Night Surf Fishing Malibu 03-14-2014

Having not fished in almost a month, I was more than ready to hit the salt. So my main fishing buddy Brian and I headed to Malibu, CA to do some afternoon / evening fishing to see what we could catch. We arrived at 5:30 PM, low tide was a -0.05' @ 2:17 PM and high tide was a +4.17' @ 8:25 PM, sunset was at 6:03 PM and bait was squid.

I started off the catching for the day with a small 7-8" grass rockfish at 5:45 PM. Fishing was pretty slow after that until I got the next catch of the night at 7:33 PM, which was a nice 35+" leopard shark. In re-looking at my pictures below and how my measuring tape was not laid out properly it may have actually been big enough to keep (36"+) but if it is close I typically will release it just to be safe...those tickets are expensive (I hear) and the regulations are all their to ensure sustainability in the ocean fisheries. My next and final fish for the night was a fantastic, fat 19+" calico (kelp) bass which I caught at 7:54 PM. What a fish! Into the water bucket to keep it alive until I bleed it just before leaving and back to fishing, but no more fish for me tonight.

Brian got in on the catching at 9:00 PM, getting an 11" or so grass rockfish (see motion pic below). He followed that up with another grass rockfish at 9:10 PM which was about 8-9 inches. That closed out the catching for the night and we packed up and headed home at 9:30 PM, both happy fishermen. All fish were released except for the calico bass. Another great day / night of fishing in Southern California, gotta love it!

 Brian above

 Me Being Me

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.

Surf Fishing Malibu 10-18-2013 with Flannery

Talked my main fishing partner in crime the Flan man into fishing the Full Moon. I / we usually do pretty well on full moon nights with incoming tides, and this day / night was no exception. Low tide was a -0.18 @ 2:49 PM and high was a 4.47 @ 8:54 PM. We fished from about 2:45 PM till about 8:45 PM. Bait was frozen squid as usual.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the fishing started out hot right away....for Brian at least, lol. He started out the catching by pulling in a fatty 17" calico bass at 3:12 PM. Damn, nice start!

He then proceeded to catch three grass rockfish between 3:30 PM and 5:00 PM which were approximately 8", 12" and 11" (all released to get just a bit bigger). Wow, he has a four to zero lead on me....guess it is just his day :).

Still not catching jack, I took a moment to take this nice picture around sunset at 5:11 PM (moonrise was at 5:13 PM) while standing on a rock in the middle of the ocean with a fishing pole in one hand and an expensive smartphone in the other...

Wouldn't ya know it. A second after taking this picture, I get hit and it sticks....crap, phone to pocket quickly and reel baby reel, lol. Brought in my first fish of the night, a nice 13" or 14" yellow Fin Croaker (released because I do not care for YFC personally). Yeaaaaa, no skunk for me :).

Fishing was a little slow for an hour until I caught an around 11.5" grass rockfish at 6:19 PM, which was released to get bigger. Hmmm, now his lead is only 4-2 :).

Next fish came at 7:03 PM and it was a big fat piggy 19" Calico Bass! Woo hoo! What a fish and what a fight to get em in through the rocks and eel grass. Calico bass are one of my favorite fish to catch because even the small ones give you a good fight and the large ones fight like hell.

Nice! Two pig calico's in the bucket (and Brian was happy I got a fish I kept so he could shlep off his fish on me to clean, lol) and the lead is down to 4-3 :). I caught the final fish at 7:41 PM which was an approximately 18-20" leopard shark (released of course).

We fished for about an hour after that then resigned ourselves to a nice 4-4 tie for the night, lol. Great night of fishing and catching. We both also had large sharks on but both were broken off even with our semi-heavy gear (I use 40 LB mono Brian uses 60 LB braid with a 40 LB mono leader). We will get one of those beasts in one of these days :).