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A friend is retiring from teaching in June. She is considering a move to San Diego County to be closer to her son. Are there any groups that routinely meet at any of the piers that would welcome a newcomer? Steve

Some people are having success using Lucky Craft Flash Minnows to fish for halibut in the surf. I am interested in trying it, but I dislike treble hooks, and these have three. I am concerned about what they do to fish that will be released. Is there an alternative to treble hooks that will not...

Is the bait and tackle shop still open on Ocean Beach Pier? If so, does anyone know if they rent equipment at a reasonable price? Steve

Ken started a thread on sand crabs: https://www.pierfishing.com/msgboard/index.php?threads/sand-crabs-great-bait.2288/#post-11231. OaklandP pointed out that the regulations for sand crabs changed this year: Can someone check if dipnets and mesh devices made of hardware cloth are considered...

Does anyone have news about Huntington Beach or nearby piers? A friend and I plan to meet her son there Saturday? Steve

There have been a lot of small sardines at Hueneme. I have been attempting to use them as bait with little success. I hooked the first one above the anal fin. It stayed on the hook, though the front 3/4 of the sardine was bitten off. Later attempts had poor fish survival. I tried through the...

A friend and I went to Hermosa Beach after reading about the bonito. We arrived at about 9:00 AM. I started with a triple dropper (size 6 & 8) baited with shrimp or squid fished off the bottom. My second rig was an unbaited, size 10, hand tied, sabiki, hoping for bait. At first, most of the...

Ken has frequently mentioned that one of the best places to fish for halibut is between the pilings. Does this mean dropping bait straight down, or casting back under the pier? Hooking a large, fresh fish close to the pier would seem to risk having it wrap around pilings. How do you discourage...

I caught a shovelnose this weekend. After cleaning it, there was a large carcass that I put in the garbage. This seemed like such a waste, but I did not know how to appropriately bury it in the garden, so that there was no problem with smell or being dug up by animals. Any suggestions? Steve

A friend and I tried to go fishing at Hueneme Pier, but the system the city attempted has fallen apart. From mid-pier out, the pylons and cones used to mark fishing areas have all been moved around, and people are not respecting social distancing. Many were not wearing masks. We decided to try...

A friend and I went fishing at Goleta Pier on Wednesday. We stopped just before the boat launch, because it looked like their weren't any good spaces further out. There was a stiff breeze from the west, resulting in the pipe reef kelp coming toward the pier. I spent most of my time trying to...

The Hueneme Pier is due to open next week, with disignated fishing zones, no benches, and no fish cleaning. See the second item on this page. Steve

Ventura Pier is now open, including the parking lot. Steve

The Hueneme Pier is still closed, but the beach is open, with 50% parking and designated areas on the sand to keep groups more than 6 ft apart. Fishing has been allowed for a while, but until they opened the parking, it was essentially resident only. A friend and I went out to fish the incoming...

Perhaps this should be in the recipe section, but I thought more people might see it here. Does anyone have suggestions for a decent smoker/grill combo that is reasonably priced? Steve

Though showers were predicted, a friend and I went to Hueneme Pier, on Saturday. Some of the locals were making regular catches of small sardines. Most were using local or homemade jig lines without bait. The small hooks were tied with a few, fine, green, sparkly filaments. I used mussels on a...

I went to Bolsa Chica with a friend on Saturday. There was a minus tide, which allowed her access to the inlet without climbing on rocks. This turned out to be a bad idea. After the initial slope, the bottom is very flat. Combined with a strong onshore breeze, this made casting into even...

I went to Silver Strand beach to collect some mussels for bait on the minus tide. While I was there I decide to try the Hueneme harbor jetty. The wind was a little stiff, and on the ocean side of the jetty, I was casting into it. I tried using a castabubble with a light weight, so my bait would...

I walked Hueneme Pier today, at about 10:00 am. Everybody was fishing the last third of the pier. In the short time I was there, the only fish being caught were very small sardines (3-4 in.) and medium jacksmelt, on homemade baitless sabikis. Crabs were the usual short slender crabs and yellow...

I looked at Ken's article on the Monterrey Coast Guard Pier. It looks like some very nice fish can be taken there, but I wonder about problems due to the fence. How do you bring up a large fish? Handlining would probably drag it against the wall. How do you safely return short fish? Steve