Surf Fishing Malibu 07-28-2012

Decided to hit up my Malibu spot on Saturday for a nice long outing. Wife dropped me off around 7:00 AM and I was fishing ten minutes later. It was high tide of 3.06' right around 7 and a low of 2.18' was at about 11:15 AM. Second high of 5.62' was not until about 6:00 PM. Fished alone for about five hours walking out in knee deep water to a rock to cast about 40' out from shore. Had one hook up on cut grunion but lost it at the surface (must not have been hooked well). It looked to be a 10" or so rockfish. After that just a few nibbles here and there, but nothing of note. A fishing boat came in really close to shore to fish the same area I was, but I did not see them catch anything either. Brian showed up a little after noon and fished squid exclusively until we left around 6:00 PM. He got a nibble here and there as well, but did not catch anything. I tried squid, grunion (seemed to be the only thing that was getting bites today, as luck would have it I only had one), shrimp, perch and croaker for nothing. Big ole skunk for 10 hours of fishing kind of sucks, but at least there was some nice eye candy around ;).

Few pictures of area, eye candy, fishing boat and kayakers:

RayFish Footwear

They claim they can make you a shoe with any pattern you chose with a stingray grown for you with your pattern. Sounds dubious, but who knows. At $1,800 I know I ain't buying a pair any time soon, lol.

Here is their site:
RayFish Footwear

Click Here for article on why it is likely fake

Malibu Grunion Day 2 07-21-2012

After losing the big one the night before Brian and I were raring to go to try again. I arrived at around 4:30 PM and Brian around 5:00 PM. Fishing was very slow all night with each of us catching one small leopard shark (Brian caught the bigger one). Did not see any grunion this time. Left around 12:15 AM.

Malibu Grunion 07-20-2012

My buddy Brian and I wanted to fish the grunion run which was slated to start at around 10:30 PM so we headed to my special spot in Malibu. We arrived at about 7:45 PM and set up shop on the rocks. I came pretty light on the bait front, only taking squid and a couple perch. Things started out pretty slow, but started to pick up closer to sunset. I caught the first fish of the night, which was a small leopard shark on squid around 8:45 PM or so. After that I caught a small rockfish on a chunk of BSP around 9:30 PM or so. Brian hooked into something very big that broke him off after a short run. He re-baited and went right back out. A short time later he was hooked up again. Whatever it was peeled off line so fast I thought I was going to see smoke from his reel, lol. After about a 5 minute battle he got it up on shore...but it was about 100' North of where we were and there was no beach in between, only slick rocks. After falling once trying to get over to the fish it broke the line when I was about 50' from it. I could not see what it was unfortunately. Brian caught a nice 13+" sargo on squid around 11:30. At around 11:45 I headed down to the area with beach still exposed to see if any grunion were around. I saw two right away but nothing after that. Tried one of them as live bait which got a couple tugs before losing the bait, but didn't catch anything. We packed it in around 12:30 AM. Great night of fishing, too bad the big one got away (probably a bat ray, but possibly a white sea bass).

Malibu 07-15-2012

Decided to hit the high tide at around dusk since they say that is the best time to fish (that and an early high tide). Arrived at the spot at around 6:00 PM, high tide of +5.26 was a little after 7:30 PM. I only brought squid for bait since I was lazy and it has worked at this location before. Set up on my usual rock and cast out a double dropper with squid. About 15 minutes later I pulled in my first fish of the day a small leopard shark (probably around 18" or so). After putting him back about 30 minutes later I get a small grass rockfish (about 7") which was put back to get bigger. After that no real action until after sunset at a little after 8:00 PM. Between then and when I left at 9:00 PM I caught two more small leopard sharks (first was around 18" again, second was a few inches bigger) and had a ton of short bites. Left with nothing to eat, but happy to have caught four fish.

Jetty Fishing Ventura and Port Hueneme 07-14-2012

So decided to hit up a jetty my friend Brian and I had previously fished since there were legal white sea bass caught off of it earlier in the week. We hoped they would still be around, but knew that was not likely. We arrived at around 10:00 AM and proceeded to the end of the jetty. After getting set up we both cast around for a while using squid. After about 10 minutes Brian decides to try a hole I had found previously and dropped his offering down between the rocks. Almost immediately he brings up a small (7" or 8") sculpin which he returned to get bigger. After casting around for a while longer I decided to break the skunk and dropped my offering in the hole and pulled up a small (8" or 9")grass rockfish which was returned to grow. Nothing else after that. We packed up around 1 which was about an hour after low tide and headed to a new spot in Port Hueneme we had been wanting to try.

Got to the new spot around 1:30 or so and after chatting with a few other fisherman we went to the end. Place looked very very fishy so I was hopeful. Got lots of taps but nothing that stuck at the first spot. Water was VERY deep there, deeper than most piers I have been to. Moved over to a different spot on the jetty at around 3:30 which had a ton of structure...probably too much, lol. I got rocked while taking a picture and by the time I was able to real in the bastard had took me into a hole or something. After trying to work em out for about 10 minutes I just snapped the line. Nothing else after that but we did see a seal get a huge fish (looked over 3') just out of casting distance.

All and all a great day! Kinda light on the fish, but it was nice to fish a new location. I also discovered that the "jumbo" squid I bought at Ranch 99 for $0.99 a pound worked just fine for fishing. Have to go back and grab some more while it is on special.

Malibu Surf Fishing 07-08-2012

Decided to make a short trip to my spot in Malibu since I had not yet fished this weekend and there was a grunion run the previous evening. Arrived at around 11:00 AM and planned to stay until about 3:00 PM which was about 1 hour past the 2:00 high tide of 4' or so. Fishing was very slow all day. Had a few nibbles, but nothing solid. Stayed till 5:00 PM because the girls in bikinis made it hard to leave, lol. Used squid most of the day, but also tried mackerel, perch and smelt. On thing this spot produces almost every trip and a fine looking ass or three to look at. Makes up for getting skunked most of the time, lol.

Malibu Surf Fishing 07-03-2012

Decided to hit up my spot in Malibu for a few hours with Brian since he was free to fish. We arrived at around 5:30 PM which was just about half way between the low and high tide of +6.9' scheduled for about 9:45 PM. Fishing was very slow for me all day, with me getting a few bites but nothing that would stick trying squid, octopus, shrimp, smelt and sandcrabs for bait. Brian landed a small leopard shark and a 9" or so grass rockfish (grassy). Packed it in around 9:30 PM when it got to dark to see anything and we were backed up on the rocks by the tide.