White Sea Bass Secrets Revealed

White Sea Bass, aka the Grey Ghost
As a West Coaster you have heard of them, hunted them, fished for them, heard them croak eerily somewhere in the distance and painfully smiled as you’ve seen your friends and other boats land them right beside you.
There are many secrets to hunting and fishing for WSB. The most successful divers have paid careful attention for years and taken mental notes each and every time they catch a glimpse of a tail or are lucky enough to glimpse the hazy off white shade of a big Croakers side.
I’ve made two WSB dive trips.
But I’ve hunted them a thousand times over in my mind and been preparing for them long before I first pulled on that 5 mil green camo suit.

Preparation:
Be ready.
When you arrive on the spot, have your gear set. Don’t be messing around with it at the last minute. Have your booties in your fin pocket and your gloves in your other fin pocket with your mask and snorkel around them both and your weightbelt right here with them. Have your wetsuit out and ready to put on and your gun you are going to use already out and ready.
If the space in the boat allows it, find a corner that no one else is using or a spot on the rail you can keep your gear organized and neat.
Now you can get in the water when you are ready knowing your gear is all in one place. This gives you time to help anchor, get other peoples gear, put up the dive flag, and you aren’t stressing at the last minute getting your heart rate up.

Scope it out:
You’ve reached the kelp bed and you are rushing to get in the water but you are about to blow it if you don’t pay attention. When you are approaching the area you are going to dive, do so slowly, quietly and courteously to the other boats that are already there. If you can hear WSB croaking hundreds of yards away imagine how far they can hear the unnatural sound of an outboard, inboard or jet ski engine.
As you approach, look at the direction the kelp stalks are flowing and take note of the current direction. Look for birds working or bait ripples on the surface. Make a mental picture in your mind how the whole scene looks from your vantage point in the boat. Use other boats, headlands, and anything else that helps you pin point where you are in the kelp bed with just a glimpse above the water.

Always hunt:
As soon as you touch the water you are hunting. Within 10 feet and ten seconds I have already made my first dive. Get the bubbles out of the suit, dive to 20-30 ft and cock your gun while you are there, stretch your lungs and work your way over to the area you are diving.
Too often divers, especially bluewater and WSB hunters who spot 90% of their prey from the surface don’t ever dive until they see something because they don’t feel the need. When a fish does come their first dive they aren’t stretched out and they blow a big fart bubble out the back of their suit and in a flash they’ve blown their first shot of the day.

Shut the %$%^ up!
You know where you want to go, go there quietly.

Keep hunting:
On the surface or underwater you are looking above, below, behind, and in every direction. The Kelp forest is 3 dimensional and the fish can be anywhere so keep your head on a swivel and be ready to shoot in any direction.

Soldier up:
Your looking everywhere so you need to be able to shoot anywhere when you do see a fish. Keep the gun underneath you and with both hands on it when the water is dirty. No matter how good you are the fish aren’t always going to be right in front of you so reduce your profile and keep the gun in a position where you can easily swivel to shoot anywhere at any time.
This means even when you are heading for the surface. if your gun isn’t pointing up when you are heading for the surface you might as well have left it in the boat. It is very difficult and way to much movement to change the from trailing a gun to pointing it forward again when a fish is sighted on your way up. Whoops you just missed that sleeper just under the surface.
Remember you are in the water, you are hunting. That means while you are on the surface or diving up or down.

Visualize the fish:
It is rare in dirty or clean water that you’ll see an entire fish. Usually it is just a fin or outline or different movement in the distance.
When I’m hunting my mind is making a fish out of everything I see. Every kelp stalk or shadow or light spot I’m automatically visualizing a fish made from that one tiny part as if I’ve been given the first piece of a puzzle and I have to put the rest of it together.
You are already good it this, you do this every time you see a hot girl or guy and are trying to imagine what they look like with a lot or all (Brandon’s mind) of their clothes off.
This will be one of your most valuable tools as a Spearfisherman or hunter if you can master it.

Fact: WSB are unpredictable as hell
Go up current and see if there are any bait and hunt the edge of the bait on the kelp side for WSB and outside for Yellowtail.
Work the edge of the kelp all the way around from the bottom to the surface looking for the fish. If you spot one at 45 feet then thats probably where the rest of them are so make your dives to that depth and keep your eyes open.
If they aren’t deep then they might be shallow, or midwater, or in the next kelp bed.
There is nothing better than time in the water. Even the biggest Cones shoot WSB and consistently at that. (a derogatory term short for Coneheads used in exchange for the term Touron (tourist-moron), Jackass, Domer, or Kook) They spend a lot of time in the water and eventually you are going to come across a fish. If you are ready you will get a shot.
Listen to reports and network with the divers and fisherman in your area. When the fish are there you need to be as well but its the guys that don’t say anything about it and instead keep their mouths shut and put the time in the water year after year shoot fish because they were there before the crowds putting the time in the water.

On the two trips I’ve made for WSB:
The first time, I made over 200 dives as did one of the best hunters on the California coast that same day beside me and we were both skunked while a relative rookie diver landed one.
The second time I was “lucky” enough to take a limit of three fish over 40 lbs while the other 8 divers on the boat didn’t even get a glimpse of the Ghost.
This just goes to show that no matter how prepared you are there is always a bit of luck involved. Put everything in place so that you can keep luck on your side and you will be successful when the time comes.

I just got an email from Will who just got back from diving in California, here’s his story:

Just returned from Dana Point. Long story short, I lost a shaft on a big AP on the trip to NC with Bullock. Got a replacement, but didn’t have time to rerig the shooting line before I left. I searched for a dive shop around Dana Point when I arrived and realized how close we were to Riffe. We went over to see the shop and ended up having lunch with Jay and Jackie. They came by our hotel the next evening for cocktails, then took us to their house for a tour. Jay found out I was planning to dive in a 3 mil, and demanded I borrow his personal 5 mil. As you can see in the pics, the suit was a bit big, but definitely sealed the deal. Water was 59 degrees, so I would have frozen in my Cryptic 3 mil. Jay and I spent lots of time talking about your recent trip, and his suggestion was to stay silent and work the outside of the bed, diving to 30 feet then swimming in. I did so all day, and it finally paid off with this nice 51-pounder. I tried to repeat the shot placement you discussed on the blog, but I was shooting down on the fish and I missed the spine by 1/2 an inch. I was warned the E100X was a little small for the job, but with 8-10’ vis, it turned out to be the perfect gun. Great penetration, flopper toggled, and the fish tangled up at about 25’ after making a jump out of the water.

Anyway, the Riffes were unbelievable. What a great family.

Thanks for all the pointers on the blog. Keep them coming.

Cheers,

Willie