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L.A. Surf Fishing

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boab

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On 5/10/2018 at 8:52 AM, bmac said:

Surf  & pier fishing in California are pretty humble.  Party boat scene is pretty much a nightmare nowadays depending on the landing. If you really want to fish while you're out there, you might consider a kayak rental in Redondo or Marina Del Rey.  You have a decent chance of catching calico or spotted bay bass, halibut or even bonito or barracuda. Your heaver will be overkill for everything but leopard sharks and larger halibut which are pretty rare.  Stripers are extremely rare off SoCal though there is a pretty decent fishery for them off of some SF Bay area beaches.  Corbina can be fun but that's pretty much a light tackle game.  Surf perch are just an ocean bluegill that rarely get bigger than a quarter pound.  Spotfin croaker will give you a decent fight. If you ask me, just not enough decent sized fish in the surf off SoCal to make it interesting unless you just want to be on the beach anyways. Sleep in & wait for the sun and the boobs to come out.  That's free.  If you haven't already been, Venice is pretty much a human freak show.  Worth a gawk, at least for a while.  22nd Street Seafood Grill & Bar in San Pedro is a pretty decent place to grab a bite & some grog.  Lots of great pics from the old days before they fished the SoCal bight clean. 

Whoaa...Sounds like you don't care much for our fishing.... True we may not have the larger surf fish, but the others are are fun on lighter gear... Try sight fishing corbina in a couple of inches of water.... Then there are always the sharks and rays....  And the offshore yellowtail and tuna fishing has been fantastic, the last couple of years...There is more to our beaches and ocean, than boobs and freaks....Of course if you are looking for boobs and freaks, they are available also. ;) 

 

Butch

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I agree with Butch. If you go fish the kelp beds up in Gaviota you’ll find a huge variety of fish. My parents used to take me to a great spot up there, but it was kinda weird for an 8 yo to see a large naked man for the first time. 

'If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck, I'd swim to the bottom and never come up.'  Chuck Ragan

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17 hours ago, Oakey said:

 

 

Quote

when was the last time you were back?  I'm originally an east coaster and have fished all the places back east.  Fishing here has been very good the last few years. 

Guys:  I spent almost three quarters of my 60 years fishing SoCal and probably every single major lake, river or stream in the Golden State.  Many fond memories. Didn't mean to humbug it as much as it may have sounded but as far as surf fishing in SoCal, unless you take the time to gear up properly and scout out decent corbina spots, you can have the rest of it.  And just to give you an idea Butch, I used to do that with an old fiberglass 5' Sabre trout rod and a Mitchell 308 loaded with 6 lb Stren Blue which I think I learned about at the first Fred Hall show in Long Beach.  Maybe the second. Anyways, yes, there are a number of exceptions up & down the coast, and it can be a load of fun, but I think SoCal shorefishing opportunities pale compared to what you can get elsewhere in the country, especially for someone who is just visiting for a few days.  I'm aware of the improved nearshore fishing, both the big bluefin, which had disappeared for over 50 years, as well as some of the outrageous YT, YFT, Dorado bites in recent years within sight of the beach due to El Ninos. And the WSB have made a nice comeback. So I wouldn't say that SW fishing sucks in Cali at all.  Quite the contrary.  But it's going to cost some money unless you're willing to endure party boat hell with a rail full of Barneys and a surly 19 year old deck hand on the bait tank yelling about how you don't know how to fish.  Limited load or six pack trips are great, but they cost some bucks.  T/Lines

Edited by bmac
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18 hours ago, bmac said:

 

Guys:  I spent almost three quarters of my 60 years fishing SoCal and probably every single major lake, river or stream in the Golden State.  Many fond memories. Didn't mean to humbug it as much as it may have sounded but as far as surf fishing in SoCal, unless you take the time to gear up properly and scout out decent corbina spots, you can have the rest of it.  And just to give you an idea Butch, I used to do that with an old fiberglass 5' Sabre trout rod and a Mitchell 308 loaded with 6 lb Stren Blue which I think I learned about at the first Fred Hall show in Long Beach.  Maybe the second. Anyways, yes, there are a number of exceptions up & down the coast, and it can be a load of fun, but I think SoCal shorefishing opportunities pale compared to what you can get elsewhere in the country, especially for someone who is just visiting for a few days.  I'm aware of the improved nearshore fishing, both the big bluefin, which had disappeared for over 50 years, as well as some of the outrageous YT, YFT, Dorado bites in recent years within sight of the beach due to El Ninos. And the WSB have made a nice comeback. So I wouldn't say that SW fishing sucks in Cali at all.  Quite the contrary.  But it's going to cost some money unless you're willing to endure party boat hell with a rail full of Barneys and a surly 19 year old deck hand on the bait tank yelling about how you don't know how to fish.  Limited load or six pack trips are great, but they cost some bucks.  T/Lines

 

 

East coasters love bottom fishing.  Tog, Cod, Grouper, Snapper, Fluke etc.  Out here Bottom Fishing gets no respect...., even through our bottom fishing is incredible...  When my friends come out they're in shock.  Ling Cod, Sheepshead, Reds, Chuckles, etc,   Limits more often than not.

