Ventura Pier 09-16-2012

Got to the pier around 10:30 AM and set up around mid pier. Fished with double dropper loop at first and caught my only fish of the day on squid (It was a croaker). Used it for bait for no takers. Buddy Brian was killing it on the sabiki catching Wall Eye Perch, Queen Fish, Lizard Fish and Spot Fin Croakers. All pretty small and most released except a few used for bait. Crabbing was slow too, ended up with two keeper rock crabs, but tossed em back before I left since it is not enough meat too much trouble to prepare with only two crabs, lol. Still nice to be back. Some lovely looking locals strolled the pier too, which was a nice bonus.

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.

Ventura Pier 05-15-2012

Hit up Ventura Pier from about 1:30 PM till 10:30 PM. Set up shop with the crab net in my usual spot baited with the usual menagerie of junk this time consisting of mackerel, sardines, whitefish head and rock fish head. Crabbing was off the charts all day. Ended up keeping twenty something rock crabs (red, yellow and rock) and two spider crabs, one if which was the biggest caught to date for me. Fishing wise you could have all the queenfish you could ever possibly want if that is your thing (I caught and released all fish caught on the day). Didn't see much else, except for a large smelt and a few sand sharks caught by others shortly before leaving. Birds were diving and dolphins were around the pier, but I never saw any baitfish anywhere on the pier. Guess the bait is hanging out just outside the pier. I forgot to bring a sabiki so I made one from crappie jigs I had in my tackle box which worked just fine.

Clean-up and Fishing Redondo Breakwall 04-22-2012

Met up with Mahigeer at the foot of the jetty around 11:45 and he had already picked up two bags of trash. Shortly thereafter we proceeded to about 1/4 of the way up the jetty and I fished the outside for a while using market shrimp and cut sardine as bait. Got a few taps, but nothing stuck. Mahigeer poke poled the inside of the jetty for a while for the same results. I then moved over to the inside and dropped my bait in between rocks and kelp (tried squid, crab, mackerel and sardine. Crab seemed to work the best). First drop I got an almost immediate hit and I saw it happen! It looked like a small bass. After moving around dropping the bait here and there I finally got a small sculpin (8-9" or so) on a crab knuckle. Mahigeer was casting lures at this point but did not get anything. We picked up another bag of trash on the way out at around 3:00 P.M. and I picked up some weights Mahigeer made for me.

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....

Redondo Big Pier 12-17-2011

Copies and pasted from PFIC report by Redkorn (I put comments in parentheses)

Redondo big pier
Bait none (I tipped my Sabiki with pieces of pacific mackerel)
Rigs- Sabikis

I was planing on going to my jetty early 4am sat but the winds that day were blowing storm out to sea. So I decided to wait.

I found my self later at Redondo pier in the after noon looking for macks, dines and lobster.

Water was clear, warm, no wind and empty.

Burger had showed up later, we both hooped only to find small crabs, starfish, octos.

To kill the boredom I pointed out one of the many hoop nets I saw early in the day that were lost to the piles. I saw about 13? the look like black lard dots under the water =)

So I rigged up something snagged it and with the help of the strong Burger over the rail it came.

It was covered in weights, sabikis,hooks,lures of every weight and size. Madness! No lobster in it tho but we got to see lots of life (Muscles, Conch, Octopus, starfish, parasites, and an overall sewage smell...how nice!!! I did get 30+ weights of various sizes for the effort).

Burger later left and so did I. No fish, no bait (I did get some shrimp somewhere else after I left the pier, I made my own contraption and wanted to test it), no lobsters a warm bed at home sounded much better.

Ventura Pier 12/11/2011

Fished & Crabbed (mostly crabbed) from 4:00 P.M. till 10:30 P.M. after the wife dropped me off and then went to work. No takers on the fishing using squid and leftover shrimp from the previous day. Ended up with 17 keeper rock crabs. Pretty good outing on the crab front. Boiled them all in my new crab pot when I got home.

10/12/2011 Redondo Finger Jetty

Fished the small jetty just North of the short pier (in the harbor) for a few hours with my fishing buddy Brian. Pretty slow night, I caught one small sculpin and Brian caught one small rockfish. Nothing in my crab / lobster net.