Last Outing of 2013 Malibu of Course 12-30-2013

Determined to get one last outing in before the New Year, I headed to my favorite, Malibu, CA. It was certainly chilly on the way, hitting 28 degrees through the canyon, brrr. I arrive at around 6:30 AM and stared fishing the last fifteen minutes or so of the incoming tide (High tide was a 6.14' @ 6:47 AM and low was a -1.14 at 2:07 AM, lots of movement). At about 7:00 AM, on my second cast if I recall correctly, I was snagged, no big deal....do a couple hearty cranks on the new used reel I was using which I thought was more durable than my last reel and....snap goes the handle off the reel. Nice, got to get my line in with no handle, what a blast that was, lol.

I packed up since I did not have a spare in the car and on the way out saw about 7-8 sheriff's cars and a couple motorcycles that had pulled someone over. Lot's of men for one car, lol. Anyways, after the kind motorcycle officer moved so I could leave I headed for Wylie's Bait & Tackle on PCH, hoping they were open. As luck would have it, they are not open on Mondays. Third time I have tried to go here and it has been closed. A shame since Ken Jones on PFIC speaks very highly of the place and it's owner (Ginny I believe). So I head to the valley hoping to find a sports-goods store that is open this early. After calling around and finding out that nothing was open, I headed over to my parents house to borrow my dads reel. After picking up the reel and swapping out the line I was back in Malibu at 9:34 AM. Three and a half hours in and only a half an hour fishing...maybe I should have stayed home, lol.

I caught my first fish for the day at 10:01 AM which was a small 7" or so grass rockfish. I caught my second fish for the day, and my last fish for 2013 at 11:29 AM which was a 10" grass rockfish. My itch to fish satisfied despite the inconveniences I right after that. Both fish released, bait was squid as usual. 2013 was a great year of fishing, hope 2014 is even better!

Panorama Shot from Above