Surf Fishing Malibu 08-18-2012

Had the wife drop me off at the Malibu spot around 5:45 AM. Was set up and fishing five minutes later. It was an incoming tide until around 10:30 AM which was a 4.5+ high tide. Tried squid, fresh sand crabs and salted and unsalted anchovy. Only creature caught on the day besides the bait was a decent sized rock crab. Sent safely back in the water after a quick picture. Skunked fish wise. Had one fish on, but hook must have been not in well as it came off about half way in. Felt like a small to medium sized leopard shark. Left around 11:30 AM when wife came back to get me after her morning shift. Weather was downright perfect. Water was clear, but whole area stunk of rotting lobsters. Lots of baby lobster shells all over. Season is almost here!

Surf Fishing Malibu 08-12-2012

After the long day yesterday I decided I still needed to fish a little more. My sixth trip in nine days! I only had time for a short session so I timed it to be around high tide. Got there around 3:30 PM and brought squid and anchovy for bait...also brought cheap pantiehose to keep the anchovy on the hook. Worked pretty good, but didn't get many bites on it. Fished till 6:00 PM catching nothing (Skunked). Had a few nibbles here and there, but pretty much a very slow day. Still great to be out on the water.

After getting skunked I was treated to a fabulous dinner at Sushi Iki in Tarzana. This place is very pricy, but worth every penny (especially when I am not paying, lol). My favorite dish of the night was Halibut, wrapped around duck liver and topped with caviar, VERY tasty! Also had my first every Dungeness Crab as shown below, also very tasty but almost the same as the free rock crabs I can catch.

Gonna be getting one of these soon (not this model exactly). Hope it helps my catch rate and quality.

Surf Fishing Malibu 07-28-2012

Decided to hit up my Malibu spot on Saturday for a nice long outing. Wife dropped me off around 7:00 AM and I was fishing ten minutes later. It was high tide of 3.06' right around 7 and a low of 2.18' was at about 11:15 AM. Second high of 5.62' was not until about 6:00 PM. Fished alone for about five hours walking out in knee deep water to a rock to cast about 40' out from shore. Had one hook up on cut grunion but lost it at the surface (must not have been hooked well). It looked to be a 10" or so rockfish. After that just a few nibbles here and there, but nothing of note. A fishing boat came in really close to shore to fish the same area I was, but I did not see them catch anything either. Brian showed up a little after noon and fished squid exclusively until we left around 6:00 PM. He got a nibble here and there as well, but did not catch anything. I tried squid, grunion (seemed to be the only thing that was getting bites today, as luck would have it I only had one), shrimp, perch and croaker for nothing. Big ole skunk for 10 hours of fishing kind of sucks, but at least there was some nice eye candy around ;).

Few pictures of area, eye candy, fishing boat and kayakers:

Malibu 07-15-2012

Decided to hit the high tide at around dusk since they say that is the best time to fish (that and an early high tide). Arrived at the spot at around 6:00 PM, high tide of +5.26 was a little after 7:30 PM. I only brought squid for bait since I was lazy and it has worked at this location before. Set up on my usual rock and cast out a double dropper with squid. About 15 minutes later I pulled in my first fish of the day a small leopard shark (probably around 18" or so). After putting him back about 30 minutes later I get a small grass rockfish (about 7") which was put back to get bigger. After that no real action until after sunset at a little after 8:00 PM. Between then and when I left at 9:00 PM I caught two more small leopard sharks (first was around 18" again, second was a few inches bigger) and had a ton of short bites. Left with nothing to eat, but happy to have caught four fish.

Jetty Fishing Ventura and Port Hueneme 07-14-2012

So decided to hit up a jetty my friend Brian and I had previously fished since there were legal white sea bass caught off of it earlier in the week. We hoped they would still be around, but knew that was not likely. We arrived at around 10:00 AM and proceeded to the end of the jetty. After getting set up we both cast around for a while using squid. After about 10 minutes Brian decides to try a hole I had found previously and dropped his offering down between the rocks. Almost immediately he brings up a small (7" or 8") sculpin which he returned to get bigger. After casting around for a while longer I decided to break the skunk and dropped my offering in the hole and pulled up a small (8" or 9")grass rockfish which was returned to grow. Nothing else after that. We packed up around 1 which was about an hour after low tide and headed to a new spot in Port Hueneme we had been wanting to try.

Got to the new spot around 1:30 or so and after chatting with a few other fisherman we went to the end. Place looked very very fishy so I was hopeful. Got lots of taps but nothing that stuck at the first spot. Water was VERY deep there, deeper than most piers I have been to. Moved over to a different spot on the jetty at around 3:30 which had a ton of structure...probably too much, lol. I got rocked while taking a picture and by the time I was able to real in the bastard had took me into a hole or something. After trying to work em out for about 10 minutes I just snapped the line. Nothing else after that but we did see a seal get a huge fish (looked over 3') just out of casting distance.

All and all a great day! Kinda light on the fish, but it was nice to fish a new location. I also discovered that the "jumbo" squid I bought at Ranch 99 for $0.99 a pound worked just fine for fishing. Have to go back and grab some more while it is on special.

Malibu Surf Fishing 06-25-2012

Had a few hours to kill on a Sunday afternoon so after marinating on the option of working around the house or going fishing, fishing prevailed. After stopping by Bob Sand's in Van Nuys to pick up some hooks and Ranch 99 for some squid and clams I arrived at my spot at around 12:30 PM. High tide was at 2:20 PM at a +4' or so. Started out pretty slow with no action till about 2:00 when I caught a 24" leopard shark on squid. After that at around 2:30 I landed a 30" leopard shark and shortly after a 10" grass rockfish on squid and shrimp respectively. Had to pack up at 3:30 PM to get the car home to the wife to use. All and all a great time catching three fish in such a limited amount of time. Great weather and one thing this spot seems to be great at producing is nice lookin ladies in thongs or g-strings. Good stuff! I will add some pictures later (of the fish).

Jetty Fishing Pierpont Bay (Ventura, CA) 02/25/2012

Met up with my fishing buddy Brian at 8:00 AM in Woodland Hills. After a quick pit stop at 7-11 for muchies and drinks we proceeded to the jetty. We started fishing around 10:00 A.M.. Brian hooked up on a wall eye perch pretty quickly using muscle. I went quite a while without anything. At some point, I noticed an about two foot wide hole between three rocks that had water down below, so I dropped my bait (frozen squid) in there and just a few minutes later...tap, tap bam fish on. Pulled up a 10" rock fish, sweet! After that I moved around casting to rocks and holes I could see and caught four more rockfish from 10 to a little over 12". They were all the same species of rockfish (not sure what kind, anyone know? We were thinking grass or brown rockfish). Brian also joined in the rockfish party and landed 3 or 4 of them as well. He also hooked into a nice 5" or so rock crab which we promptly returned since it was caught on hook and line. We packed it in at around 3 PM. Another great day of fishing in Ventura, CA. All fish except the biggest rockfish were promptly released to get bigger.

Fishing area and fish pics below (in no particular order):