Hermosa Beach Pier 04/08/2012

Arrived at the pier at around 7:00 A.M. with my fishing buddy Brian. At first we started at about the half way mark just past a huge group of anglers killing it on sardines with sabikis. After a while we moved further up the pier to try our luck in the location we did well at last time we were here. We both landed quite a few mackerel and sardines throughout the day using sabikis. Brian caught one 10" or so rock fish and I caught one keeper rock crab in my crab net. Did see one guy hooked into a large thresher shark which put on quite a show, jumping out of the water and making a couple runs under the pier. Once up closer the angler snapped his line being to aggressive with it while two friends we trying to rope gaff it. It was a shame he lost such a nice shark. Also talked with fellow PFIC member Tim aka Toejamb. He had about the same luck as us on the day (A few sardine and mackerel). Left the pier around 1:30 P.M. and were asked by a DFG fish counter near the base if he could measure and weigh our catch. Since we had about 30 minutes left on the parking meeter we obliged his request and let him measure and weigh our catch of mackerel and sardines. Was a very nice fellow! Left about 2:00 P.M. enjoying the great eye candy which was abundant all the way out of town. Great day of fishing with Brian. A few pictures below.

Surf Fishing South of Santa Monica 01/22/2012

Met up with thresher_one at Santa Monica Pier at around 7:00 A.M. and he already had our bait for the day, sand crabs, collected. So he hopped in my car and we proceeded South to the target area. It started out pretty good with us both hooking up on small BSP almost immediately, but after that it was pretty slow. I ended up catching four BSP and a 5" cabbie (I didn't know they would go for sand crabs) and thresher_one ended up catching four or five BSP. We fished from around 7:30AM till 12:30PM.

One thing of note was I got checked for license and catch for the first time EVER here in Southern California! The warden was very nice and cordial and I was happy to see him. I forgot to get his contact info so I can report poaching when I see it (I have tried Cal-Tip to no avail a few times), so hopefully I will see him out there again soon.

Overall, a slow day of fishing, but it is always nice to get out on the water.