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.

Balboa Pier 04-01-2012

Drove down to Balboa Pier to meet up with Mahigeer and Jellyfish to do some fishing and to check out the pier since I had never been there. When I first arrived at around 10:45 A.M. Mahigeer was still getting breakfast and bait. I proceeded to the second cut out on the right and fished for about 30 minutes before Jellyfish showed up. After another 30 minutes or so of fishing and BSing with Jellyfish, Mahigeer showed up and we proceeded to the end of the pier South of the restaurant which was a great wind break. Fishing was pretty slow all day, I ended up catching on smelt and two macs on a sabiki. People further up the pier on the North side were pulling up 5-6 macs and sardines on every drop, but none of us wanted to endure the wind for a few mackerels which we would be releasing anyways. Around 1 P.M. Dowaito showed up with his lovely girlfriend (or wife, I forget) and a print he prepared for me in exchange for the shovelnose I saved for him to print. We chatted for a little while, made the exchange and then he had to split since his folks are in town. Ended up leaving at around 5 P.M. for the long drive home. Was nice to see a new pier and meet two more PFIC members! Some pier and water pics below.

Pictures from Mahigeer - Catalina March 2012

Redondo Break Wall 02/26/2012

So after taking a couple hour nap after the Ventura trip I got up and headed to Culver City to pick up Thresher_One / Robert at about 10:30 P.M. on 02/25/2012. We arrived at the secret location to make bait for the morning. We worked all night getting live peppermint shrimp as bait for the morning fishing at the jetty. I also caught five huge (all 14+ ") pacific mackerels while making bait (I could have caught all I wanted, but five was enough). At around 5:30 A.M. we moved to the main jetty / break wall at Redondo. We walked about half way out and fished from about 6 A.M. till about 10:45 A.M.. Robert was killing it and I was picking off a fish every so often. Robert released about 6 big pregnant black / butter mouth perch and about 5 small sargo. He kept one large sargo (15+") and two Split Tails (new species to me). I landed about 7 butter mouth perch (kept two, the others were either to small or were pregnant) a tiny opal eye and one decent sized sargo. I hooked into something that felt pretty massive, but either it or a seal broke my 30 pound test :(. Robert lost one 16+" opal eye one the rocks on the way up (it was a dang nice looking fish). All and all another great outing with Robert at Redondo and our secret shrimping location.

Fish pics and a pic of the kelp in the harbor below:

Redondo Short Pier and Surrounding Jetties 01/07/2012 - 01/08/2012

Met up with John / Redkorn at around 10:30 P.M. on Saturday night for a night of fishing and hoop netting for lobster. We started out on the rocks just South of the short pier in the harbor. John was fishing and hoop netting, I was just fishing. We both took nice spills due to the rocks being very slick because of the high swell. I held off on hooping because I really did not feel like falling again. I caught about a dozen large mackerels on squid and John also caught quite a few. About 3:00 A.M. we decided to move to a small dock just North of the short pier. We both hoop netted and fished there. I caught a few small rockfish and neither of us got anything in our nets. We did see squid in the water, which was strange for winter, but they would not take my squid jig. At around 5:00 A.M. we moved to the foot of the short pier and waited for it to open. Once opened we went to the end and just fished till around 8:45 with one large Mackeral being the only catch using squid, cut macks and live peppermint shrimp for bait. Also got a great breakfast at Polly's on the Pier once they opened. Another great trip, even though I didn't bring home anything to eat.

Catalina 11/12/2011-11/13/2011

Met up with Redkorn and Mahigeer for some fishing and bug hunting @ the Mole in Catalina. Mahi and I were on the 8:00 A.M. boat from Long Beach and Redkorn was on the 6:15 A.M. boat. Seas were super rough on the trip out, and as a result it was a miserable boat ride because literally 25% of the passengers were puking into little black plastic baggies...after that mess we arrived to cloudy skies, but no rain yet. After getting set up and making friends with Beaky the Cormorant...



















We dropped one net each on the off chance we could get a confused lobster out during the day. No luck there, but we did also have this nice visitor around most of the trip...






























Redkorn & Mahigeer both landed very nice Sheepheads (sorry no pics) and I landed a ton of Calico bass, most under sized, one just over legal but returned anyways. Once dark set we all put in our second nets and stopped fishing. Lobster wise, between the three of us we pulled at least 30 shorts throughout the night and 3 legals (all by Redkorn). I also pulled up this nasty looking octopus, which was returned since I caught him with my net, which is not allowed by the DFG rules.































Once the sun came up to clear skies we pulled up our nets and fished until the departing boat came. Caught a ton of Blacksmiths & Half Moons with an occasional undersized Calico Bass, Pacific Mackerel and Jumbo Spanish Mackerels.































Parting Shots































And the final catch in my sink at home. Great trip as always, even though I only got to bring home one keeper bug. Mostly because of the great company and friendly locals.