Surf Fishing During Sunrise In Malibu 02-05-2014

Having not fished in about a week, I had the itch so I headed to my favorite local fishing area, Malibu, CA. I arrived at 6:28 AM which was about 20 minutes before the scheduled sunrise at 6:49 AM. The time just before and during sunrise (and sunset) are typically great times for pictures and I was treated to yet another spectacular sunrise on this day. To the fishing and details. Bait was squid, low tide was a +1.09' @ 8:01 AM and high tide was a +2.99 @ 1:43 PM. First fish of the day was a small 6" grass rockfish at 6:36 AM, that I did not even bother taking a picture of (well, I really just forgot to be honest, lol). Next fish up was an 11.5" buttermouth perch at 6:42 AM. Hot doggy, fishing is starting out hot! After releasing the perch (PDF link) since I do not like the texture of them fishing slowed considerably. That is fishing, one minute it is hot, the next it is not, lol. My next and final fish for the day was another grass rockfish, which was about 11" and caught at 9:40 AM. I did catch another grassy at some point, because I made note of it, but I forget the time and size. I moved around a bit and kept fishing even though it was slow for another hour and a half not catching anything else. All fish released this day, I will get the bigger models another day. Another great day of fishing in sunny Southern California. Some pretty cool pics below if I do say so myself, lol. Enjoy!

 

Surf Fishing Malibu 01-04-2014

I surf fished in Malibu alone from 6:21 AM till 10:01 AM. Low tide was 1.45' @ 5:47 AM and high tide was 5.46' @ 11:03 AM. Bait was squid. My first catch of the day was an unusual one, a just short of legal sized lobster (I always have my gauge with me, and of course I released it because it is illegal to take lobster via hook and line) at 7:14 AM. The next catch was a nice 13" grass rockfish caught at 7:25 AM which I kept. I then caught an 11" or so black sea perch aka butter mouth perch at 7:50 AM, which was hit by something on the way in because it's tail was damaged and bleeding a bit (see pic). After releasing the perch (I do not like to eat perch) my final catch of the day was a 10.5" grass rockfish at 8:26 AM, which I released to get bigger and make babies :). I should have left at this point, but like to fish a minimum of four hours when fishing is good...well the extra hour and a half I stayed resulted in three lost weights, four lost hooks and zero fish, lol. Oh well, still a great day of fishing in Malibu!

Surf Fishing Malibu 09-20-2013

Decided to hit up Malibu alone since Brian was busy and I couldn't sucker anyone else into joining me, lol. Arrived at my spot for the day at 5:35 PM and left around 8:30 PM (short session for me, as the best laid plans don't always work out. I was counting on fishing till high tide with a nice bright full moon lighting the waters, however the thick layer of clouds did not allow much light through and the bite died at sundown). Low tide was at 4:40 PM at 0.16 and high was at 10:43 PM at 4.77. Anyways, fishing was pretty decent with me catching the first fish at 5:47 PM, which was a medium sized butter mouth perch. Next fish was an 11" or so grass rockfish at 6:04 PM. The next, and last, fish caught was another 11" or so grass rockfish caught at 6:29 PM. Had a few other nibbles before sunset at 6:55 PM, but not even a bite after that. It was nice to catch some fish though :). All fish released, bait was squid as usual.

Surf Fishing Malibu 08-25-2013

Running a little behind on my posts since Google decided to change the photo editor in Picassa...grrr.

Anyways, I got to Malibu around 5:55 AM and Brian arrived a little after 7:00 AM and we left around Noon. We fished the incoming tide most of the day with a low tide of -.037 at 4:44 AM and high tide of 5.11 at 10:53 AM. Bait was squid all day.

I caught my first fish at 6:10 AM which was a 22" leopard shark. I didn't catch anything else until 8:27 AM, which was a decent sized black aka buttermouth perch. Brian got his only fish of the day at 10:28 AM which was a huge 20" Johnny Bass aka Olive Rockfish, best fish of the day by a long shot. I closed out the catching with a small cabazon at 11:29 AM. Kind of a slow day of fishing, but at least we caught some fish :). Everything but the bass were released.

Surf Fishing Malibu 06-26-2013

Fished in Malibu again today with Brian. We fished from around 6:00 AM till 10:45 AM. Fishing was pretty slow for the first couple hours, but picked up around 8:00 AM or so. I caught a nice 16.5" calico bass around then. About 45 minutes later in a different spot I caught another nice calico bass that measured out to 15". A short time later I caught a small (9" or so) grass rockfish (released) and then a 11" or so black sea perch that was very pregnant (released very quickly :)). A little bit later and Brian catches his only fish for the day, a small (22" or so) leopard shark. I gotta say I love surf fishing in Malibu!

Fathers Day 2012 - Surf Fishing Malibu

So the pops was able to go fishing with me to the location he told me about in Malibu, but he had never fished yet. After meeting him at 7:00 AM at his house we headed to Malibu. We started fishing around 8:00 AM fishing the incoming tide until around 9:45 high of 3.24'. Low was not until 2:17 and was only a 2.07 so not a whole lot of water movement. Fishing was pretty slow, I caught one decent sized black / butter mouth perch fairly early on market shrimp. Dad caught a rock crab that got hooked while snacking on his bait. We promptly released the little guy since hook and line is not a legal method of take. After that neither of us got anything but snags and salad. The salad was actually not as bad as previous trips, but it was still covering the bait occasionally. Left around noon to get home, cleaned up and back at the parents house for a 4:00 PM Fathers Day BBQ. Not too many fish, but it was still nice to hit the water with him and show him the secret location he told me about but had never fished.

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: