Surf Fishing Malibu 12-24-2013

Surf fished with Brian in beautiful Malibu, CA from 9:15 AM till 1:15 PM. Low tide was a 2.37' @ 8:17 AM and high was a 3.18' at 1:03 PM. Bait was squid as usual. Very slow day with no fish landed, but the weather and scenery were both great. Did not take many pics, so I put one of the fish and chips Brian and I did a couple days before with two grass rockfish, one cabezon and one johnny bass aka olive rockfish.

Fishing off the Rocks and Surf in Northern LA County - 07-21-2013

Tired of getting skunked in Malibu (four times in a row) Brian and I decided to try much further North. Bait all day was squid. We started off at Mugu Rock and fished there from about 11:45 AM to 1:45 PM. Nothing but lots of snags for the most part. Lost a few weights and hooks here. No fish.

Off to spot #2, a beach just south of Mugu Rock. Fished here from about 2:00 PM till 3:00 PM. I could not hold bottom here using my four ounce flat weights, so I was not anticipating catching anything here, and I didn't. You gotta hold bottom to catch fish most of the time. Brian tied on an eight ounce torpedo sinker and was able to hold bottom, but also did not catch any fish here. We were entertained by a seal that kept coming up on the sand next to us. Got a few videos of it and a pic :).

Spot #3 was on some rocks just South of Sycamore Canyon Beach starting at around 3:15 PM. I have fished here before, but only caught a perch here once. It looks super fishy, but to date hasn't produced much. Fishing was rough, with the waves being pretty big and crashing on the rock I started off on. I eventually had to move off of it when I almost lost one of my buckets to the waves, lol. Brian set up on higher and safer ground and fished away. I moved over to another rock for a while and we packed it in at around 5:30 PM accepting our fate of our fifth skunk in a row. At least we tried some new places and had fun in the process :).

Surf Fishing Malibu 07-19-2013

Being the gluttons for punishment that we are, despite the recent spat of skunks Brian and I headed to Malibu again in search of the recently elusive fish, lol. We fished from about 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM using squid for bait. Weather was nice, waves were big so there were lots of surfers (one of which was just wearing a two piece and was smoking hot!), not too much salad so I was hopeful for some fish......well, we didn't catch any, lol. Forth skunk in a row.

Surf Fishing Malibu 07-18-2013

Decided I didn't want to sit around the house all day, so I headed to Malibu alone for a quick fishing trip. I fished from around 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Since my normal spots have not been producing lately I decided to try another new spot. Tried the new spot for about an hour and a half. The salad was a bit thick, but not as bad as the last new spot so I gave it some time to see if I could catch anything. There was much more beach traffic on this beach, so there were at least some nice sites to be seen walking around :). Nothing at spot one, so I went to one of my normal spots to see if I could find some fish finally. Fished there for about two and a half hours for no fish. Bait was squid, as usual. Three skunks in a row :(.....still beats sitting at home :).

Surf Fishing Malibu 07-03-2013

Surf fished in Malibu with Brian from about 10:45 AM till 3:00 PM. Fishing was terribly slow all day for me. Just a few bites here and there on my squid, but not much action at all. Brian did catch two small grass rockfish on squid. Slow day at the beach in the nice weather is still better than a day in the red hot valley! I'll get em the next time.

Surf Fishing Malibu 03-16-2013

Fished the Malibu spot for about 1.5 hours using squid. No bites, no fish. Short session, so I should not have expected too much. Oh well, I'll get em the next time.

Surf Fishing Malibu 08-12-2012

After the long day yesterday I decided I still needed to fish a little more. My sixth trip in nine days! I only had time for a short session so I timed it to be around high tide. Got there around 3:30 PM and brought squid and anchovy for bait...also brought cheap pantiehose to keep the anchovy on the hook. Worked pretty good, but didn't get many bites on it. Fished till 6:00 PM catching nothing (Skunked). Had a few nibbles here and there, but pretty much a very slow day. Still great to be out on the water.

After getting skunked I was treated to a fabulous dinner at Sushi Iki in Tarzana. This place is very pricy, but worth every penny (especially when I am not paying, lol). My favorite dish of the night was Halibut, wrapped around duck liver and topped with caviar, VERY tasty! Also had my first every Dungeness Crab as shown below, also very tasty but almost the same as the free rock crabs I can catch.

Gonna be getting one of these soon (not this model exactly). Hope it helps my catch rate and quality.

Surf Fishing Malibu 08-04-2012

Surf fished in Malibu with Flannery while our women went to 3rd street. They dropped us off around 5:00 PM and were on their way. We set up shop on the shore. We both tried squid, sand crabs and anchovy and I think I tried perch, shrimp, mackerel and croaker as well. Fished hard till about 11:00 PM which was about 30 minutes past the scheduled grunion run. Didn't see any before we left and neither of us caught anything. Kinda sucks to get skunked, but you can't get skunked if you ain't fishing!

Only pic of the night:

Surf Fishing Malibu 07-28-2012

Decided to hit up my Malibu spot on Saturday for a nice long outing. Wife dropped me off around 7:00 AM and I was fishing ten minutes later. It was high tide of 3.06' right around 7 and a low of 2.18' was at about 11:15 AM. Second high of 5.62' was not until about 6:00 PM. Fished alone for about five hours walking out in knee deep water to a rock to cast about 40' out from shore. Had one hook up on cut grunion but lost it at the surface (must not have been hooked well). It looked to be a 10" or so rockfish. After that just a few nibbles here and there, but nothing of note. A fishing boat came in really close to shore to fish the same area I was, but I did not see them catch anything either. Brian showed up a little after noon and fished squid exclusively until we left around 6:00 PM. He got a nibble here and there as well, but did not catch anything. I tried squid, grunion (seemed to be the only thing that was getting bites today, as luck would have it I only had one), shrimp, perch and croaker for nothing. Big ole skunk for 10 hours of fishing kind of sucks, but at least there was some nice eye candy around ;).

Few pictures of area, eye candy, fishing boat and kayakers:

Malibu Surf Fishing 07-08-2012

Decided to make a short trip to my spot in Malibu since I had not yet fished this weekend and there was a grunion run the previous evening. Arrived at around 11:00 AM and planned to stay until about 3:00 PM which was about 1 hour past the 2:00 high tide of 4' or so. Fishing was very slow all day. Had a few nibbles, but nothing solid. Stayed till 5:00 PM because the girls in bikinis made it hard to leave, lol. Used squid most of the day, but also tried mackerel, perch and smelt. On thing this spot produces almost every trip and a fine looking ass or three to look at. Makes up for getting skunked most of the time, lol.

Malibu Pier Fishing 06-10-2012

Went to Malibu pier with my buddy Brian. We got there around 11 AM or so and didn't see much going on up the pier. We set up shop near the end on the right and waited. To start I had one line in with two circle hooks and the other I had set up trolly rig style. Brian had one single dropper loop and one with a sabiki. I tried sabiki as well later on. Got some taps on it, but nothing that stuck. VERY slow all day. Brian caught one bullhead and I caught some sun and a few nice ladies in short shorts, lol. Only action I saw all day on pier was two spider crabs poached via sabiki, three pacific mackerel and one medium to small bat ray without a tail which I helped them land with the crab net I brought as a landing net. I know this pier is usually slow, but this was just dead. Left around 6 PM. Next time I plan to hit this pier I hope I go back to this post so I see - DON'T DO IT!

Ventura Harbor Memorial Day 05-28-2012

Not having any plans set in stone other than spending time with the wife I was delighted when my buddy Brian called and asked if we wanted to go to Ventura Harbor to do some jetty / surf fishing in the Ventura area. After discussing it with the wife we decided that we would love to go. Picked up Brian & Nicole in Simi at around 1:15 PM and headed for Ventura. I knew Mahigeer was going to be in the area since I had spoken to him and he was at Sterns Wharf and planning to stop by Ventura pier. He could not come over to the jetty and we did not want to go to the pier because of the inevitable Memorial Day traffic. I did take a shot of the pier in the distance below so I could say I took a picture of him, lol. Started fishing at end of the jetty around 2:30 PM after dropping stuff off, finding parking and walking a couple blocks back. There was a ton of dead kelp and eel grass in the water which made the chances of catching any fish slim. I tried all sides of the jetty with Octopus, Mackerel, Muscle and Shrimp but almost every time I brought in my line it was covered with eel grass. Hard to catch a fish when your bait is buried beneath a huge clump of crud, lol. Left around 5:30 about 45 minutes past the high tide. We were both skunked, but it was a nice day out there, the swells were pretty big. Both of us and our gear got soaked a couple times. Couple shots of the area and a video I found on my phone of a Sarcastic Fringehead I caught in my net at Ventura Pier on 05-15-2012.

Malibu Short Surf Session 05-20-2012

So my brother wakes me up at around 10:30 AM and says - Let's go fishing. I will be there in 15 minutes....so I quickly got ready and him his buddy Bruce and I are on our way to Malibu. Got there around 11:00 AM or so and fished till about 1:30 or so. I did not catch anything using, squid, octopus, sardine, mackerel and anchovy. I did get one massive hit, but whatever it was did not set the circle hook. My brother did not catch anything either and Bruce caught one tiny rockfish and a Sea Slug, lol. Oh well, it was a short session so I kind of expected to be skunked. No pictures today
.

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:

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: