First Outing of 2014 in Malibu of Course 01-02-2014

Being waaaaaaaay too hung over to fish on New Years Day, I had to settle for the second day of the new year for my first outing. Magicseaweed called for a 1' swell, but it was more like a 4-5' swell, which is unusual for this area (I like 1-3' swells max). Regardless it was a gorgeous day and we were set on fishing. Brian and I arrived at 6:27 AM and left around 11:15 AM. Low tide was 1.36' @ 3:58 AM and high was 6.38' at 10:05 AM (damn, that's high). Bait was squid and later fresh smelt for a bit.

I caught the first fish of the day at 6:41 AM, which was a small 7" or so grass rockfish which was quickly released to get bigger. My next catch of the day was a big ole smelt (around 19" or so) at 7:40 AM which was kept for bait. Brian got in on the action, sort of, at 8:53 AM bringing in a 4.5" or so rock crab. Crab was released since it is illegal to catch them via hook and line. My last catch of the day was a decent sized (I do not remember the measurement, happens when you wait two months to post a report, lol) shovelnose guitarfish at 11:03 AM which I kept because they are tasty but I had not kept one before to eat due to one reason or another. Got to say a nice way to bring in the New Year! I am happy any day I catch three fish, regardless of size. Videos after pictures BTW.

Night Fishing Malibu 08-20-2013

So Brian and I decided to do some night fishing. We picked this particular night because it was a full moon and the first day of the last scheduled grunion run for 2013. Didn't see any grunion, but fishing was red hot most of the night! We started fishing around 6:20 PM and the first fish was caught by me at 6:27 PM, a small leopard shark. The next fish landed was a small grass rockfish by me at 7:53 PM. Brian joined the action by catching a bat ray with a 32" wingspan at 8:00 PM (damn thing was heavy). He also caught a small grass rockfish after that, but I didn't note the time. I caught the next four fish which were a nice 16" calico bass at 8:33 PM, a small grassy at 8:48 PM, a small grassy at 8:56 PM and another small grassy at 9:19 PM. All the grassies landed were between 8 and 11". Brian lost a nice grassy at his feet at 9:05 PM, it looked to be about 13-14" or so. I also lost a nice one about 15' out around this time that looked like a large calico or rockfish. Brian closed out the catching with a decent sized (but not big enough to keep for us) shovelnose guitarfish at 11:00 PM and we left shortly after that. Bait was squid all night, everything but the calico bass released. Nine total fish caught, I will take that any day of the week :).

Greenock Lane Jetty Fishing - Ventura - 07-10-2013

Fished the Greenock Lane Jetty in Ventura with Brian from about 11:00 AM till about 4:30 PM. Fishing was pretty slow most of the day, lots of little bites (probably walleye perch which our hooks were too big for). Brian hooked up on a nice 3.5'-4' Shovelnose Guitarfish, reeled it in and brought it up on a lower rock of the jetty. Well it then decided to flip out and broke his line on some muscles on the rock he landed it on and swam back to the ocean. So we will call it a quick C & R :). I did manage to scratch up one small grass rockfish from my secret hole somewhere on the jetty, it was about 9" long and I let em go to get bigger. Nice to beat the skunk at least :). Weather was nice, waves were big (we both got splashed a few times). No salad in the water. Both fish caught on squid.

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

Cat Harbor Fishing 03/24/2012

We all slept from around 2:00 A.M. till 6:00 A.M. at which time we all got up and got ready for the day of fishing. After a quick breakfast at the local restaurant we proceeded to the other side of the island, Cat Harbor. We first stopped not too far in to the harbor and fished that for an hour or so with me landing a few shovelnose, my dad landing a few as well and John landing a 4 1/2 foot leopard shark (all released except one small shovelnose which was kept for an artist to use). We then proceeded further up the harbor to a jetty near where a yacht club was at previously (currently abandoned). My dad hooked into something big that broke his line and I caught my very first eel which was also returned after being freed from my line by Hasheem. After moving because there was too much kelp we went to the top of a hill near the mouth of the harbor and took a short snack break of carrots and dip provided by Hasheem. There was too much kelp at the harbor entrance for us to fish it productively so we went back to the jetty near the yacht club and fished the harbor and a small inlet. There were lots of jumping fish in Cat Harbor by the way! After fishing the jetty and inlet for a while we moved up to a small pier on the other side of the harbor. Hasheem caught a short 18" halibut and John caught a sole about the same size. We then moved a little up the coast after receiving a tip from a local. John landed a pretty big shovelnose and my dad landed a small bat ray. At about 6:00 P.M. we went back to the restaurant on the other side of the island for dinner then back to camp. After relaxing a bit and having a Raki party we went back to the pier in Isthmus Cove but the water was dead so we did not stay too long.

Pictures of the day below: