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 08-07-2012

Unexpectedly having the day off, I decided to hit my Malibu spot in the morning for a bit. I only brought squid since I wanted to travel light. Baited up and sent out my first offering around 9:30 AM. Caught my first fish at around 10:50 AM which was a nice and fat 26" leopard shark (Pictured below, of course returned safely). Flannery arrived at some point and joined me. I caught two more leopard sharks (about 22" and 20" if I recall correctly) on squid and Brian got the big ole skunk on squid and sand crabs. Another lovely day in Malibu!

After fishing till about 3:30 PM we headed back to my pad  to do up some fish and chips. Filleted four rockfish from my freezer, three grass rockfish from Malibu and one vermilion rockfish from a boat trip a while back. Slice potatoes then fry in oil then egg wash, Panko and bread crumb fish, do a couple minutes a side and you are done. Good stuff!

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).

Surf Fishing North of Santa Monica 03/04/2012

Hit up the surf for a couple hours with Brian from about Noon till 2:30 P.M. We used sand crabs, live shore crabs, shrimp, muscle and limpets for bait for a big ole skunk. Beach was packed with people since the weather was nice. The only thing we caught all day were nice views such as the one below (my camera sucks from far away, but it was phenomenal).

Surf Fishing South of Santa Monica 01/22/2012

Met up with thresher_one at Santa Monica Pier at around 7:00 A.M. and he already had our bait for the day, sand crabs, collected. So he hopped in my car and we proceeded South to the target area. It started out pretty good with us both hooking up on small BSP almost immediately, but after that it was pretty slow. I ended up catching four BSP and a 5" cabbie (I didn't know they would go for sand crabs) and thresher_one ended up catching four or five BSP. We fished from around 7:30AM till 12:30PM.

One thing of note was I got checked for license and catch for the first time EVER here in Southern California! The warden was very nice and cordial and I was happy to see him. I forgot to get his contact info so I can report poaching when I see it (I have tried Cal-Tip to no avail a few times), so hopefully I will see him out there again soon.

Overall, a slow day of fishing, but it is always nice to get out on the water.

North of Santa Monica 12/03/2011

Met up with Robert aka thresher_one at 6:30 A.M. at Santa Monica Pier to pick up bait under the pier (sand crabs) then proceeded to the secret location to the North. Fished from about 7:30 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. for a skunk. Also tried sidewinder crabs for no takers. Robert's brother caught the only fish of the day, which was a very nice 14" BSP.

Venice Beach 11/25/2011

Wow, way too long between fishing trips...so I meet up with Robert aka thresher_one from PFIC to do some surf fishing. We started at Santa Monica Pier to load up on sand crabs and then headed to a jetty in Venice. We started fishing around 8:00 A.M. and finished at 11:00 A.M.. There were a couple gentlemen already on the jetty when we arrived who were fishing with squid and Camo sandworms. One of them landed a really nice sized yellowfin croaker shortly after we arrived and a few small perch with the crack until they left around 9:30 A.M. I wasn't catching much until thresher told me what he was doing and I copied him, then I landed four medium sized perch. He landed eight medium to large perch and lost at least that many due to the rocks and light line. I lost quite a few fish and setups on my 8 pound test set up until I switched to my other pole which had 40pound test (the perch didn't seem to mind). I did clean up a bunch of fishing line at the end of the jetty before I left to make up for my broken off setups. I also landed a small shovelnose guitarfish, which I put back after a quick pic.

Was a great time since I usually do not do well surf / jetty fishing. Thanks for the tips and companionship Robert! We will have to do it again very soon (I know you are always going out, I on the other hand am somewhat lazy sometimes ;) and go North more often than South, but will try to head your way more often now).

Here are some pics: