Surf Fishing Malibu 06-14-2013

Brian and I fished Malibu again today from about 10:00 AM till around 4:00 PM. We both fished with squid. Fishing was pretty slow all day, but we both managed to catch some fish. Brian caught a small grass rockfish and a pig BSP (around 14", released since neither one of us really like perch). I caught two very small grass rockfish and a nice 15" Calico Bass that I would not have caught if the nice couple that decided to set up within sight of where we were fishing and proceeded with a nice photoshoot of her wearing nothing but a thong had not shown up, which kept us fishing for about an hour longer than we were planning :) Sorry, no pictures of that.

Hobson Beach 11-23-2012

After a sleep in the car overnight I woke up to breakfast with mom, dad, sister and her fiance. A little fishing first off though of course. Caught a nice 13" Calico Perch before breakfast. Then fished more after breakfast with Brian who drove up in the morning and my brother and dad in the afternoon. We all slayed the perch. I caught huge BSP and Calico Perch on squid, biggest was 13.5" and had a bite mark on it's side from something. Caught a total of 7 or 8 perch, keeping only the 12" plus ones for the parents. Brian also caught 5 or 6 BSP on squid, my brother caught a dozen or so on gulp camo sand worms (though most of his were the smaller versions), and my dad caught a few on squid as well. Great day of fishing with the family and friends

Ventura Pier 03/09/2012 - 03/10/2012

Hit up Ventura Pier since my buddy was late and we missed the grunion run time. Arrived at the pier around 11:45 and proceeded to the end of the pier after checking the surf line for any signs of life. Dropped in my crab net and started getting the rods ready. set up one pole with a whole small BSP from a previous trip on a circle with a stinger and let it sit while I set up the other pole. No hits that I noticed on the whole BSP. Set up the other pole with a high low and put shrimp on the high and squid on the low. Pulled the other pole up while I went to check the crab net. 1st pull and there is a keeper! Nice way to start. Dropped the net back down and went back and tossed out the high-low pole. After a while I see some movement so I pick up the pole and feel it...seems kinda like crabs, but why not set the hook anyways...hmm, that is not a crab! Brought the little guy to the pier and left him just below the water line while I went to grab the crab net to get it up. My buddy held it in place while I got my net making sure it didn't wrap around a piling. Brought it up and it was my first every bat ray. A small little bugger (maybe 18" across or so) that just found the squid too tempting. After a quick unhook I lowered em back to the water in the crab net. Forgot to take a pic. After that I only really had one other solid hit, which I missed. Brought in the bait and it had a huge mouth mark taken out of its belly....grrr, that's what I get for not using a stinger. On the crab front I ended up with five keeper rock crabs and one decent sized spider crab. Caught a ton of shorts. Left a little after 3:00 A.M.. All and all a great trip even though it was a bit slow.

I got crabs at the pier....

Hobson Beach 02/12/2012

Brian and I hit up the rocks just North of Hobson Beach fishing from about 11:00 A.M. to about 6:00 P.M. We were using mainly sand crabs as bait but I did also try live peppermint shrimp, squid and mackerel chunks as well. I caught one dink BSP and Brian caught four medium to small BSP and one 11" calico surf perch (returned, because it looked to be pregnant). The main reason for going there was to harvest muscles, but the swell did not cooperate so that will have to wait. Pics of our fishing area and the calico Brian caught below.

Surf Fishing South of Santa Monica 01/22/2012

Met up with thresher_one at Santa Monica Pier at around 7:00 A.M. and he already had our bait for the day, sand crabs, collected. So he hopped in my car and we proceeded South to the target area. It started out pretty good with us both hooking up on small BSP almost immediately, but after that it was pretty slow. I ended up catching four BSP and a 5" cabbie (I didn't know they would go for sand crabs) and thresher_one ended up catching four or five BSP. We fished from around 7:30AM till 12:30PM.

One thing of note was I got checked for license and catch for the first time EVER here in Southern California! The warden was very nice and cordial and I was happy to see him. I forgot to get his contact info so I can report poaching when I see it (I have tried Cal-Tip to no avail a few times), so hopefully I will see him out there again soon.

Overall, a slow day of fishing, but it is always nice to get out on the water.

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: