Date: January 30, 2011
To: Pier Fishing In California
From: Ken Jones
Subject: Short Trip To The Southland #179
“Hey Ken, would you be willing to come down and give a talk to our club?” Sure, and that’s why I was headed down last Thursday to Los Angeles and a visit to the Marina Del Rey Angling Club.
Although the talk wasn’t scheduled until 6:30 PM, and an early departure might permit a quick visit to a pier, it was not to be. I held back leaving Fresno until 10 AM. since I’m no fan of driving in fog, especially the pea soup-variety, and The Valley had been socked in for the past week. Hopefully it would be cleared a little by mid-morning and such was the case, it was still foggy but driving conditions were fine.
The two-hour trip south through the valley was its typical, fairly boring drive through the various burgs—Kingsburg, Goshen, Pixley, Delano, McFarland, Famosa and the capital of country music in the West—Bakersfield. As soon as I began the ascent up the Grapevine the fog lifted, the sun took over, and the day actually turned balmy.
In less than four hours I was at Hashem’s house in Los Angeles. Next up would be a visit with Hashem and final preparations for the talk. My main concern was how many people would show up. Josh, the president of the Marina Del Rey Angler Club said it could be 15-to 50 and I was hoping it would be closer to the latter since It’s a long drive to Los Angeles.
Turned out to be around twenty-five people but it was a good group with good questions and the one and a half hours went far too quickly. Wished we had another hour but the library had to close so we packed up and headed off to a late dinner with Gordo Grand (Ross) and Kelpangler (Eugene).
Friday would be for fishing so where to go? Almost all reports said fishing was slow but one place that almost always seems to have a variety of fish in the winter is the Redondo Sportfishing Pier. Ross, Eugene and myself would meet up the next morning at 9:30 after I had acquired some suitable bait—ghost shrimp and lugworms.
Given the LA traffic, I headed out in the morning and made a stop at Best’s Tackle on Rosecrans for worms and then headed over to Paul’s in San Pedro for some fresh ghost shrimp. As is all too frequent in LA, there was a traffic snafu and I didn’t get to Redondo until 10 AM but I still beat Ross and Eugene to the pier. A number of anglers were already fishing so I walked out to the end to survey the scene. Some were tossing lures for bonito and some were fishing the bottom and soon I saw a decent-sized opaleye pulled over the railing. Now it would be my turn.
Did I mention that it was an absolutely beautiful day at the beach, around 75 degrees, a bright sun, and little breeze, the kind of day that requires shorts and the best sun tan lotion you can find? Being the first chance to get out in January, and the recent bleak conditions in Fresno, it almost didn’t matter if the fishing was good. As it turned out the fishing wasn’t good but also wasn’t bad, there were a lot of fish but almost all were small.
I fished with two outfits, a medium action rig and a light action rig. The larger rod would see ghost shrimp on Kahle hooks, the lighter rod would see size 6 hooks and lugworms; both had high/lows with torpedo sinkers. If you’ve fished this pier you know there are a million bait stealers in the waters—senorita being the main villains. As it turned out it was hard to keep ghost shrimp on the hooks since they were nibbled away by the smaller fish. Only two fish were caught on the bigger rig, a kelp bass and an opaleye. All of the other fish were caught on the light rig and worms. Like Catalina, the worms were an easy target for the bait stealers and could be stripped off the hooks. A key in such conditions is to always hold your rod and feel the fish. If you know what you’re doing you shouldn’t have too much trouble catching fish. If you’re not getting bites it means your bait is gone and you need to rebait. As always, I use just enough of the worm to cover the hook with the tip of the hook poking out from the worm.
Water conditions were not good: low tide and little water movement. What was interesting was the clarity of the water and the ability to see the rocks—and holes. I knew the holes would contain fish and they did. Four hours of fishing, interrupted by a delicious lunch at Polly’s, yielded 36 fish although, as mentioned, most were small. The haul contained 16 opaleye, 11 blackperch, 2 kelp bass, 2 senorita, 2 cabezon, 2 spotted kelpfish, and 1 striped kelpfish. Only one kelp bass, one opaleye, and one blackperch would be considered keeper-sized.
Beautiful weather, time to talk with friends, and a few fish, what more do you need? I planned to meet up with Hashem to fish the Paradise Cove Pier later in the afternoon so headed back around 2:45. I did make a short stop at the Manhattan Beach Pier for a quick visit to see what was going on. Although crowded, only one angler was present, a shirtless angler wearing a Mad Hatter-hat and displaying signs of goofiness.
I then met up with Hashem and we began the road-clogged journey to Paradise Cove. By the time we arrived there were just a few minutes of light, just enough to rig a medium and heavier rod while Hashem prepared his lobster hoops. We had the pier to ourselves and it was still a short sleeve shirt and shorts temperature.
Paradise Cove was once a long and beautiful pier but today it’s merely a stub that pokes out 300 feet or so into a sandy bottom populated by extensive kelp and broken off pilings. It’s easy to fish around the pier, harder to fish out away from the pier because of the propensity of hooking that kelp and/or pilings. But usually the bigger fish at Paradise are out from the pier.
Again I would use two rigs but here I broke out my G-Dude Special and rigged up for what I hoped would be something a little larger—a sharay (shark or ray). The lighter rig was once again rigged with lugworms. The worms and smaller hooks would once again produce the most fish, mainly walleye surfperch. Three hours and 45 minutes of fishing produced 15 walleye surfperch, 3 queenfish, 1 keeper-size brown rockfish (on a ghost shrimp), and 1 speckled sanddab. Again it was action even if not the kind I was hoping for. I did manage one lobster which, of course, had to be returned to the sea since it was doubly illegal—caught on a hook and line and too small. Hashem managed a few lobsters but all were too small to keep.
I did manage to hook something large but unfortunately it was on my light rod. I had put on some squid and cast out and lo and behold something grabbed it and began a spirited tussle that eventually ended at the pier. Unfortunately even though I tightened down the line as much as I dared with the light line, I was unable to stop it from wrapping around the piling and breaking off. I thought I glimpsed the shape of a large shovelnose but can’t say for sure. If it was, it wasn’t the first I have lost to pilings.
But it was a beautiful night (even if I did change into long pants at 8 PM). The sky was clear, populated by stars, and we tried to name the constellations (including the Big Dipper). Lights speckled the shoreline to the south like jewels on a beautiful neck.
That would change when we headed back at about 10:30. As we got to Santa Monica, and drove up the incline from the beach, the sky immediately changed to fog, light at first but then pea soup-fog that accompanied us the rest of the way home. Strange given the conditions in Malibu just a few minutes previously.
On Saturday I planned to spend some time with Ginny at Wylie’s in Malibu (one of my favorite tackle shops) before heading over to the Malibu Pier. As always, Ginny and I talked far too long and then Eugene showed. He was headed to the Paradise Cove Pier with his family and had stopped on a twofold mission. He needed some bait and had brought Ginny a certificate from UPSAC in recognition to her donations for our fishing derbies. I did not know Eugene was heading to Malibu that day with his family but we agreed to meet up at the Malibu Pier.
Eugene was set up inshore near the surf line at the pier when I arrived so I joined him there but unfortunately action was dead. Low tide, no water movement, and no fish (although a couple of slender crabs grabbed bait). Eventually the kids grew tired of fishing and Eugene headed off to Paradise Cove for lunch with his family while I moved out to the end of the pier. Action wasn’t much better but I did manage a nice-sized white seaperch, one walleye and one lizardfish. All too quickly it was time to head back north but it had been an enjoyable visit. A chance to spend some times with friends, make some new friends, enjoy some GREAT weather, and even catch a few fish.
Heavy traffic accompanied me out of Los Angeles but I was back home by six PM. Interestingly, it was beautifully clear until almost the bottom of the Grapevine where what looked like clouds from above turned our to be fog. In talking with my wife it had been foggy the entire day without a peep of sunshine.
