Lobster Opener in Catalina 09-27-2013 to 09-29-2013

So I decided to go along with my friends Hashem aka Mahigeer and John aka Redkorn to Catalina for the lobster opener this year. Season opened at 12:01 AM on 09/28/2013. Mahigeer and I arrived around 7:30 AM on 09-27-2013 and John came in on the 9:00 PM boat. We all left on 09-29-2013, me on the 10:15 AM boat. Lots of fun was had, many fish were caught (including my first ever bonito from shore), lots of eye candy was enjoyed and most importantly I did come home with one lobster (thanks to John ;))! A very detailed report of the trip can be found here Catalina Mole, lobster opener 9/27/2013 which is the PFIC (Pier Fishing In California) website we all met on many years ago. Below are my pics from the trip and a few comments, but make sure to check out the link for the detailed report, it is a beautifully put together report of the trip. BTW, I was up for close to 90 hours straight between the day before and this trip, so I was a bit tired when I got home, lol.

09/27/2013

Cruise ship parked outside of the bay

 Mahigeer with triple Mackerel hook up above and double bonito below

 

My first ever Bonito caught from shore!

 

Tree Rockfish above, horn shark below

09/28/2013

 Casino at Night

 Sunrise

 Local Lobster Poacher in red shorts, called Cal-Tip on them, but no one ever showed up.

 Redkorn aka John fishing hard!

 Nice man named Bill we met on the trip with an Eel he caught

Lots of short lobsters below

09/29/2013

 My first ever legal that I actually pulled up!

 Another small tree rockfish

 Parting Shot

Days of work for this, but it was worth it :)

Surf Fishing Malibu 10-27-2012

Another Saturday, another day in Malibu doing what I love best. Arrived a little before 8:00 AM, had my first fish at 8:15 AM, a nice calico perch that taped out at a little over 11".

Back to fishing and I had a very small leopard shark (released) around 8:25 AM. Kind of quite after that for a while, catching one huge rock crab (released) until 9:45 AM when I landed my first grass rockfish on the day that taped out at a little over 12".

Back to fishing and at 10:05 AM I hook up with a nice 13.5" grass rockfish :). Back in the water and quite for a while until 11:15 AM when I landed another grass rockfish which was just shy of 12" and bleeding badly.

Wife arrived at Noon to pick me up. Another great day fishing in Da Bu. All fish caught on squid or bonito / squid combo. High tide was at 8:15 AM or so.

6 Pack Trip with Redkorn (Lobster)

I copied and pasted the below from my friend Redkorn's report. Caught a ton of fish, no lobster.

We went out of SP for a short notice bug hunting trip. Met up with Burger around 5:28pm. Made our way down to the dock and put the gear away. Waiting on the others, Burger fished, While I was looking for bait fish around the dock.

With the lost, late along with a local motive bridge down. It took us about an hour to out of the bay. We started Test set's And fished.

Long story short. I took a 20min nap to wake up the plotting of which a magic marker would be use. Fishing was great!!! Hooping was bust, Mixed crabs, Seal stuck in net, No lobster.

Still fun, Sober fun since there was a 18 pack left alone.

Good times with random people and Burger. 

Here are the fishing details.

Bait-Bonito!!!

It worked so well that most didnt use other bait's.

It's back strap wroked best for the hook.
Stiff,oily and easy to cut.

My (Redkorn, but mine as about the same) count with C&R

10-15 sculpin Biggest was alittle over 2.lbs

3-Rockfish Biggest was about 1 1/2. lbs

4-Bass Biggest was about 3.lbs


Fishing died down around 4am

Long beach Breakwall (Middle) 

Pics of the catch I brought home:

Redondo Sportsfishing Pier 04-15-2012

Day started out by meeting Redkorn at the Sportsfishing (Short) pier in the harbor at about 7:00 A.M.. We started out both using sabikis on one pole and bigger bait on the other (live sardines or mackerels when we had them). Fishing was pretty good all day on Mackerels and a late day heavy run of sardines. We saw some bonito in the water so we let Mahigeer know and he came to the pier around noon. After a while I got tired of using two poles so I switched to one sabiki pole and started crabbing with my net. I ended up catching three (3) male yellow rock crabs and one medium sized female spider crab. I kept the yellow crabs and put back the spider to make more babies. John stayed until around 6:00 P.M. and Mahigeer and I stayed till about 7:00 P.M... I ended up bringing home the yellow rock crabs and a couple dozen mackerel and over 150 sardines. The mackerel and 1/3 of the sardines are salt curing as I type and the other 2/3’s of the sardines I brought in for my co-workers to share. Great day of fishing! Pics of the copters looking for a body and the take below: