Ventura Pier 05-15-2012

Hit up Ventura Pier from about 1:30 PM till 10:30 PM. Set up shop with the crab net in my usual spot baited with the usual menagerie of junk this time consisting of mackerel, sardines, whitefish head and rock fish head. Crabbing was off the charts all day. Ended up keeping twenty something rock crabs (red, yellow and rock) and two spider crabs, one if which was the biggest caught to date for me. Fishing wise you could have all the queenfish you could ever possibly want if that is your thing (I caught and released all fish caught on the day). Didn't see much else, except for a large smelt and a few sand sharks caught by others shortly before leaving. Birds were diving and dolphins were around the pier, but I never saw any baitfish anywhere on the pier. Guess the bait is hanging out just outside the pier. I forgot to bring a sabiki so I made one from crappie jigs I had in my tackle box which worked just fine.

Redondo Sportsfishing Pier 04-15-2012

Day started out by meeting Redkorn at the Sportsfishing (Short) pier in the harbor at about 7:00 A.M.. We started out both using sabikis on one pole and bigger bait on the other (live sardines or mackerels when we had them). Fishing was pretty good all day on Mackerels and a late day heavy run of sardines. We saw some bonito in the water so we let Mahigeer know and he came to the pier around noon. After a while I got tired of using two poles so I switched to one sabiki pole and started crabbing with my net. I ended up catching three (3) male yellow rock crabs and one medium sized female spider crab. I kept the yellow crabs and put back the spider to make more babies. John stayed until around 6:00 P.M. and Mahigeer and I stayed till about 7:00 P.M... I ended up bringing home the yellow rock crabs and a couple dozen mackerel and over 150 sardines. The mackerel and 1/3 of the sardines are salt curing as I type and the other 2/3’s of the sardines I brought in for my co-workers to share. Great day of fishing! Pics of the copters looking for a body and the take below:

Ventura Pier 03/09/2012 - 03/10/2012

Hit up Ventura Pier since my buddy was late and we missed the grunion run time. Arrived at the pier around 11:45 and proceeded to the end of the pier after checking the surf line for any signs of life. Dropped in my crab net and started getting the rods ready. set up one pole with a whole small BSP from a previous trip on a circle with a stinger and let it sit while I set up the other pole. No hits that I noticed on the whole BSP. Set up the other pole with a high low and put shrimp on the high and squid on the low. Pulled the other pole up while I went to check the crab net. 1st pull and there is a keeper! Nice way to start. Dropped the net back down and went back and tossed out the high-low pole. After a while I see some movement so I pick up the pole and feel it...seems kinda like crabs, but why not set the hook anyways...hmm, that is not a crab! Brought the little guy to the pier and left him just below the water line while I went to grab the crab net to get it up. My buddy held it in place while I got my net making sure it didn't wrap around a piling. Brought it up and it was my first every bat ray. A small little bugger (maybe 18" across or so) that just found the squid too tempting. After a quick unhook I lowered em back to the water in the crab net. Forgot to take a pic. After that I only really had one other solid hit, which I missed. Brought in the bait and it had a huge mouth mark taken out of its belly....grrr, that's what I get for not using a stinger. On the crab front I ended up with five keeper rock crabs and one decent sized spider crab. Caught a ton of shorts. Left a little after 3:00 A.M.. All and all a great trip even though it was a bit slow.

I got crabs at the pier....

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...

Redondo Horseshoe Pier 10/22/2011

Met up John / Redkorn at Redondo for some Lobster hooping and fishing from about 4:30 P.M. till 1:00 A.M. No lobsters in the hoop, just one medium to large female spider crab, which I tossed back because I did not want to deal with cooking it and it is difficult to tell when female spider crabs have eggs. Fishing wise, got 30-40 small to large macs for winter bait using a sabiki tipped with mac and squid. Lost quite a few to the dang seals, but it was fun to watch them (light show because of the bio-luminescence). I did see quite a few poachers there with snag lines for lobsters, luckily I did not see them get anything except spider crabs...lucky for them because I would have confronted them and called Cal-Tip.