Surf Fishing Malibu 11-15-2013

Decided to do a quick afternoon trip to Malibu. I arrived at around 2:00 PM and left around 4:00 PM. Low tide was a -0.27 @ 2:05 PM and high was 3.97 @ 8:13 PM. Bait was squid, and squat was caught :). I will get em the next time!

Arrival Shot

Departing Shot

Surf Fishing Malibu 11-09-2013

Brian was back in town and ready to fish, so we headed to Malibu again. Sunrise was at 6:22 AM, Low tide was a 2.6 @ 7:44 AM and high was a 4.51 @ 1:27 PM. Bait was squid. We arrived around 6:00 AM and I caught the first fish of the day at 6:18 AM, a 10" or so grass rockfish which was released to grow and make babies :). Next was a 6" or so grass rockfish caught by Brian at 7:49 AM (also released of course). Unfortunately for us, that would be the last fish caught on this day. We left around 11:00 AM having each caught a small grassy and our bellies grumbling (went to our normal after fishing place Jack in the Box). Overall a very slow day of fishing, but half the fun of fishing is BS-ing with your buddy (or buddies) anyways :).

Surf Fishing Malibu 11-08-2013

Back in LA, I decided to hit up my favorite city to fish in, Malibu of course! I arrived at a little before 7:00 AM to absolutely gorgeous weather! Got my first and only fish of the day, a nice sized (12"-13") Calico Perch at 8:03 AM. Nothing else after that until I left around 11:15 AM. I got a little bored since fishing was slow and played around with and made a little spread of all of the crustacean shells lying around on the beach, which you can see below :).

Fishing San Simeon & Cayucos 11-04-2013

Taking a break from helping out a friend in Central California, Brian and I decided to take the day to fish some new areas. The tides sucked for what I like (it was an outgoing tide, I prefer to fish the incoming tide), but it was the day and time we had available so we fished :).

The day started out at San Simeon Pier for a little sightseeing and scoping of the area. I didn't even know there was a pier there until I looked it up on the map, lol. After walking the pier and talking to the lone angler there (who had not caught a thing) we headed to the nearest rocky area South of the pier with parking and beach access.

We started fishing here at around 7:54 AM. Brian caught the first fish for the day, a small grass rockfish at 8:03 AM. Nice start! No more fish, but lots of nibbles until 9:27 AM when Brian brought in another small grass rockfish....that was dead with basically it's head ripped slightly away from the body. Hmm, never seen that before. We are not sure if he had something bigger latched on or what, but he was stuck for a while before bringing the poor little guy in. Since it was dead, we kept it for bait. No more fish landed at this spot, but Brian was hooked into something very large that took him into a rock using the rockfish as bait. After a long battle and finally getting the fish loose, his line broke :(. Oh well. We left spot #1 at around 11:45 AM and headed towards Cayucos.

After checking out several very fishing looking areas with no beach access (unless we wanted to risk breaking our necks) we ended up pulling off the road several miles North of Cayucos and started a short walk to the beach we started fishing spot #2 at around 12:45 PM. The area looked super fishy, but alas no fish were caught at this spot today. We packed it in at around 3:45 PM and headed home. Two fish for Brian, none for me....but another gorgeous day on the ocean and in a new area :).

Surf Fishing Malibu 10-25-2013

Wanting to take advantage of the early morning low tide (low was a 3.06 @ 6:34 AM high was a 4.03 @ 12:07 PM and sunrise was at 6:09 AM) Brian and I decided to do some early morning fishing in Malibu....well, earlier for some than others, lol. I arrived at 5:30 AM and Brian arrived at 6:35 AM. Caught my first fish for the day at 5:38 AM which was a small, 8" or so, grass rockfish. Brian caught his first fish of the day at 7:18 AM which was also a small, 9" or so, grass rockfish. Nothing after that until 9:35 AM when magic happened, lol. In our many times fishing we have had times where we both had fish on, but we had never managed to land fish simultaneously. Well, two tiny 6" grass rockfish changed that :). Small fish, but we were psyched that it finally happened. No more fish after that and we packed it in around 10:00 AM since we were both tired (I had not slept at all the night before) and fishing was slow. Of course all fish were released to get bigger for my belly :). I would have to say it was another fantastic day in Malibu.

