Ventura Pier 09-16-2012

Got to the pier around 10:30 AM and set up around mid pier. Fished with double dropper loop at first and caught my only fish of the day on squid (It was a croaker). Used it for bait for no takers. Buddy Brian was killing it on the sabiki catching Wall Eye Perch, Queen Fish, Lizard Fish and Spot Fin Croakers. All pretty small and most released except a few used for bait. Crabbing was slow too, ended up with two keeper rock crabs, but tossed em back before I left since it is not enough meat too much trouble to prepare with only two crabs, lol. Still nice to be back. Some lovely looking locals strolled the pier too, which was a nice bonus.

Surf Fishing Dana Point Area 05-26-2012

My buddy Hammer and his buddy Polo showed up to my house a little behind schedule, but pretty close to the scheduled time of 5:30 AM and we were on our way by 5:50 AM. After stopping somewhere off the 5 freeway to pick up Polo's uncle we were on our way to the Dana Point Area. After stopping in at the gas station for snacks and to drop off our gear we started what ended up being a hell of a long walk to the spot. I am pretty sure it was over a mile, not so far, but it was rough walking, lol. After passing by several fishy looking areas that I will be back to fish soon, we arrived at our spot at the point at around 8:25 AM. I started out with a double dropper loop with squid and octopus on them and knew I would be switching out to a single as soon as I lost this setup which was not very long, lol. After switching to a single I moved to the tip of the point and cast out with octopus. After a few casts flinging my shore crabs off the hook before they hit the water, I switched to muscles and cast where Polo's uncle suggested I cast. I got constant hits when casting to this spot, but time after time they just striped the bait off without setting the circle hook. Hammer hooked into something large, but it took him into the kelp and got off after about 10 minutes. After moving North of the point where polo said there were lots of small perch I switched to a sabiki tipped with muscle and within seconds I had my first fish of the day, a decent sized walleye perch. Caught a ton of the small fries while eyeballing the cove that I will be back to fish hard (video below). I did not feel like losing a bunch of rigs today, but there are rockfish, cabazon and possibly lings in there for sure. Kept a bunch of the decent sized walleyes and a senorita fish (what I knew as soon as I saw that they were around were the culprits stealing my bait) and a few small black perch. After sharing a great burrito that uncle made for lunch Polo and Hammer were both catching small perch and his uncle kept on catching Garibaldi. Every time we were excited at a large fish being on, then disappointed as soon as we saw the orange. We called it a day at around 3:30 PM. The swell was large all day, which is suspect had something to do with the bigger perch hiding. After packing up while his Uncle cleaned the catch he felt like taking and releasing all of the small perch in the holding pool we were on our way back on the long trek to the car. We saw a dead sea slug and a large dead female sheep-head (fish) on the shore. I also took a nice tumble at the end of the rocks where a bunch of dead dried kelp attracted millions of bugs as I tried to hurry by.

It was a great day of fishing, scouting a few new locations along the way and seeing some nice ladies along the way as usual, lol. Hammer also purchased his year license, so we will hopefully be doing this more often.

Lot of pics and a video of a cove I will be back to fish below:

Crabbing and Fishing Ventura Pier 05-25-2012

Met up with Brian at about 7:15 AM and headed for the pier. Started fishing and crabbing at around 8:00 A.M. There were a few other anglers around most catching queenfish / herring on sabikis. We set up shop at the end and I placed the crab net in my usual spot. Fishing was fairly constant on the sabiki lines we used catching what they call tiny 7-11 perch, decent sized walleye perch and queenfish / herring. Buddy and I both tried shark rigs (him the whole time, me only when I got tired of using the sabiki rod) with live bait but no takers on those either. Gave some of our perch to the locals to try for sharks, no love for them either. Crabbing was spectacular as usual. I ended up getting 23 keeper red, yellow and rock crabs. I gave five away to these two younger fellows (I think they were around 17) who were camping with their family somewhere close and wanted some to boil up. They were pretty nice kids and I had plenty so I spread the wealth a little. We left at around 2:00 PM as the wind and swell was getting progressively worse (the crabbing also slowed as the swell got bigger). Good day on the pier hanging with my buddy and checking out the local scenery (love them hot days!).

Jetty Fishing Pierpont Bay (Ventura, CA) 02/25/2012

Met up with my fishing buddy Brian at 8:00 AM in Woodland Hills. After a quick pit stop at 7-11 for muchies and drinks we proceeded to the jetty. We started fishing around 10:00 A.M.. Brian hooked up on a wall eye perch pretty quickly using muscle. I went quite a while without anything. At some point, I noticed an about two foot wide hole between three rocks that had water down below, so I dropped my bait (frozen squid) in there and just a few minutes later...tap, tap bam fish on. Pulled up a 10" rock fish, sweet! After that I moved around casting to rocks and holes I could see and caught four more rockfish from 10 to a little over 12". They were all the same species of rockfish (not sure what kind, anyone know? We were thinking grass or brown rockfish). Brian also joined in the rockfish party and landed 3 or 4 of them as well. He also hooked into a nice 5" or so rock crab which we promptly returned since it was caught on hook and line. We packed it in at around 3 PM. Another great day of fishing in Ventura, CA. All fish except the biggest rockfish were promptly released to get bigger.

Fishing area and fish pics below (in no particular order):

Jetty Fishing Pierpont Bay (Ventura, CA) 01/28/2012

Fished the first Jetty North of Ventura Harbor from about 8:00 A.M. till 12:30 P.M. with my fishing buddy Brian. We were using squid, cut mackerel and peppermint shrimp for bait at first. I caught a 10" rockfish on cut mack fairly quickly (returned to get bigger) and Brian wasn't getting anything until he harvested some muscles from the rocks for bait. After he started using the muscles he landed three perch in pretty short order. I also at some point between losing setups caught a nice 13" rockfish on cut mack which I kept for dinner. First time fishing this jetty, so I was pretty happy that we both caught fish. Weather was perfect (even a little hot) and the swell was kind of big.

Here are a few pics of our fishing area: