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.

Surf Fishing Malibu 07-15-2013

Brian and I decided to give the night fishing another shot. We fished from 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM. This time we started off at another spot I thought might be more productive for what we were targeting, which was sharks. Started out at the new spot and only lasted about an hour there. There was just too much salad (seaweed and eel grass) in the water and our hooks were getting covered with it instantly making actually catching anything there impossible. So we moved on to spot #2, which had much less salad but also did not produce any fish, or even many bites at all. We tried squid, smelt, shad, sardine and perch for bait. Two skunks in a row :(.

Malibu Surf Fishing 11-18-2012

Hit up a couple spots in Malibu with Brian. I did not catch anything, Brian caught a big smelt and a small grass rockfish. Squid for bait, no pics again.

Malibu Surf Fishing 11-10-2012

Hit Malibu for a few hours. Tried a couple spots with squid for bait. Ended up catching on big ass Smelt and one small grass rockfish. No pics this time.

Redondo Sportsfishing Pier 05-30-2012

Hit up the Sportsfishing pier at Redondo today. Started out at around 7:30 AM and fished till 2:00 PM. Fishing was very slow all day. I caught three mackerel, a smelt and a couple senorita fish (damn bait stealer, lol). I tried to crab for a bit, but since I forgot my bait cage the seals promptly removed the mackerel in the net portion so I stopped to keep the seals away and since it was pointless. Very nice weather and very little swell (probably why fishing was slow). At one point my heavy line with a live smelt for bait took off peeling line out, but when I brought it up a seal was right behind it so I am thinking either the seal hit my line or the smelt really wanted to get away from it, lol. Lots of Calico bass, mostly shorts, being caught and released on the side portion of the pier.

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:

Redondo Sportsfishing (Short) Pier 05-10-2012

Fished the short pier today from about 7:30 AM till 2:00 PM. My main goal was to hopefully stock up on Sardines for bait, but didn't see any all day. Morning started out very slow, don't think I caught my first fish until about 3 hours in. I was fishing one rod with a double dropper with squid and sardine as bait and a sabiki rod with small chunks of mackerel. Finally caught a 12" or so mackerel around 10:30 or so on the sabiki rod. Tried out different baits on the droppers (mackerel, smelt and a small sand dab I caught as live bait) but did not get anything on it all day. Caught a humongous smelt (I did not measure it before I chopped it up for bait, but I think it was at least 17") a half dozen medium to large pacific mackerel and one medium sized Spanish mackerel. Pretty slow day for this pier, but still had a good time!

No fish pics this time, just a couple shots of the harbor.

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.

Malibu Pier 03/02/2012

Hit up Malibu Pier with my fishing buddy Brian Friday afternoon from about 2 P.M. till about 8 P.M.. Fishing and Crabbing was SUPER slow. All day I caught one large smelt (shown below) and a bullhead. On the crabbing front, I only got a couple tiny rock crabs and a bunch of medium sized spider crabs. This trip reminded me why I am not a huge fan of this pier...

Ventura Pier 12/04/2011

Fished / crabbed Ventura Pier from about 7:00 A.M. till 2:30 P.M.. Started out at the end and worked our way back using cut mackerel and octopus as bait for fishing and a mash up of misc. crap, mostly mackerel, for crabbing. I caught zero fish all day, Brian managed one small perch and a jack smelt. Got three keeper crabs, one slender crab and two rock crabs, but threw them all back before leaving as three crabs ain't gonna give you much crab meat to work with. Was a long day due to the lack of action, but was nice none the less.