Surf Fishing Malibu 10-25-2013

Wanting to take advantage of the early morning low tide (low was a 3.06 @ 6:34 AM high was a 4.03 @ 12:07 PM and sunrise was at 6:09 AM) Brian and I decided to do some early morning fishing in Malibu....well, earlier for some than others, lol. I arrived at 5:30 AM and Brian arrived at 6:35 AM. Caught my first fish for the day at 5:38 AM which was a small, 8" or so, grass rockfish. Brian caught his first fish of the day at 7:18 AM which was also a small, 9" or so, grass rockfish. Nothing after that until 9:35 AM when magic happened, lol. In our many times fishing we have had times where we both had fish on, but we had never managed to land fish simultaneously. Well, two tiny 6" grass rockfish changed that :). Small fish, but we were psyched that it finally happened. No more fish after that and we packed it in around 10:00 AM since we were both tired (I had not slept at all the night before) and fishing was slow. Of course all fish were released to get bigger for my belly :). I would have to say it was another fantastic day in Malibu.

Fishing Ventura Harbor & Hobson Beach 10-22-2013

Brain and I decided to fish a little North so we headed to Ventura. Fished the South jetty of Ventura Harbor first. We arrived at around 10:00 AM and started out about 3/4 of the way down the jetty and fished the ocean side. After a while of not getting anything, not even nibbles I wandered down to the end of the jetty and cast straight out out into the middle of the harbor entrance. As soon as my bait (squid of course) hit bottom it started getting tapped like crazy. Must be little fish, but at least it is some action, lol. I called Brian down to the end and I brought in the first fish of the day, a small croaker at 11:14 AM. We fished for about another hour catching more small to medium sized croakers with the final tally being six for me and two for Brian before we left around noon.

After a trip to Carpinteria for lunch we decided to try one more spot before heading home, which was the rocks North of Hobson Beach. Fished the rocks from about 2:15 PM till 5:00 PM catching nothing but some sun, a couple sneaker waves and a nice fall into a five foot hole for me, lol. I tried two casts at Hobson Beach while Brian was using their facilities, but didn't catch anything there either. Fun day of fishing but not a lot of fish this time....oh yeah almost forgot the dolphins came into Ventura harbor into very shallow water, short video of that below.

View from Hobson Beach looking North

Surf Fishing Malibu 10-18-2013 with Flannery

Talked my main fishing partner in crime the Flan man into fishing the Full Moon. I / we usually do pretty well on full moon nights with incoming tides, and this day / night was no exception. Low tide was a -0.18 @ 2:49 PM and high was a 4.47 @ 8:54 PM. We fished from about 2:45 PM till about 8:45 PM. Bait was frozen squid as usual.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the fishing started out hot right away....for Brian at least, lol. He started out the catching by pulling in a fatty 17" calico bass at 3:12 PM. Damn, nice start!

He then proceeded to catch three grass rockfish between 3:30 PM and 5:00 PM which were approximately 8", 12" and 11" (all released to get just a bit bigger). Wow, he has a four to zero lead on me....guess it is just his day :).

Still not catching jack, I took a moment to take this nice picture around sunset at 5:11 PM (moonrise was at 5:13 PM) while standing on a rock in the middle of the ocean with a fishing pole in one hand and an expensive smartphone in the other...

Wouldn't ya know it. A second after taking this picture, I get hit and it sticks....crap, phone to pocket quickly and reel baby reel, lol. Brought in my first fish of the night, a nice 13" or 14" yellow Fin Croaker (released because I do not care for YFC personally). Yeaaaaa, no skunk for me :).

Fishing was a little slow for an hour until I caught an around 11.5" grass rockfish at 6:19 PM, which was released to get bigger. Hmmm, now his lead is only 4-2 :).

Next fish came at 7:03 PM and it was a big fat piggy 19" Calico Bass! Woo hoo! What a fish and what a fight to get em in through the rocks and eel grass. Calico bass are one of my favorite fish to catch because even the small ones give you a good fight and the large ones fight like hell.

Nice! Two pig calico's in the bucket (and Brian was happy I got a fish I kept so he could shlep off his fish on me to clean, lol) and the lead is down to 4-3 :). I caught the final fish at 7:41 PM which was an approximately 18-20" leopard shark (released of course).

We fished for about an hour after that then resigned ourselves to a nice 4-4 tie for the night, lol. Great night of fishing and catching. We both also had large sharks on but both were broken off even with our semi-heavy gear (I use 40 LB mono Brian uses 60 LB braid with a 40 LB mono leader). We will get one of those beasts in one of these days :).

Surf Fishing Malibu 10-11-2013

Fishing in Malibu with Brian from about 7:00 AM till 11:00 AM. Low tide was a 2.76 at 7:36 AM and High was a 4.7 at 1:46 PM. Bait was squid. The day started out great with me catching an 11" or so grass rockfish at 7:03 AM. Damn, three minutes in and got a fish already, gonna be a hot day......not so much, lol. That was the only fish caught on the day. Thankfully the beautiful weather and site made up for the slow day of fishing, and at least we were not skunked :). The fish was released to get bigger and mate / reproduce :).

Surf Fishing Malibu 10-06-2013

Fished Malibu alone from about 5:15 PM till 9:15 PM. Fishing was super slow with not many bites and zero fish caught. Was fishing my favorite, and incoming tide (low was a -0.04 @ 4:03 PM & high was a 4.16 @ 10:07 PM) and sunset, but ended up with a good ole fashion skunk :). Was very nice out and got a couple nice shots, which are below. Sorry, no fish porn this time :).

From another day, can't remember which one, lol.

Surf Fishing Malibu With B 10-03-2013

Brian and I decided to hit up one of the Malibu spots for some afternoon fishing. Arrived at the spot at around 3:15 PM and stayed till around 7:15 PM. Bait was squid as usual. The first fish caught was a small grass rockfish by me at 4:47 PM. I then caught a decent sized calico perch at 5:07 PM and another small grass rockfish at 5:20 PM. Nothing for either of us after that until about 6:20 PM my line gets slammed. After a nice fight trough the kelp and rocks I pull in my biggest leopard shark caught to date at 35"+. Sooooo close to being in my belly, it even might have been 36" but it was too close to keep and risk a fine. Brian didn't catch anything unfortunately on this trip. He will get em the next time :). All fish caught were released.