Fishing Ventura Harbor & Hobson Beach 10-22-2013

Brain and I decided to fish a little North so we headed to Ventura. Fished the South jetty of Ventura Harbor first. We arrived at around 10:00 AM and started out about 3/4 of the way down the jetty and fished the ocean side. After a while of not getting anything, not even nibbles I wandered down to the end of the jetty and cast straight out out into the middle of the harbor entrance. As soon as my bait (squid of course) hit bottom it started getting tapped like crazy. Must be little fish, but at least it is some action, lol. I called Brian down to the end and I brought in the first fish of the day, a small croaker at 11:14 AM. We fished for about another hour catching more small to medium sized croakers with the final tally being six for me and two for Brian before we left around noon.

After a trip to Carpinteria for lunch we decided to try one more spot before heading home, which was the rocks North of Hobson Beach. Fished the rocks from about 2:15 PM till 5:00 PM catching nothing but some sun, a couple sneaker waves and a nice fall into a five foot hole for me, lol. I tried two casts at Hobson Beach while Brian was using their facilities, but didn't catch anything there either. Fun day of fishing but not a lot of fish this time....oh yeah almost forgot the dolphins came into Ventura harbor into very shallow water, short video of that below.

View from Hobson Beach looking North

Surf Fishing Malibu 10-18-2013 with Flannery

Talked my main fishing partner in crime the Flan man into fishing the Full Moon. I / we usually do pretty well on full moon nights with incoming tides, and this day / night was no exception. Low tide was a -0.18 @ 2:49 PM and high was a 4.47 @ 8:54 PM. We fished from about 2:45 PM till about 8:45 PM. Bait was frozen squid as usual.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the fishing started out hot right away....for Brian at least, lol. He started out the catching by pulling in a fatty 17" calico bass at 3:12 PM. Damn, nice start!

He then proceeded to catch three grass rockfish between 3:30 PM and 5:00 PM which were approximately 8", 12" and 11" (all released to get just a bit bigger). Wow, he has a four to zero lead on me....guess it is just his day :).

Still not catching jack, I took a moment to take this nice picture around sunset at 5:11 PM (moonrise was at 5:13 PM) while standing on a rock in the middle of the ocean with a fishing pole in one hand and an expensive smartphone in the other...

Wouldn't ya know it. A second after taking this picture, I get hit and it sticks....crap, phone to pocket quickly and reel baby reel, lol. Brought in my first fish of the night, a nice 13" or 14" yellow Fin Croaker (released because I do not care for YFC personally). Yeaaaaa, no skunk for me :).

Fishing was a little slow for an hour until I caught an around 11.5" grass rockfish at 6:19 PM, which was released to get bigger. Hmmm, now his lead is only 4-2 :).

Next fish came at 7:03 PM and it was a big fat piggy 19" Calico Bass! Woo hoo! What a fish and what a fight to get em in through the rocks and eel grass. Calico bass are one of my favorite fish to catch because even the small ones give you a good fight and the large ones fight like hell.

Nice! Two pig calico's in the bucket (and Brian was happy I got a fish I kept so he could shlep off his fish on me to clean, lol) and the lead is down to 4-3 :). I caught the final fish at 7:41 PM which was an approximately 18-20" leopard shark (released of course).

We fished for about an hour after that then resigned ourselves to a nice 4-4 tie for the night, lol. Great night of fishing and catching. We both also had large sharks on but both were broken off even with our semi-heavy gear (I use 40 LB mono Brian uses 60 LB braid with a 40 LB mono leader). We will get one of those beasts in one of these days :).