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

Fishing Ventura Harbor & Hobson Beach 10-22-2013

Brain and I decided to fish a little North so we headed to Ventura. Fished the South jetty of Ventura Harbor first. We arrived at around 10:00 AM and started out about 3/4 of the way down the jetty and fished the ocean side. After a while of not getting anything, not even nibbles I wandered down to the end of the jetty and cast straight out out into the middle of the harbor entrance. As soon as my bait (squid of course) hit bottom it started getting tapped like crazy. Must be little fish, but at least it is some action, lol. I called Brian down to the end and I brought in the first fish of the day, a small croaker at 11:14 AM. We fished for about another hour catching more small to medium sized croakers with the final tally being six for me and two for Brian before we left around noon.

After a trip to Carpinteria for lunch we decided to try one more spot before heading home, which was the rocks North of Hobson Beach. Fished the rocks from about 2:15 PM till 5:00 PM catching nothing but some sun, a couple sneaker waves and a nice fall into a five foot hole for me, lol. I tried two casts at Hobson Beach while Brian was using their facilities, but didn't catch anything there either. Fun day of fishing but not a lot of fish this time....oh yeah almost forgot the dolphins came into Ventura harbor into very shallow water, short video of that below.

View from Hobson Beach looking North

Jetty Fishing Ventura 09-24-2013

Brian's girlfriend had a hair appointment in Ventura, so we did our usual of fishing a nearby place while she is getting primped. This time it was the jetty off Greenock street in Pierpont Bay next to Ventura Harbor. We arrived at Noon and fished until she was ready to go, which was around 3:30 PM. Fishing was pretty slow most of the day. I did catch two cabazon pretty close together at 12:24 PM and 12:33 PM. One was 8-9" the other was a little over 14"....so close to being legal, lol. Nothing after that for either of us. Our fishing was somewhat cramped due to congested waters around the jetty. Tons of surfer sitting right where we usually like to cast (I mean they have the whole fucking ocean, why surf right where people fish?) as well as a tanked diver / spear fisherman and a snorkeling spear fisherman (who really got in our way a few times, jerk). Anyways, another great day on the water in Sunny Southern California :).

Jetty Fishing Port Hueneme 06-28-2013

Hit up a jetty in Port Hueneme with Brian from about 11:00 AM till 3:30 PM. Arrived at the jetty and set up near the end. Started fishing with squid and chatting with another angler that was at the very end of the jetty. While my attention was on fishing a sea gull decided to take my big ass bag of squid we planned to use for the main bait all day.....grrrrrrrrr. Luckily I had back up bait in the form of sardines, smelt and shad. With my preferred bait gone, my hopes for catching fish were not high. Got small bites all day, but usually that just meant my bait was gone (hard to keep those baits on the hook). So I was skunked for the day, Brian caught a nice 13.5" calico bass on sardine which was released. Lots of bird diving action around, so I am pretty sure there was some kind of bait in the water, which could explain the slow fishing as well. No pictures till I get my new phone :(.

Jetty Fishing Ventura 06-12-2013

Brian and I fished the Greenock Jetty in Ventura from about 12:30 PM till 4:00 PM. We both fished with squid with me catching a small Cabazon and Brian catching a small bat ray (which he promptly dropped down a hole after tripping, but was able to fish it out for the safe release). I hooked another bat ray, but it snapped the hook off my 40 lb test line. Pretty slow fishing, but it was a beautiful day to be out on the water anyways.

Jetty Fishing Ventura Harbor 08-09-2012

Flannery and I decided to hit up a jetty we have had decent luck at in the past for a short fishing outing. We arrived at the jetty around 9:30 AM and proceeded to the end. Along the way a nice fellow fisherman gave us a bunch of fresh dead anchovies. We both started out with this for bait and did not get anything. We kept getting bites, but it is hard to keep those things on your hook if you do not have thread with you. I had dropped mine down a deep hole upon arrival, so that kinda sucked, lol. We also tried squid and I tried perch, mackerel, queen fish, bull head and shrimp. I caught one small thorn-back ray on squid and lost something that felt fairly large when I was reeling in my last cast and thought I was just snagged...a few head shakes later and I realized a tad too late I had a fish and it went into a rock or something. After pulling from different angles for about 5-10 minutes my 40 pound test finally broke. Oh well, next time! No pics this time, waves were too big and we were getting splashed a lot.

Jetty Fishing Port Hueneme 08-05-2012

Picked up Flannery at 10:00 AM at his pad and after dropping off his woman at work in Thousand Oaks we headed to a Port Hueneme jetty. After the very long walk across sand with all our gear we finally arrived and started fishing around 11:30 AM. We stared about half way up the left part of the jetty and didn't catch anything at all. One gentleman near the base was drilling Calico Bass, one about 16" or so according to Flannery (I did not see it). I moved down to the end of the jetty around noon and he stayed in the middle till around 1 then came to the end with me. I caught one 10-11" brown rockfish (first time catching one that I recall) on frozen sardine and Brian didn't catch anything. We moved over to the other side of the jetty around 3:00 PM and I started with squid and sardine and Brian used sand crabs. Brian landed one 13" cabazon and one 9" or so grass rockfish. I also tried sand crabs after seeing his success but I did not catch anything on them. We packed it up and prepared for the long walk back around 4:30 PM both satisfied that we caught fish even though they were all released (some gave me dirty looks when I sent the brown rockfish back, lol).

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.

Ventura Harbor Memorial Day 05-28-2012

Not having any plans set in stone other than spending time with the wife I was delighted when my buddy Brian called and asked if we wanted to go to Ventura Harbor to do some jetty / surf fishing in the Ventura area. After discussing it with the wife we decided that we would love to go. Picked up Brian & Nicole in Simi at around 1:15 PM and headed for Ventura. I knew Mahigeer was going to be in the area since I had spoken to him and he was at Sterns Wharf and planning to stop by Ventura pier. He could not come over to the jetty and we did not want to go to the pier because of the inevitable Memorial Day traffic. I did take a shot of the pier in the distance below so I could say I took a picture of him, lol. Started fishing at end of the jetty around 2:30 PM after dropping stuff off, finding parking and walking a couple blocks back. There was a ton of dead kelp and eel grass in the water which made the chances of catching any fish slim. I tried all sides of the jetty with Octopus, Mackerel, Muscle and Shrimp but almost every time I brought in my line it was covered with eel grass. Hard to catch a fish when your bait is buried beneath a huge clump of crud, lol. Left around 5:30 about 45 minutes past the high tide. We were both skunked, but it was a nice day out there, the swells were pretty big. Both of us and our gear got soaked a couple times. Couple shots of the area and a video I found on my phone of a Sarcastic Fringehead I caught in my net at Ventura Pier on 05-15-2012.