To: Pier Fishing In California
From: Ken Jones
Subject: Short Trip To The Southland #179
“Hey Ken, would you be willing to come down and give a talk to our club?” Sure, and that’s why I was headed down last Thursday to Los Angeles and a visit to the Marina Del Rey Angling Club.
Although the talk wasn’t scheduled until 6:30 PM, and an early departure might permit a quick visit to a pier, it was not to be. I held back leaving Fresno until 10 AM. since I’m no fan of driving in fog, especially the pea soup-variety, and The Valley had been socked in for the past week. Hopefully it would be cleared a little by mid-morning and such was the case, it was still foggy but driving conditions were fine.
The two-hour trip south through the valley was its typical, fairly boring drive through the various burgs—Kingsburg, Goshen, Pixley, Delano, McFarland, Famosa and the capital of country music in the West—Bakersfield. As soon as I began the ascent up the Grapevine the fog lifted, the sun took over, and the day actually turned balmy.
In less than four hours I was at Hashem’s house in Los Angeles. Next up would be a visit with Hashem and final preparations for the talk. My main concern was how many people would show up. Josh, the president of the Marina Del Rey Angler Club said it could be 15-to 50 and I was hoping it would be closer to the latter since It’s a long drive to Los Angeles.
Turned out to be around twenty-five people but it was a good group with good questions and the one and a half hours went far too quickly. Wished we had another hour but the library had to close so we packed up and headed off to a late dinner with Gordo Grand (Ross) and Kelpangler (Eugene).
Friday would be for fishing so where to go? Almost all reports said fishing was slow but one place that almost always seems to have a variety of fish in the winter is the Redondo Sportfishing Pier. Ross, Eugene and myself would meet up the next morning at 9:30 after I had acquired some suitable bait—ghost shrimp and lugworms.
Given the LA traffic, I headed out in the morning and made a stop at Best’s Tackle on Rosecrans for worms and then headed over to Paul’s in San Pedro for some fresh ghost shrimp. As is all too frequent in LA, there was a traffic snafu and I didn’t get to Redondo until 10 AM but I still beat Ross and Eugene to the pier. A number of anglers were already fishing so I walked out to the end to survey the scene. Some were tossing lures for bonito and some were fishing the bottom and soon I saw a decent-sized opaleye pulled over the railing. Now it would be my turn.
Did I mention that it was an absolutely beautiful day at the beach, around 75 degrees, a bright sun, and little breeze, the kind of day that requires shorts and the best sun tan lotion you can find? Being the first chance to get out in January, and the recent bleak conditions in Fresno, it almost didn’t matter if the fishing was good. As it turned out the fishing wasn’t good but also wasn’t bad, there were a lot of fish but almost all were small.
I fished with two outfits, a medium action rig and a light action rig. The larger rod would see ghost shrimp on Kahle hooks, the lighter rod would see size 6 hooks and lugworms; both had high/lows with torpedo sinkers. If you’ve fished this pier you know there are a million bait stealers in the waters—senorita being the main villains. As it turned out it was hard to keep ghost shrimp on the hooks since they were nibbled away by the smaller fish. Only two fish were caught on the bigger rig, a kelp bass and an opaleye. All of the other fish were caught on the light rig and worms. Like Catalina, the worms were an easy target for the bait stealers and could be stripped off the hooks. A key in such conditions is to always hold your rod and feel the fish. If you know what you’re doing you shouldn’t have too much trouble catching fish. If you’re not getting bites it means your bait is gone and you need to rebait. As always, I use just enough of the worm to cover the hook with the tip of the hook poking out from the worm.
Water conditions were not good: low tide and little water movement. What was interesting was the clarity of the water and the ability to see the rocks—and holes. I knew the holes would contain fish and they did. Four hours of fishing, interrupted by a delicious lunch at Polly’s, yielded 36 fish although, as mentioned, most were small. The haul contained 16 opaleye, 11 blackperch, 2 kelp bass, 2 senorita, 2 cabezon, 2 spotted kelpfish, and 1 striped kelpfish. Only one kelp bass, one opaleye, and one blackperch would be considered keeper-sized.
