Redondo Sportsfishing Pier 05-30-2012

Hit up the Sportsfishing pier at Redondo today. Started out at around 7:30 AM and fished till 2:00 PM. Fishing was very slow all day. I caught three mackerel, a smelt and a couple senorita fish (damn bait stealer, lol). I tried to crab for a bit, but since I forgot my bait cage the seals promptly removed the mackerel in the net portion so I stopped to keep the seals away and since it was pointless. Very nice weather and very little swell (probably why fishing was slow). At one point my heavy line with a live smelt for bait took off peeling line out, but when I brought it up a seal was right behind it so I am thinking either the seal hit my line or the smelt really wanted to get away from it, lol. Lots of Calico bass, mostly shorts, being caught and released on the side portion of the pier.

Ventura Harbor Memorial Day 05-28-2012

Not having any plans set in stone other than spending time with the wife I was delighted when my buddy Brian called and asked if we wanted to go to Ventura Harbor to do some jetty / surf fishing in the Ventura area. After discussing it with the wife we decided that we would love to go. Picked up Brian & Nicole in Simi at around 1:15 PM and headed for Ventura. I knew Mahigeer was going to be in the area since I had spoken to him and he was at Sterns Wharf and planning to stop by Ventura pier. He could not come over to the jetty and we did not want to go to the pier because of the inevitable Memorial Day traffic. I did take a shot of the pier in the distance below so I could say I took a picture of him, lol. Started fishing at end of the jetty around 2:30 PM after dropping stuff off, finding parking and walking a couple blocks back. There was a ton of dead kelp and eel grass in the water which made the chances of catching any fish slim. I tried all sides of the jetty with Octopus, Mackerel, Muscle and Shrimp but almost every time I brought in my line it was covered with eel grass. Hard to catch a fish when your bait is buried beneath a huge clump of crud, lol. Left around 5:30 about 45 minutes past the high tide. We were both skunked, but it was a nice day out there, the swells were pretty big. Both of us and our gear got soaked a couple times. Couple shots of the area and a video I found on my phone of a Sarcastic Fringehead I caught in my net at Ventura Pier on 05-15-2012.

Surf Fishing Dana Point Area 05-26-2012

My buddy Hammer and his buddy Polo showed up to my house a little behind schedule, but pretty close to the scheduled time of 5:30 AM and we were on our way by 5:50 AM. After stopping somewhere off the 5 freeway to pick up Polo's uncle we were on our way to the Dana Point Area. After stopping in at the gas station for snacks and to drop off our gear we started what ended up being a hell of a long walk to the spot. I am pretty sure it was over a mile, not so far, but it was rough walking, lol. After passing by several fishy looking areas that I will be back to fish soon, we arrived at our spot at the point at around 8:25 AM. I started out with a double dropper loop with squid and octopus on them and knew I would be switching out to a single as soon as I lost this setup which was not very long, lol. After switching to a single I moved to the tip of the point and cast out with octopus. After a few casts flinging my shore crabs off the hook before they hit the water, I switched to muscles and cast where Polo's uncle suggested I cast. I got constant hits when casting to this spot, but time after time they just striped the bait off without setting the circle hook. Hammer hooked into something large, but it took him into the kelp and got off after about 10 minutes. After moving North of the point where polo said there were lots of small perch I switched to a sabiki tipped with muscle and within seconds I had my first fish of the day, a decent sized walleye perch. Caught a ton of the small fries while eyeballing the cove that I will be back to fish hard (video below). I did not feel like losing a bunch of rigs today, but there are rockfish, cabazon and possibly lings in there for sure. Kept a bunch of the decent sized walleyes and a senorita fish (what I knew as soon as I saw that they were around were the culprits stealing my bait) and a few small black perch. After sharing a great burrito that uncle made for lunch Polo and Hammer were both catching small perch and his uncle kept on catching Garibaldi. Every time we were excited at a large fish being on, then disappointed as soon as we saw the orange. We called it a day at around 3:30 PM. The swell was large all day, which is suspect had something to do with the bigger perch hiding. After packing up while his Uncle cleaned the catch he felt like taking and releasing all of the small perch in the holding pool we were on our way back on the long trek to the car. We saw a dead sea slug and a large dead female sheep-head (fish) on the shore. I also took a nice tumble at the end of the rocks where a bunch of dead dried kelp attracted millions of bugs as I tried to hurry by.

It was a great day of fishing, scouting a few new locations along the way and seeing some nice ladies along the way as usual, lol. Hammer also purchased his year license, so we will hopefully be doing this more often.

Lot of pics and a video of a cove I will be back to fish below:

Crabbing and Fishing Ventura Pier 05-25-2012

Met up with Brian at about 7:15 AM and headed for the pier. Started fishing and crabbing at around 8:00 A.M. There were a few other anglers around most catching queenfish / herring on sabikis. We set up shop at the end and I placed the crab net in my usual spot. Fishing was fairly constant on the sabiki lines we used catching what they call tiny 7-11 perch, decent sized walleye perch and queenfish / herring. Buddy and I both tried shark rigs (him the whole time, me only when I got tired of using the sabiki rod) with live bait but no takers on those either. Gave some of our perch to the locals to try for sharks, no love for them either. Crabbing was spectacular as usual. I ended up getting 23 keeper red, yellow and rock crabs. I gave five away to these two younger fellows (I think they were around 17) who were camping with their family somewhere close and wanted some to boil up. They were pretty nice kids and I had plenty so I spread the wealth a little. We left at around 2:00 PM as the wind and swell was getting progressively worse (the crabbing also slowed as the swell got bigger). Good day on the pier hanging with my buddy and checking out the local scenery (love them hot days!).

Malibu Surf Fishing 05-23-2012

Fished a spot in Malibu from about 12:30 PM till 7:00 PM. A 3.16 High tide was at 12:30 and a 2.22 low was at 4:47 PM. Tried squid, octopus, shrimp, sardine, smelt and mackerel. Main problem on the day was as soon as your line hit the water it was covered with eel grass and the fish cannot see the bait then. For some reason I stayed way longer than I should have given the conditions. Finally went home skunked again when it started getting too dark to get back to my car safely. Going to try some spots further North of Malibu next time since this one has seemed to die off for now.

Malibu Short Surf Session 05-20-2012

So my brother wakes me up at around 10:30 AM and says - Let's go fishing. I will be there in 15 minutes....so I quickly got ready and him his buddy Bruce and I are on our way to Malibu. Got there around 11:00 AM or so and fished till about 1:30 or so. I did not catch anything using, squid, octopus, sardine, mackerel and anchovy. I did get one massive hit, but whatever it was did not set the circle hook. My brother did not catch anything either and Bruce caught one tiny rockfish and a Sea Slug, lol. Oh well, it was a short session so I kind of expected to be skunked. No pictures today
.

Malibu Surf Fishing 05-18-2012

Hit up a spot in Malibu from about 9:15 AM till 2:15 PM. High tide of 3.37 was at 9:10 AM or so and low of 1.56 was around 2:15 PM. It was pretty slow all day but did manage one small grass rockfish around noon (probably 6 or 7"). After putting him back to get bigger didn't get anything else. He bit on a piece of octopus on the lower of a high low setup (I was able to use this setup without losing too many rigs because the salad was light today). Tried squid, octopus, sardine, anchovy, mackerel and market shrimp throughout the day (ended day with a Carolina rig setup).

Ventura Pier 05-15-2012

Hit up Ventura Pier from about 1:30 PM till 10:30 PM. Set up shop with the crab net in my usual spot baited with the usual menagerie of junk this time consisting of mackerel, sardines, whitefish head and rock fish head. Crabbing was off the charts all day. Ended up keeping twenty something rock crabs (red, yellow and rock) and two spider crabs, one if which was the biggest caught to date for me. Fishing wise you could have all the queenfish you could ever possibly want if that is your thing (I caught and released all fish caught on the day). Didn't see much else, except for a large smelt and a few sand sharks caught by others shortly before leaving. Birds were diving and dolphins were around the pier, but I never saw any baitfish anywhere on the pier. Guess the bait is hanging out just outside the pier. I forgot to bring a sabiki so I made one from crappie jigs I had in my tackle box which worked just fine.

Malibu Surf Fishing 05-11-2012

Well, I headed down to my favorite spot in Malibu again arrived around 7:00 A.M. and set up shop along the shore line after climbing down the rocks.

View upon arrival at 7:00 AM:

-0.52 tide was at around 9:00 AM and high was 3.63 at 3:55 PM

Baited up with a sardine head and cast between two partially submerged rocks in casting distance. Almost as soon as it hit bottom it was hammered. I was surprised and thought maybe it was just kelp at first. After feeling that it was not kelp I started reeling in as fast as I could only to get the weight (a rock with a rubber band) caught on some kelp on the way in. Pulled hard and the rubber bands gave way and the rock came lose but at the same time the fish got off. Bait was still on thanks to a piece of tread but it looked like it had been digested (it was gross looking, the skin was gone and it's gills were facing the wrong way). Tossed it back in at the same location but nothing this time. That would be a pattern for the day unfortunately, lol. Tried Salt Cured Sardine, Pacific Mackerel, and Grunion as well as Squid, and Fresh Smelt. Got a few nibbles throughout the day but nothing that would set my circle hook. I was using a standard single dropper loop, but will go back to the reverse dropper loop next time since I forgot it seems to work better with the area. Left around 2:00 P.M. resigned to defeat for the day. I even tried digging for sand crabs, but could only find babies too small to use.

Great weather and water temperature (I was in Sandals and shorts and walking out as far as I felt was safe). Also great sights to be seen. Cool looking sea anemones, one eating a crab leg from bait I tossed in that was getting old), sea slugs, starfish and other cool stuff. Took a few pictures of the area / day. Sorry no fish porn this time ;).

Sea Anemone Eating Crab Leg I let go earlier in day:

Almost forgot to mention one perk of surf fishing in Malibu is the other views. A lovely pair of scantly clad young ladies (one in a g-string) walking their dogs, another pair up on the rocks above and several nice looking joggers makes up for not catching any fish in my book ;)

Shore from road above upon leaving at 2:00 PM: