Redondo Sportsfishing Pier 05-30-2012

Hit up the Sportsfishing pier at Redondo today. Started out at around 7:30 AM and fished till 2:00 PM. Fishing was very slow all day. I caught three mackerel, a smelt and a couple senorita fish (damn bait stealer, lol). I tried to crab for a bit, but since I forgot my bait cage the seals promptly removed the mackerel in the net portion so I stopped to keep the seals away and since it was pointless. Very nice weather and very little swell (probably why fishing was slow). At one point my heavy line with a live smelt for bait took off peeling line out, but when I brought it up a seal was right behind it so I am thinking either the seal hit my line or the smelt really wanted to get away from it, lol. Lots of Calico bass, mostly shorts, being caught and released on the side portion of the pier.

Malibu Surf Fishing 05-18-2012

Hit up a spot in Malibu from about 9:15 AM till 2:15 PM. High tide of 3.37 was at 9:10 AM or so and low of 1.56 was around 2:15 PM. It was pretty slow all day but did manage one small grass rockfish around noon (probably 6 or 7"). After putting him back to get bigger didn't get anything else. He bit on a piece of octopus on the lower of a high low setup (I was able to use this setup without losing too many rigs because the salad was light today). Tried squid, octopus, sardine, anchovy, mackerel and market shrimp throughout the day (ended day with a Carolina rig setup).

Malibu Surf Fishing 05-11-2012

Well, I headed down to my favorite spot in Malibu again arrived around 7:00 A.M. and set up shop along the shore line after climbing down the rocks.

View upon arrival at 7:00 AM:

-0.52 tide was at around 9:00 AM and high was 3.63 at 3:55 PM

Baited up with a sardine head and cast between two partially submerged rocks in casting distance. Almost as soon as it hit bottom it was hammered. I was surprised and thought maybe it was just kelp at first. After feeling that it was not kelp I started reeling in as fast as I could only to get the weight (a rock with a rubber band) caught on some kelp on the way in. Pulled hard and the rubber bands gave way and the rock came lose but at the same time the fish got off. Bait was still on thanks to a piece of tread but it looked like it had been digested (it was gross looking, the skin was gone and it's gills were facing the wrong way). Tossed it back in at the same location but nothing this time. That would be a pattern for the day unfortunately, lol. Tried Salt Cured Sardine, Pacific Mackerel, and Grunion as well as Squid, and Fresh Smelt. Got a few nibbles throughout the day but nothing that would set my circle hook. I was using a standard single dropper loop, but will go back to the reverse dropper loop next time since I forgot it seems to work better with the area. Left around 2:00 P.M. resigned to defeat for the day. I even tried digging for sand crabs, but could only find babies too small to use.

Great weather and water temperature (I was in Sandals and shorts and walking out as far as I felt was safe). Also great sights to be seen. Cool looking sea anemones, one eating a crab leg from bait I tossed in that was getting old), sea slugs, starfish and other cool stuff. Took a few pictures of the area / day. Sorry no fish porn this time ;).

Sea Anemone Eating Crab Leg I let go earlier in day:

Almost forgot to mention one perk of surf fishing in Malibu is the other views. A lovely pair of scantly clad young ladies (one in a g-string) walking their dogs, another pair up on the rocks above and several nice looking joggers makes up for not catching any fish in my book ;)

Shore from road above upon leaving at 2:00 PM:

Redondo Sportsfishing (Short) Pier 05-10-2012

Fished the short pier today from about 7:30 AM till 2:00 PM. My main goal was to hopefully stock up on Sardines for bait, but didn't see any all day. Morning started out very slow, don't think I caught my first fish until about 3 hours in. I was fishing one rod with a double dropper with squid and sardine as bait and a sabiki rod with small chunks of mackerel. Finally caught a 12" or so mackerel around 10:30 or so on the sabiki rod. Tried out different baits on the droppers (mackerel, smelt and a small sand dab I caught as live bait) but did not get anything on it all day. Caught a humongous smelt (I did not measure it before I chopped it up for bait, but I think it was at least 17") a half dozen medium to large pacific mackerel and one medium sized Spanish mackerel. Pretty slow day for this pier, but still had a good time!

No fish pics this time, just a couple shots of the harbor.

Malibu Surf Fishing 05-07-2012

Fishing the surf in Malibu from about 10:00 AM till 2:00 PM (high tide was at around 11:45 AM). Got a few short bites, but nothing that stuck. Pretty slow day fishing. Tried Cut Mackerel, Sardine, Squid and crab. Only the sardines seems to get any attention. A lot of crab action (stealing my bait). First trip here where I got the skunk, knew it would come sooner or later, lol.

Fishing area:

Redondo Sportsfishing Pier 04-15-2012

Day started out by meeting Redkorn at the Sportsfishing (Short) pier in the harbor at about 7:00 A.M.. We started out both using sabikis on one pole and bigger bait on the other (live sardines or mackerels when we had them). Fishing was pretty good all day on Mackerels and a late day heavy run of sardines. We saw some bonito in the water so we let Mahigeer know and he came to the pier around noon. After a while I got tired of using two poles so I switched to one sabiki pole and started crabbing with my net. I ended up catching three (3) male yellow rock crabs and one medium sized female spider crab. I kept the yellow crabs and put back the spider to make more babies. John stayed until around 6:00 P.M. and Mahigeer and I stayed till about 7:00 P.M... I ended up bringing home the yellow rock crabs and a couple dozen mackerel and over 150 sardines. The mackerel and 1/3 of the sardines are salt curing as I type and the other 2/3’s of the sardines I brought in for my co-workers to share. Great day of fishing! Pics of the copters looking for a body and the take below:

Redondo Muni Pier 04-14-2012

Day started out with me arriving around 8:30 A.M. I quickly scouted out the Sportsfishing (short) pier and the end was already full, so I proceeded to the small finger jetty North of the pier and fished for about an hour and a half until Mahigeer was done having breakfast with his Wife at Polly’s. We arrived at the Municipal Pier across the harbor around 11 and scouted out a few places before we settled on the South facing side because the wind was terrible and the restaurants provided a much needed wind break. We fished the pier till about 3:30 P.M. or so for Mahigeer when his wife came to collect him. I stayed until about 4:30 P.M. at which point it was time to go pick up the wife from LAX. Pretty slow day of fishing with the only fish caught being about five (5) sardines when they made a short run close to the pier. It was impossible to cast out from the pier because there were too many novices and / or inconsiderate people who were letting their lines drift 100 feet one way or the other in front of everyone else. I was pretty annoyed with it, but I was there to relax so I did not say anything.

Some pics of the harbor and pier below:

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.

Redondo Breakwall 04/07/2012

Met up with John aka Redkorn at about 6:30 A.M. and proceeded to the first spot we tried about 1/4 of the way up the jetty. Stayed there for a little while trying out dead ghost shrimp, squid and cut mackerel for bait on the ocean side. Got some taps on the ghost shrimp, but nothing stuck. We did see a young fellow "poke poling" on the harbor side of the jetty. He pulled up maybe a half dozen small rockfish and an 11" calico bass while we were there. I gave it a try, but didn't get any takers. We decided to move up the jetty after a while and I proceeded to about 3/4 of the way down the jetty and tried the same bait for a while on the ocean side while John tried his luck a little ways back (he got tired of walking up the jetty). Stayed there for a while, for no takers. One guy next to me pulled up a 12 3/4" cabbie which I measured for him before he returned it. At this point Mahigeer had arrived at the base of the jetty and requested that we move back up the jetty a bit so he would not have to walk as far as we did. After meeting up with Mahigeer at about the 1/2 way mark of the jetty I tried the same bait on both the ocean side and harbor side for no takers again. Mahi and John worked the inside of the jetty with all of the fish they caught being via poke poling. I cast out a hair raiser for a little while and witnessed two or three 3" flatfish following it in up close. It was pretty funny to watch them stalk it. They would go for it every so often, but I think the hook was almost as big as the fish. At around 3:30 Mahi had to run so we move back up the jetty to about 1/8th of the way up and I fished the ocean side for a little while, again for no takers. Weather was great all day, too bad the fish didn't want to cooperate. Some pictures I took on the jetty below.