Redondo Jetty 12/26/2011

Hit up the big Redondo jetty with Brian from about 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. for a big ole skunk. Used Squid & Market Shrimp for bait. Fished about half way up the jetty on the ocean side. Brian was also skunked. Only think I saw caught all day was a medium sized Thornback Ray by an Asian fellow just North of us.

Redondo Jetty 12/23/2011 - 12/24/2011

Hit the secret location south of Redondo for the Peppermint shrimp bait for use on the big Redondo Jetty. Met Redkorn around 11:30 P.M. and proceeded to the location. Shrimping was super slow, only managed about 15, but the time went quick because of the great company and conversation. Moved to the big jetty around 6:00 A.M. and fished till about 12:00 Noon for one small Sargo and a 2" cabazon. I tried Squid, Mackerel and Halfmoon for bait after the shrimp ran out. Pretty much no fish after I used the 15 shrimp for bait. Redkorn did land a short Halibut on the harbor side using a jig. Slow day of shrimping and fishing for us....there were a couple Asian gentlemen just North of us who were killing it with Ghost Shrimp under a bobber and around an 8' leader. I will have to try the Ghost Shrimp one of these times (they landed a huge Cab, two large Calico Bass and a few Opal Eyes).

Redondo Big Pier 12-17-2011

Copies and pasted from PFIC report by Redkorn (I put comments in parentheses)

Redondo big pier
Bait none (I tipped my Sabiki with pieces of pacific mackerel)
Rigs- Sabikis

I was planing on going to my jetty early 4am sat but the winds that day were blowing storm out to sea. So I decided to wait.

I found my self later at Redondo pier in the after noon looking for macks, dines and lobster.

Water was clear, warm, no wind and empty.

Burger had showed up later, we both hooped only to find small crabs, starfish, octos.

To kill the boredom I pointed out one of the many hoop nets I saw early in the day that were lost to the piles. I saw about 13? the look like black lard dots under the water =)

So I rigged up something snagged it and with the help of the strong Burger over the rail it came.

It was covered in weights, sabikis,hooks,lures of every weight and size. Madness! No lobster in it tho but we got to see lots of life (Muscles, Conch, Octopus, starfish, parasites, and an overall sewage smell...how nice!!! I did get 30+ weights of various sizes for the effort).

Burger later left and so did I. No fish, no bait (I did get some shrimp somewhere else after I left the pier, I made my own contraption and wanted to test it), no lobsters a warm bed at home sounded much better.

Ventura Pier 12/11/2011

Fished & Crabbed (mostly crabbed) from 4:00 P.M. till 10:30 P.M. after the wife dropped me off and then went to work. No takers on the fishing using squid and leftover shrimp from the previous day. Ended up with 17 keeper rock crabs. Pretty good outing on the crab front. Boiled them all in my new crab pot when I got home.

Redondo Jetty 12/09/2011 - 12/10/2011

Started out Friday night at around 11:00 P.M. making bait for fishing in the morning on the big jetty. Our night of making bait resulted in this lovely live bait (don't ask me how we did it, it is a secret reserved for a few who I will only show in person):




















I also caught two small sculpin on Squid while we were making bait. (One shown below)












About 5:30 A.M. we proceeded to the long jetty to utilize the bait. I fished a little till about 6:00 A.M. when I had to leave for a few hours to take the wife to work. I returned at around 9:00 A.M. to continue fishing and managed two decent sized perch (butter mouth?) while fishing till around 11:30 A.M.. Robert and his other buddy caught eight and five assorted perch and opal eyes (no pics yet).





















All in all, a great outing with great company. I can hardly wait for the next round.

Ventura Pier 12/04/2011

Fished / crabbed Ventura Pier from about 7:00 A.M. till 2:30 P.M.. Started out at the end and worked our way back using cut mackerel and octopus as bait for fishing and a mash up of misc. crap, mostly mackerel, for crabbing. I caught zero fish all day, Brian managed one small perch and a jack smelt. Got three keeper crabs, one slender crab and two rock crabs, but threw them all back before leaving as three crabs ain't gonna give you much crab meat to work with. Was a long day due to the lack of action, but was nice none the less.

