Surf Fishing Malibu 01-17-2014

Wanting to take advantage of the near full moon conditions and the incoming tide (low was a -0.36' @ 5:15 PM and high was a 3.73' @ 11:36 PM and sunset was around 6:15 PM), Brian and I headed to Malibu to do some fishing. We arrived around 4:00 PM and started fishing. Bait was squid, as always.

Brian started out the catching with a beautiful and fat 19"+ calico bass at 4:54 PM. I got in on the action with a nice fat 15-16" grass rockfish at 5:11 PM. We then had our first double hook up (we both hooked up and reeled in at the same time) at 5:22 PM, which was a 9" or so grass rockfish for me and a nice 12" or so grass rockfish for Brian. I then caught a 9"+ grass rockfish at 5:30 PM and Brian caught a nice 13" grassy at 5:38 PM. Double hook up #2 came at 5:45 PM in the form of a small grassy for Brian and a little baby lobster for me (which was of course released). I then caught a 12" or so cabazon at 6:00 PM and a 7" grass rockfish at 6:21 PM and a 12"+ grass rockfish at 6:34 PM and Brian closed out the catching with an 11" or so grass rockfish at 6:36 PM. We came intending to fish the full moon more, but we were tired by 7:00 and packed up and left.

What a great day of fishing! Final tally was: one calico bass and five grass rockfish for Brian and five grass rockfish, one sub-legal cabazon and one baby lobster for me. We kept the calico bass, and the three largest grass rockfish (12"+ is our own personal size restriction on rockfish unless it is gut hooked or otherwise injured) which you can see processed and packaged in the last picture. We enjoyed doing it, hopefully you enjoyed reading about it and the pics the go along with it.

Night Fishing Malibu 12-20-2013

Wanting to take advantage of favorable tides (low was a -0.07 @ 5:15 PM and high was a 3.53 @ 11:55 PM) and a nearly full moon Brian and I headed to Malibu for some night fishing. Sunset was at 4:51 PM but moonrise was not till 8:08 PM, so we arrived closer to moonrise at 7:27 PM, the weather was great, as it usually is in Malibu.

I got the first catch of the night....sort of, after being stuck for a while I finally reeled in a...small cabezon head, lol. Not sure if I ripped it off or another bigger fish had a hold of it, but in any case it was a strange sight to see coming in on my hook.

Fishing was pretty slow most of the night, but I hooked into a large shark at 9:19 PM that took me by surprise as I was chatting with Brian. After getting em in to about 10 feet away, it hit some rocks and popped off....grrrrr, so close, lol.

The first fish of the night was caught by Brian at 10:16 PM, which was a nice 13.5" grass rockfish.

The gears in my reel had been stripped during my fight with the shark that got away, so when I hooked into a nice heavy critter at 10:28 PM I had to reel very fast and hard to get a beautiful 19.5", 3 pounds, 2 ounces cabezon in through all the rocks, eel grass and kelp. This fish alone made for a good night for me (even with my undersized, non-saltwater reel breaking, lol).

We both hooked into sharks again right before leaving, I had no chance with my crippled reel and it rocked me and broke me off eventually. Brian unfortunately had the same fate, with his braid line getting cut most likely on a sharp rock. Having both caught nice fish, and both being tired, we headed home around 11:30 PM very happy.

Jetty Fishing Ventura 12-04-2013

After dropping off Brian's girlfriend for her hair appointment in Ventura we headed over to a jetty in Pierpont Bay. We arrived around 11:15 AM and left around 2:15 PM when the girlfriend was done gettin her hair did, lol. Bait was squid, all fish released. I caught the first fish at 11:50 AM in one of my secret holes I have found on this particular jetty, which was a small cabezon (about 7-8"). Hmm wonder if there are any more fish hanging out in this hole...back goes the bait and a couple minutes later (literately at 11:52 AM) , tap, tap fish on and this time it feels bigger! Reel in a whole 8 feet and what do ya know, I have two fish on! One was an 11" or so grass rockfish and the other was a 9" or so cabezon. Damn, lots of fish in this hole today (it was a pretty high tide of 6.37 @ around 9:30 AM). No more fish until 12:58 PM which was a small, 6" or so, cabezon. I also caught this fish in a hole, but a new one I found :). Brian didn't catch nothing but my dust and a nice tan, lol. The swell was a little rough and he fished casting out away from the jetty mostly. While fishing that way I did not catch anything either. Another fun fishing trip in the books :).

Ventura Pier in the distance

Surf Fishing Malibu 11-22-2013

Decided to do some surf fishing alone, so I headed to Malibu. I arrived just after 6:00 AM and left at 10:15 AM. Low tide was a 2.73 @ 4:55 AM and high was a 4.53 @ 10:51 AM. Bait was squid. The only fish of the day was caught at 6:40 AM and it was a 13.5" cabezon (1.5" short of legal), which was released of course. Nothing after that, but I got lots of pretty pics and videos of the beautiful sunrise on the sea. It was very very windy, which you can see in the first video, which made me happy with catching only one fish (fishing is difficult in wind when you use 40 pound mono). Another great day in Malibu, CA.