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).