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: