California White Seabass

Ghost Hunting

The White Seabass is one of the most elusive frustrating fish to catch, and its for that reason it got the nickname “The Silver Ghost”. White Seabass is the largest member of the croaker family in California, not to be confused the “Chillean Sea bass” which is not a seabass at all. Fish weighing over 80 pounds and up to five feet long have been recorded, although fish over 60 pounds are pretty rare. With good size and light fluffy white meat they make a better meal than your average Halibut.

How to Target

If you are targeting these fish in Mexican water more than likely you will be using mackerel for bait as squid is much harder to come by. White Seabass are lazy opportunistic feeders so a hot mackerel needs to be slowed down a bit for it to get eaten. Using a dropper loop with heavy weight will keep the bait from running far, or the preferred Mexican way is called a Hamberguesa or “Hamburger rig”. Use a chrome spoon lure like a Luhr Jensen 2 1/4-ounce Krocodile or a jig like the Tady 9 or A11 fitted with a single 8/0 or 9/0 Siwash hook. Hook a 6-9” mackerel in the roof of the mouth and out the snout to prevent the hook from running back into the bait. Fish this setup in the rod holder with light drag and let the bait work. You can also add bobber to it if you want to spread multiple baits in the water column. In places like Cedros Island, they are often caught but not targeted because of their finicky behavior, but the fish will compete with yellows for the iron unlike anywhere else.

Fishing in US waters has changed slightly over the years. Prior to the El Nino of 2015 there was a lot more fish found in coastal waters and sometimes open water, but as the water warmed up the kelp along the coastline has become less dense and it hasn’t made for a good stopping point for these fish as they migrate north during the summer. This has led to a lot more fish being caught at the islands instead of the coastline. The most common way to target white seabass is with the presence of a squid bed. When market squid spawn they lay their eggs under water on rocky bottom surfaces. The eggs pile up on top of each other and sometimes can be 2 feet or more thick. The squid crowd themselves into schools and with their low swimming speed become an easy target for a White Seabass meal. If there is one thing that’s true about White Seabass, its that they are never far from the lunchroom.

Generally speaking White Seabass are not line shy, fishing with 60lb fluorocarbon is not uncommon, but if the bite is finicky sizing down to 30lb may help. As a member of the Croaker family they are very sensitive to sound, so shutting off your engine and anchoring up is a must or the school may not swim through (this includes generators and stereos too). When using squid, it does not matter if you have live bait or not, fresh dead, or frozen baits work just fine. For the best hook up ratio use simple J hooks or my personal favorite Owner Aki Twist in a 6/0 to 7/0 size. Circle hooks don’t work particularly well with this species as the hooks typically stick deep in the gut. The fish are generally in mid to low water column so if you are going to fish a fly lined bait put a sliding egg sinker on your line, this is a good way to get baits into the kelp line away from the boat in the current. If you are going to fish a dropper loop it needs be a “High dropper Loop” which is where the weight is 5 feet or so below the hook instead of the usual 2-3' feet. This because if you are sitting on a squid bed your bait will be too low and burried inside the bed and never seen by the fish. The last way is using a lead head in that 6/0 size or so and casting away from the boat and slowly working it back along the bottom. Sometimes fishing with squid will attract a bunch of Black Perch (Blacksmith) and they will hammer your bait with a ton of pecks until its gone which is why I don’t recommend using bobbers or floats with squid. You would never know you were fishing a bait less hook for hours without feeling the pecks. Putting 2-3 squids on a hook will make your setup last a little longer. Avalon locals have also rigged up the same Black Perch as bait on a dropper loop and caught white seabass as well. Swinging and setting the hook is a no-no, as they are often gut hooked, so let them take a little line and reel down on them for the best hook up ratio.

The Channel Islands are the last real hot bed for White Seabass. Sometimes the fish pile up like they do at Catalina on the squid beds, other times they school up in open water on the surface. This is the only place where you might spend some time in the binoculars glassing the waters for signs of fish. When the fish are setup on the squid beds the usual squid techniques will work just fine.

Kambiz Moradi with a specimen on the Apollo with Captains Greg Obymako and Jeff Jessop at Santa Barbara Island

For open water fishing using a lead head paired up with a white pearl color swimbait is going to be used to cast at these surface schools. Swim baits like the Zoom Magnum Super Fluke are an excellent choice.

Patterns

There has always been these hypothesis that White Seabass only bite 3 days before and after the full moon, or they only bite at dark or grey light. If there is one thing I have learned in all my years of fishing, the word ONLY and NEVER do not belong in fishing vocabulary. I would say based on my experience that the beginning of the day and the end of the day seem to be more productive. Although the 3 days before and after the full moon can also be slightly more productive they bight often for a week or more at a time. The best way to stay on top of them is really word of mouth. As long as a food source, current, and some type of cover (kelp, structure, or dirty colored water) remain the fish will typically hang around.

Where

White seabass travel over the continental shelf of the eastern north Pacific from Alaska to Magdalena Bay, Baja California, and inhabit the northern portion of the Gulf of California in Mexico. Most of the population is primarily between San Diego and Point Conception off California. They become sexually mature at about three to four years old. White seabass reach “keeper” size (28 in. length) at around five years old, which allows each fish to reproduce for at least one to two years before capture. Spawning in Southern California occurs from April through August, peaking in May and June. During this period, mature White Seabass appear to congregate near shore over rocky habitat and near kelp beds. Females are believed to spawn several times each season. White Seabass eggs are buoyant, and drift with the ocean currents. The eggs develop into darkly colored larvae, and settle out into coastal areas. Young-of-the-year white seabass may be found near drifting debris and algae in shallow areas just outside the surf zone. Older juveniles can be found in kelp beds and in protected bays, often near eel grass beds. As White Seabass mature, they are commonly found schooling near rocky bottom structures and around kelp beds along the coast and offshore islands. Adults are also known to school several miles offshore when the bait schools are thick.

Wes Pierson of Bight Sportfishing setup on the east end of Catalina

Conservation

White Seabass populations are recovering from the low population levels from the mid to the late 1900’s due to overfishing like most species. The Ocean Resource Enhancement and Hatchery Program was established in 1982 as an experimental program to use a hatchery to return the White Seabass populations to their former numbers. By 2001 more than 100,000 White Seabass had been released into Southern California waters, and 1,000,000 by 2004. In partnership with Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute the hatchery continues to operate in Carlsbad, and then the juvenile fish are grown out in pens in 12 different locations in California before being released. The pens are managed 100% by volunteers! The cost of the program is high and is funded by the “Ocean Enhancement Stamp” on your California fishing license. The results of the program have been criticized by the way it was being measured. Coded wire tags were used to tag the juvenile fish but were often never recovered when caught due to the nature that they attach. The results were showing that only 7.4% of the fish being caught were hatchery fish. A later study in 2022 using DNA from caught fish proved that the results were actually much higher at an astonishing 46.7% proving the real success of the program.

Grow out pens are scattered across the Southern California bight.

The fishing limits south of Point Conception are 1 per person between March 15th and June 15th, then the bag limit returns to 3. The regulations are designed to allow the fish to have a chance to spawn before being caught. White Seabass are a slow growing delicate fish so once you have caught your limit you should stop fishing for them. The catch and release mortality rate is rather shocking. Deeply hooked fish died 65% of the time when the hooks were removed and 41% of the time when left embedded. A 10% post release mortality rate was seen using both J and circle hooks.

A White Seabass over 40lbs is truly a special one once you realize how old they actually are.

More Information

Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research White Seabass Study

Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program

Bycatch Study

Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute Hatchery Program

WSB DNA Study