, 2019 by John Darling - Author
Prior commitments, some delays in work being done on the homestead, and an appointment to a city advisory group has kept me away from fishing most of the last few weeks but when a day opened up yesterday, I decided to go over to…
Category: fishing, fishing pole, Mackerel, Pacific Ocean, Perch, Santa Barbara, CA, Stearns Wharf, Ventura Pier, wishing poleTags: Channel Islands, Highway 101, Mackerel, Pacific Ocean, Perch, Santa Barbara, Ventura Pier
Posted on September 12, 2019 by John Darling - Author
After ending my latest quest to catch something while surf fishing, I needed to stay on the Emma Wood State Beach side of town for a few hours so I could run an errand in the afternoon. Instead of just prowling around all the…
Posted on September 10, 2019 by John Darling - Author
After my amazing day yesterday, I decided to visit Stearns Wharf again to see if the fishing is really is as good as it has been the last two times I was there. I can now say that it is since this time I…
Category: Bait, fishing, fishing pole, fog, Mackerel, Pacific Ocean, Shakespeare Contender, sportfishing, Stearns Wharf, Ventura Pier, wishing poleTags: fishing, fishing pole, Mackerel, Stearns Wharf, Ventura Pier
Posted on September 3, 2019 by John Darling - Author
When I moved from Phoenix, AZ to Santa Barbara, CA in 1979, Stearn’s Wharf was not open to the public. It was closed due to a huge fire that roared through it in 1973. It finally reopened in 1981 but by that time, the…
Category: Bait, Calico Bass, fishing, Goleta Pier, Mackerel, Pacific Ocean, sportfishing, Stearns Wharf, Ventura PierTags: Calico Bass, fishing, Phoenix, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Ventura Pier
Posted on August 31, 2019 by John Darling - Author
As a 5 to 7-year-old kid (which were the years I spent fishing with grandpa or just talking about fishing with him), I wanted to catch a fish every time my bait hit the water while not understanding how unrealistic that was. Grandpa told…
Category: Grandpa Duffy, Mackerel, Ventura Pier, wishing poleTags: fishing, Grandpa, Mackerel, sportfishing, Ventura, Ventura Pier, wishing pole
Posted on August 30, 2019 by John Darling - Author
This is not exactly how grandpa said it since he was a “little Irishman from Minnesota” as he’d always told everyone and big words were not part of his plain spoken vocabulary, but I understood what he meant when he told me that not…
Category: Bait, Bat Rays, fishing, Grandpa Duffy, Mackerel, Pacific Ocean, sportfishing, Ventura PierTags: Bait, Bat Ray, Mackerel, Salmon, Squid, Ventura Pier