Balboa pier 3/1

Reel Newbie

Well-Known Member
#1
Final managed to get some time to go fishing through midterms and homework. High tide was at 12pm, got there at 10am. Little tidal movement, guys at the back said they had caught some baby mackerel earlier. Fished 1 rod with a Sabiki and old shrimp/squid I scrounged up. My other rod with the 6000 ambassadeur decided it didn’t want to cast today, gunked up bearings or something that made the freespool non-existent. Quite windy, gotta make note not to fish when <70F and >10mph winds. Nothing at the end for 2 hours, decided to head to the middle and see if there was anything else. Caught one decent sized jacksmelt and gave it away. Seems it was about to spawn or something, I’d gotten squirted on by some fish semen. Friend showed up and headed to the end again, fished there until 4pm. Saw only 5 mackerel caught among ~15 people at the end. Saw a couple using Vienna sausage for bait. Saw a guy using crab snares with no luck and next to no bait. Also saw some guys with big conventionals and stout rods casting big baits for sharks. Seems like the guys were using half a salmon head or a dead mackerel fished under a big sliding styrofoam bobber like the way salmon fishermen do on Pacifica pier. Damn huge j hooks too. Didn’t take a pic, said it was to protect his invention or something. Looked like a bobber attached to a kingfish slider(a thing Australians use for sliding bait rigs) though. Didn’t see them catch anything. Also saw quite a few crabbers, nothing but the tiny swimmer crabs. Guess rock crabs aren’t too common on the pier. A couple whale watching boats came close to the pier too. Never saw the whale though. Overall a pretty dead day.
 

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#2
Rock crabs are not common there although quite a few large, spider crabs inhabit that pier. Snookkie's latest report said things have been pretty much dead at the pier. People were taking jacksmelt but now most of the smelt have been replaced by sardines.
 

EgoNonBaptizo

Well-Known Member
#4
The sliding rig described sounds a lot like some of the rigs sold on this page (I am NOT affiliated with this brand): http://terrafirmatackle.com/. Weird to see someone 'claim' it as his own invention. Also it's a bit early in the year to be thresher fishing anyways. Wonder what they were thinking.
 

Reel Newbie

Well-Known Member
#5
Yeah that’s the rig alright, just added a styrofoam ball to keep it in the top of the water. Had a long mono and wire leader about 7 ish feet too. Probably just a diy version of the rig. My question though is why the salmon head for threshers? Also kinda wondering why this style of slider never caught on in Pacifica pier.
 

Makairaa

Well-Known Member
#6
The sliding rig described sounds a lot like some of the rigs sold on this page (I am NOT affiliated with this brand): http://terrafirmatackle.com/. Weird to see someone 'claim' it as his own invention. Also it's a bit early in the year to be thresher fishing anyways. Wonder what they were thinking.
With a salmon head for bait they are not thinking thresher. Targeting whites. At least most are getting released I guess.
 

Rusty

Well-Known Member
#7
I know those 2 guys, they are always there. Lemme guess, one scruffy guy with long hair/pony tail, baseball cap and sunglasses riding in on his bike, the other, a big caucasian guy with nice heavy duty conventionals that casts overhead.
These guys know a lot about fishing and for sure know the rules, sad that the ones that should know better are blatantly breaking rules and laws. But on the other hand, they are respectful, clean up after themselves and even others, and always give a hand to others if needed.
 

EgoNonBaptizo

Well-Known Member
#8
That's what I initially thought, but what I assume is a slider rig is a bit light for whites. Hopefully they know what they're getting into.

The description of those two guys sounds familiar. If I'm not mistaken, the first guy got into some hot water for gaffing a white off HB pier a couple years ago. He's also the same guy who makes and sells those rigs.