Surf Fishing Malibu CA 06-04-2014

Hmm, no fishing in June yet....time to fix that by heading down to my favorite local city, Malibu, CA :). No early morning this day since low tide was a +0.71 @ 8:52 AM and high tide was a +3.59 @ 4:10 PM, bait was squid as usual. We (my wife Alisa and I) arrived at 9:47 AM to a tide still pretty far out. I moved up and down the coast for a while as the tide slowly came in before settling on my final "rock" a little before 11:00 AM (meaning, after that I would be casting from shore as the tide would be too far in for me to feel safe walking out on slippery rocks to a large rock to stand and fish from).

Fish #1 came at 11:16 AM, which was a medium sized Calico Perch which was promptly released after a long distance photo of it, lol.

Fish #2 came at 12:05 PM, which was a small, 11" or so, Grass Rockfish. Grass Rockfish are my second favorite fish to eat, only California Halibut tops it if you ask me (and the Malibu Cafe has it on it's menu, pricey but yummy), but too small for my personal size limit and not meaty enough to keep even if it was an inch bigger, so back it went as well.

No more action after that but it was a gorgeous day out and I caught fish, so I was a happy fisherman :). We packed up and headed home at 2:00 PM. Another great day of fishing at the beach in Sunny Southern California! You can really see how different this particular spot looks at low and high tides if you compare the panorama pics below BTW.

Gaviota Pier Damage Pictures 03-25-2014

On the way back home my buddy and I decided to take a quick detour to see the extent of the damage from the storms earlier in the month. Below are the pics I took plus a Google Maps screenshot showing how the pier looked before the storm. No fishing this time, but sad to see a pier I fished often as a child in disrepair. As of this writing (actually written 05-25-2014) it is still closed. I kept meaning to stop by and fish it too, but just kept cruising on by. Hopefully it will be fixed and re-opened soon...but if it involves the State, you know it will not likely be soon unfortunately.

Surf Fishing Malibu 01-29-2014

Having not fished in five days, I had the itch. So I checked the tides (and it was after a new moon) which were a low of -1.47' @ 2:32 PM and a high of +4.12' @ 8:47 PM. So headed for my favorite city Malibu, CA and arrived at 2:06 PM, about a half hour before the low. I love this particular spot at minus tides as I can walk out to where I am often fishing and scope out the terrain for future trips and I can cast way further out than I usually can.

Thinking the fishing would be hot because of the new moon, I was disappointed for the first three hours of not getting anything. But the whole day was changed at 5:02 PM when I miscast over a rock. When this happens I typically reel in fast as to not get snagged, which I did this time as well except I waited a second and my bait got HAMMERED. I knew right away it was a nice fish, either a big calico of medium sized shark, but I also knew I had to get whatever it was over that rock I cast over so I started reeling in like a mad man (like I usually do really, lol). This sucker fought me the whole way in trying to rock me and not coming to the surface, so I knew it was a Calico. After the battle was over and I climbed carefully to shore from the rock perch I was casting from I was able to celebrate and soak in the beauty I had just caught. A 20+" Calico Bass that weighed 4 pound 2.2 ounces after bleeding when I weighed it at home. What a fish! Biggest Calico I have caught to date for sure!

No more fish after that, but that one fish was enough for the day for sure. I was also treated to another gorgeous sunset and took a lot of "terrain" pictures while out knee deep in the trenches, lol. I headed home from one of my little paradises in Malibu, CA / sunny Southern California at 6:47 PM a very satisfied and happy fisherman. Bait was squid as usual.