Ventura is the second Channel Islands gateway, sitting next to Oxnard at the north end of the Santa Barbara Channel — Anacapa Island is roughly 14 miles off the harbor mouth. The signature trips work calico bass, yellowtail, and white seabass at Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island, with rockfish runs to the Santa Barbara Channel oil platforms when weather closes the islands. Ventura Harbor Sportfishing runs the local four-boat fleet.
The harbor
Ventura Harbor — built in the early 1960s after Ventura residents voted to fund their own port — is the launch point. An offshore breakwater 700 meters long sits 600 meters off the coast, sheltering the basin from open swell. The Channel Islands National Park Visitors Center sits inside the harbor, which makes Ventura the natural orientation point for trips to Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island.
Grounds
Grounds are close. Anacapa Island is roughly 14 miles from Ventura Harbor — the closest of the Channel Islands to the mainland — and Santa Cruz Island sits about 34 miles out. When the islands are weathered out, captains work the Santa Barbara Channel oil platforms for rockfish: Grace at about 91 meters of water, Gilda at 61 meters, and Gail at 225 meters are among the platforms surveyed for groundfish assemblages dominated by rockfish.
Regulations
The Anacapa Island State Marine Reserve covers 11.55 square miles immediately north of Anacapa Island, where "fishing and collecting are strictly prohibited" and which is "regarded as one of the most protected MPAs in the region." The SMR shares borders with the federal Anacapa Island Marine Reserve, the state Anacapa Island SMCA, the federal Anacapa Island MCA, and a special-closure zone — four overlapping designations that Ventura captains route around.
Getting there
Climate averages favor year-round fishing: average daily highs run 66.5°F in January to 77°F in August, with annual rainfall around 16 inches concentrated November through March. U.S. 101 connects the harbor to Greater Los Angeles to the southeast and to Santa Barbara to the northwest.