Beautiful weather, time to talk with friends, and a few fish, what more do you need? I planned to meet up with Hashem to fish the Paradise Cove Pier later in the afternoon so headed back around 2:45. I did make a short stop at the Manhattan Beach Pier for a quick visit to see what was going on. Although crowded, only one angler was present, a shirtless angler wearing a Mad Hatter-hat and displaying signs of goofiness.
I then met up with Hashem and we began the road-clogged journey to Paradise Cove. By the time we arrived there were just a few minutes of light, just enough to rig a medium and heavier rod while Hashem prepared his lobster hoops. We had the pier to ourselves and it was still a short sleeve shirt and shorts temperature.
Paradise Cove was once a long and beautiful pier but today it’s merely a stub that pokes out 300 feet or so into a sandy bottom populated by extensive kelp and broken off pilings. It’s easy to fish around the pier, harder to fish out away from the pier because of the propensity of hooking that kelp and/or pilings. But usually the bigger fish at Paradise are out from the pier.
Again I would use two rigs but here I broke out my G-Dude Special and rigged up for what I hoped would be something a little larger—a sharay (shark or ray). The lighter rig was once again rigged with lugworms. The worms and smaller hooks would once again produce the most fish, mainly walleye surfperch. Three hours and 45 minutes of fishing produced 15 walleye surfperch, 3 queenfish, 1 keeper-size brown rockfish (on a ghost shrimp), and 1 speckled sanddab. Again it was action even if not the kind I was hoping for. I did manage one lobster which, of course, had to be returned to the sea since it was doubly illegal—caught on a hook and line and too small. Hashem managed a few lobsters but all were too small to keep.
I did manage to hook something large but unfortunately it was on my light rod. I had put on some squid and cast out and lo and behold something grabbed it and began a spirited tussle that eventually ended at the pier. Unfortunately even though I tightened down the line as much as I dared with the light line, I was unable to stop it from wrapping around the piling and breaking off. I thought I glimpsed the shape of a large shovelnose but can’t say for sure. If it was, it wasn’t the first I have lost to pilings.
But it was a beautiful night (even if I did change into long pants at 8 PM). The sky was clear, populated by stars, and we tried to name the constellations (including the Big Dipper). Lights speckled the shoreline to the south like jewels on a beautiful neck.
That would change when we headed back at about 10:30. As we got to Santa Monica, and drove up the incline from the beach, the sky immediately changed to fog, light at first but then pea soup-fog that accompanied us the rest of the way home. Strange given the conditions in Malibu just a few minutes previously.
On Saturday I planned to spend some time with Ginny at Wylie’s in Malibu (one of my favorite tackle shops) before heading over to the Malibu Pier. As always, Ginny and I talked far too long and then Eugene showed. He was headed to the Paradise Cove Pier with his family and had stopped on a twofold mission. He needed some bait and had brought Ginny a certificate from UPSAC in recognition to her donations for our fishing derbies. I did not know Eugene was heading to Malibu that day with his family but we agreed to meet up at the Malibu Pier.
Eugene was set up inshore near the surf line at the pier when I arrived so I joined him there but unfortunately action was dead. Low tide, no water movement, and no fish (although a couple of slender crabs grabbed bait). Eventually the kids grew tired of fishing and Eugene headed off to Paradise Cove for lunch with his family while I moved out to the end of the pier. Action wasn’t much better but I did manage a nice-sized white seaperch, one walleye and one lizardfish. All too quickly it was time to head back north but it had been an enjoyable visit. A chance to spend some times with friends, make some new friends, enjoy some GREAT weather, and even catch a few fish.
Heavy traffic accompanied me out of Los Angeles but I was back home by six PM. Interestingly, it was beautifully clear until almost the bottom of the Grapevine where what looked like clouds from above turned our to be fog. In talking with my wife it had been foggy the entire day without a peep of sunshine.