 

The offshore fishing the last three or four years has been some of the best in the country.  Mako by far best in the country.

 

Agree...Party Boat fishing here is like anywhere else. Go during the week or suffer.  

 

Our inshore "three" Halibut, Yellowtail, Sea Bass have been good.  Fished Sea Bass two weeks ago my buddy had a 55 lb.

 

With that being said Southern California Surf Fishing is a waste of time in my opinion.  I have a garage full of striper plugs, waders, rods, reels etc that collect dust. I'm sure there are some people that have surf Halibut dialed in and thats really cool.  For those folks I raise my glass...I just don't have the motivation to try and figure it out.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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You guys gotta give sight fishing corbina in skinny water a try...I have fished bonefish in the Caribbean, and this is very similar....More of a hunt, than fishing....And if you hook a 2' fish, on light gear, in 6" of water, they can be a handful...One of my favorite things to do....

 

Butch

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For sure, and I don't want to come across as the know it all old guy carping about the bygone days, even though maybe I did. Corbina fishing is fun, and I've seen more and more guys fly fishing for them when I visit.  I think fishing off SoCal the past few years is far better than it was when I grew up there for the most part.  Some of that is because of the rebound of sardines and anchovies after those reduction fisheries collapsed the stock and moved to S. America to perpetrate the same crime there.  Some because of climate & weather cycles like El Nino that bring the warm water pelagics within range.  Unfortunately that means the albacore bypass SoCal.  And whatever you might think of the MPAs, good or bad, they've closed a good number of spots I used to fish, including my all time favorite, La Jolla, or at least a very big chunk of it.  The ground fish or "rock cod" fishery pretty much got pounded into dust due to overharvest and now is regulated to the point of insignificance.  A good amount of that was commercial, but as recs, we mainly have ourselves to blame.  I remember going on rock cod trips out of Oxnard & Santa Barbara loading up burlap gunny sacks with 40, 50, 60 fish.  No limits and no clue what harm we were doing & those fish grow slow.  Now the pendulum has swung far the other direction.  OBTW,  I don't pull that crap any more. Not proud of it, but that's how it was in those days.  I caught and killed a legit 10lb calico off the rocks on San Clemente Island many years ago.  That would get a guy lynched today.  Good fishing to you.   

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Well thank you all for the posts and suggestions.  I am back on the right coast and happy to be home.

I did happen to catch one fish which was a barred sand bass but that was pretty much it.  I tried Manhattan, Hermosa (where I caught the bass), and Redondo piers.  I also looked into a boat trip out of Redondo but that was about $80.... NOPE!!!

I have to say I got a little discouraged as my sibiki rigs where a size too big to catch any bait fish, mack's, smelts, sardines, etc... and didn't the have the rigs for bottom fishing.

 

Live and learn I guess.

 

32290814_10216408299629595_1667677432431

 

and then there was this guy...

32235527_10216408301909652_3827427541388

 

Other "people" started to feed him and well you know the rest...

 

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42 mins ago, Midnightpass said:

I'm sorry our fishing didn't treat you better....Piers can be tough...As a kid I used to haunt them, just to fish....Now I very rarely go there.... Come back and try the surf sometime.... A much nicer environment....

 

Butch

I could not pull myself to purchase the nearly $50 ten day non-resident license.  That is pretty much double of where I have been for work where I have fished.  Knowing how to fish the surf I saw so many possibilities and it drove me nuts.  Maybe next time...

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9 hours ago, boab said:

Well thank you all for the posts and suggestions.  I am back on the right coast and happy to be home.

I did happen to catch one fish which was a barred sand bass but that was pretty much it.  I tried Manhattan, Hermosa (where I caught the bass), and Redondo piers.  I also looked into a boat trip out of Redondo but that was about $80.... NOPE!!!

I have to say I got a little discouraged as my sibiki rigs where a size too big to catch any bait fish, mack's, smelts, sardines, etc... and didn't the have the rigs for bottom fishing.

 

Live and learn I guess.

 

32290814_10216408299629595_1667677432431

 

and then there was this guy...

32235527_10216408301909652_3827427541388

 

Other "people" started to feed him and well you know the rest...

 

 

That's a Calico Bass. 

 

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/3/2018 at 2:54 PM, boab said:

Thank you telecronista!  I will see if I can get up there, maybe next weekend.  But after doing some research on CA non res fishing license, I may just fish from the piers as it seems to be free doing so.  Otherwise it is almost $45 for a 10 day non res license... F that noise!

Welcome to California. The slowly imploding state

The more that things change, the more they stay the same.
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