North of Santa Monica 12/03/2011

Met up with Robert aka thresher_one at 6:30 A.M. at Santa Monica Pier to pick up bait under the pier (sand crabs) then proceeded to the secret location to the North. Fished from about 7:30 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. for a skunk. Also tried sidewinder crabs for no takers. Robert's brother caught the only fish of the day, which was a very nice 14" BSP.

Venice Beach 11/25/2011

Wow, way too long between fishing trips...so I meet up with Robert aka thresher_one from PFIC to do some surf fishing. We started at Santa Monica Pier to load up on sand crabs and then headed to a jetty in Venice. We started fishing around 8:00 A.M. and finished at 11:00 A.M.. There were a couple gentlemen already on the jetty when we arrived who were fishing with squid and Camo sandworms. One of them landed a really nice sized yellowfin croaker shortly after we arrived and a few small perch with the crack until they left around 9:30 A.M. I wasn't catching much until thresher told me what he was doing and I copied him, then I landed four medium sized perch. He landed eight medium to large perch and lost at least that many due to the rocks and light line. I lost quite a few fish and setups on my 8 pound test set up until I switched to my other pole which had 40pound test (the perch didn't seem to mind). I did clean up a bunch of fishing line at the end of the jetty before I left to make up for my broken off setups. I also landed a small shovelnose guitarfish, which I put back after a quick pic.

Was a great time since I usually do not do well surf / jetty fishing. Thanks for the tips and companionship Robert! We will have to do it again very soon (I know you are always going out, I on the other hand am somewhat lazy sometimes ;) and go North more often than South, but will try to head your way more often now).

Here are some pics:

Catalina 11/12/2011-11/13/2011

Met up with Redkorn and Mahigeer for some fishing and bug hunting @ the Mole in Catalina. Mahi and I were on the 8:00 A.M. boat from Long Beach and Redkorn was on the 6:15 A.M. boat. Seas were super rough on the trip out, and as a result it was a miserable boat ride because literally 25% of the passengers were puking into little black plastic baggies...after that mess we arrived to cloudy skies, but no rain yet. After getting set up and making friends with Beaky the Cormorant...



















We dropped one net each on the off chance we could get a confused lobster out during the day. No luck there, but we did also have this nice visitor around most of the trip...






























Redkorn & Mahigeer both landed very nice Sheepheads (sorry no pics) and I landed a ton of Calico bass, most under sized, one just over legal but returned anyways. Once dark set we all put in our second nets and stopped fishing. Lobster wise, between the three of us we pulled at least 30 shorts throughout the night and 3 legals (all by Redkorn). I also pulled up this nasty looking octopus, which was returned since I caught him with my net, which is not allowed by the DFG rules.































Once the sun came up to clear skies we pulled up our nets and fished until the departing boat came. Caught a ton of Blacksmiths & Half Moons with an occasional undersized Calico Bass, Pacific Mackerel and Jumbo Spanish Mackerels.































Parting Shots































And the final catch in my sink at home. Great trip as always, even though I only got to bring home one keeper bug. Mostly because of the great company and friendly locals.

Rancho Simi Park 11/10/2011

Went to Rancho Simi Park for a quick trout fishing session with my buddy Brian. Got quite a few bites right at sunset on power bait, no hits on some jigs I tried nor after sunset. It was weird fishing in a park, but since DFG actually stocks it with Trout and Catfish I figured I would give it a try.

Ventura Pier 11/05/2011

Fished / crabbed at Ventura Pier from around 7:00 A.M. till around 4:00 P.M.. Started out at the very end for a couple hours with one medium sized white croaker and zero crabs. No bait in the water, so I moved to around mid pier for a while with no luck, then moved in closer to shore for the last few hours. Ended up with four (4) keeper rock crabs, and 3 or 4 that were close, but no cigar. Crabbing has been unusually slow there for the last couple months for some reason. Didn't catch anything else fish wise. I did see a gentleman with a couple younger fellows at the surf line killing it on the perch with Gulp Sandworms. Most were pretty small, but there were a few good sized ones.

Long day at the pier for four (4) crabs, but it was a beautiful day and it was nice to be at the ocean. Also had two fish tacos and one calamari taco from the taco shack at the base of the pier. Very good tacos! Well worth the cost, especially since they cover your parking for a minimum order of $10 (parking is $8 otherwise).

Zuma / Point Dume 10/30/2011

Hit up the Zuma / Point Dume area for a short surf fishing session. Fished for about 2 1/2 hours with one rod set up heavy with small whole macs and squid and one rod light for perch. Never got anything on the heavy set up, got one hook up on the perch set up but lost it because I forgot to set my drag after setting up my line. Fun time anyways and I will definitely hit the spot up again before the BS MLPA's go into effect after the first of the year as this area will be a no fish zone.

Island Spirit 10-28-2011

Went out to the Channel Islands on the Island Spirit 3/4 boat today. Great trip! caught my limit of salmon grouper on the first drop (limit is two), limit of rockfish pretty early on and a few sand dabs. The whole boat limited and everyone left with a full sack or a big bag of fillets. Water was calmer than I have ever seen and the temperature was perfect (I could have worn shorts). To top it off one of my buddies Chris won the JP with a huge chuckle-head and my other buddy got the fish he wanted, a legal ling cod! Great crew as always, I love this boat!

Didn't take any fish pics, but took these on the way out.

Redondo Horseshoe Pier 10/22/2011

Met up John / Redkorn at Redondo for some Lobster hooping and fishing from about 4:30 P.M. till 1:00 A.M. No lobsters in the hoop, just one medium to large female spider crab, which I tossed back because I did not want to deal with cooking it and it is difficult to tell when female spider crabs have eggs. Fishing wise, got 30-40 small to large macs for winter bait using a sabiki tipped with mac and squid. Lost quite a few to the dang seals, but it was fun to watch them (light show because of the bio-luminescence). I did see quite a few poachers there with snag lines for lobsters, luckily I did not see them get anything except spider crabs...lucky for them because I would have confronted them and called Cal-Tip.

Malibu Pier 10/20/2011

Hit up Malibu pier today for a short session with my fishing buddy Brian (about 7:00 P.M. to 10:30 P.M.). Hooped for lobster and fished for bait with sabikis tipped with macs / squid. Nothing in the hoop, but caught probably 30 or so macs between the two of us for winter bait as well as a small bass and a few lizard fish. Brian also caught a small round stingray (could have been a thornback ray, didn't look that close). There was bait everywhere and the bioluminescence was crazy (it was like watching a fireworks show in the ocean). We thought for a while that we got locked in because they closed the gates, but luckily it was not locked.

10/12/2011 Redondo Finger Jetty

Fished the small jetty just North of the short pier (in the harbor) for a few hours with my fishing buddy Brian. Pretty slow night, I caught one small sculpin and Brian caught one small rockfish. Nothing in my crab / lobster net.

Ventura Pier 10/07/2011

Fished / crabbed from around 9PM to 12:30 PM with my wife's cousin from Israel (He wanted to fish here badly). Was pretty slow, but we did manage a zillion baby croakers, a few macs and one keeper sized rock crab. I tossed the crab back before leaving and kept the macs for bait.

Malibu Pier 10/06/2011

Fished for a few hours with Brian. Was pretty slow, but we did manage a few macs for bait.

Catalina 10/01/2011

Met Redkorn and Mahigeer for the lobster opener. Arrived 10/01/2011 and left 10/02/2011. Hoop netted with two flat Pormar nets. Pulled seven shorts, zero legals. Fishing wise, caught a ton of half moons, blacksmiths and black perch. Mahigeer has a great post on this trip here
My largest fish was a 15" Halfmoon, which is pictured below.

Catalina 09/23/2011

Went to Catalina for the day with the wife to take advantage of the free trip from Catalina Express on your birthday promotion. Fished all day, catching a ton of Half Moons, Blacksmiths and perch. Also caught quite a few macs with a new rig I copied from Mahigeer. It was fun catching fish with a new hand made setup. Hooked into something larger a couple times, but lost them to the kelp both times.