No one's fishing?
- Thread starter Ken Jones
- Start date
I tried to go last Saturday... was going to go fishing and metal detecting (Treasure hunters club outing) at Bolsa Chica... Left my house at 7:45 AM
with the expectation of getting to the beach around 9:15 or 9:30... I didn't get to the beach until 11:30, and the line to get into Bolsa Chica state
park was quite literally over a mile long down the PCH from the entrance kiosk stretching all the way to the Jack in the Box parking lot. Every other
beach seemed the same (missed my outing as well unfortunately). So, I decided to drive down to Dana Point and visit Doheny (really nice picnic
area... best public beach picnic areas not in a campground I've seen TBH) and it's usually not exceptionally crowded at this beach, but... more of
the same. My normally 30-40 minute drive from Huntington Beach to Dana Point took almost 2 hours. Got there, and traffic everywhere. All of
the lots were packed full of people. The entire park for Doheny Beach was full. So at this point I just gave up and drove home (which also took
longer than usual with stop and go traffic for a large portion of the drive).
That day highlighted to me why Road Rage is a thing... It was a very trying experience with an unreasonable number of highly inconsiderate
drivers on the road (I was cut off, blocked, prevented from merging, exiting, changing lanes, going through lights more times on Saturday than
ever before... Essentially subjected to 3 months worth of jackassery in a single day). Normally I would say pretty much anything is better than
staying home and watching TV, but definitely not last Saturday....
with the expectation of getting to the beach around 9:15 or 9:30... I didn't get to the beach until 11:30, and the line to get into Bolsa Chica state
park was quite literally over a mile long down the PCH from the entrance kiosk stretching all the way to the Jack in the Box parking lot. Every other
beach seemed the same (missed my outing as well unfortunately). So, I decided to drive down to Dana Point and visit Doheny (really nice picnic
area... best public beach picnic areas not in a campground I've seen TBH) and it's usually not exceptionally crowded at this beach, but... more of
the same. My normally 30-40 minute drive from Huntington Beach to Dana Point took almost 2 hours. Got there, and traffic everywhere. All of
the lots were packed full of people. The entire park for Doheny Beach was full. So at this point I just gave up and drove home (which also took
longer than usual with stop and go traffic for a large portion of the drive).
That day highlighted to me why Road Rage is a thing... It was a very trying experience with an unreasonable number of highly inconsiderate
drivers on the road (I was cut off, blocked, prevented from merging, exiting, changing lanes, going through lights more times on Saturday than
ever before... Essentially subjected to 3 months worth of jackassery in a single day). Normally I would say pretty much anything is better than
staying home and watching TV, but definitely not last Saturday....
What you experienced is one reason I have a hard time making the multi-day, multi-pier trips that I used to make. During the summer months, or on weekends the rest of the year, almost every pier in the southland sees large crowds and often parking lots that are filled to the brim. Hitting 3-4 piers a day is hard simply because of the time involved in driving and parking. Of course there is also the cost which, depending upon the piers, can sometimes run you $50 a day and the motels that generally run $75 and up even for a budget motel. The will is still there but the way is much more complicated.
Fished oceanside pier on Sunday. We showed up around 8:30am, roughly 2 hours before high tide. As we arrived we heard rumors of a 30" halibut caught. Sure enough, one of the locals fishing live smelt caught a behemoth of a halibut... Good sign!
Started fishing the smelt Hayabusa Sabiki on my 6lb ultralight rig and got hit almost instantly with a large fish... snapped my sabiki right off. Unfortunately it was my only one I had, so I started using a size 18 treble hook tipped with squid and sure enough I got hit again with a fish of the same caliber. Faught it for a good 5 minutes with line screaming off my little Daiwa QZ750 trout reel. I was just waiting for it to get me into the piling but I was able to coerce it up to get netted. Nice 3LB spotfin croaker... Which is what I assume snapped off my Sabiki.
That was the only action we had all day. No mackerel, no bait.... Tough fishing
Started fishing the smelt Hayabusa Sabiki on my 6lb ultralight rig and got hit almost instantly with a large fish... snapped my sabiki right off. Unfortunately it was my only one I had, so I started using a size 18 treble hook tipped with squid and sure enough I got hit again with a fish of the same caliber. Faught it for a good 5 minutes with line screaming off my little Daiwa QZ750 trout reel. I was just waiting for it to get me into the piling but I was able to coerce it up to get netted. Nice 3LB spotfin croaker... Which is what I assume snapped off my Sabiki.
That was the only action we had all day. No mackerel, no bait.... Tough fishing
I noticed this exact same issue the last couple of years. If I'm not to the beach/park/pier I'm visiting by 8:00 am at the latest then it's
best to just turn around and go home. Doheny, which doesn't have the greatest variety of fishing, and San Onofre, which has about a 3/4 mile walk
and a hike down a steep trail to get over the bluff, are the beaches that usually have parking when all others are packed full. Doheny has awesome
picnic areas and the harbor fishing pier is there, but the harbor pier is definitely in the "don't bother after 8 AM" parking situation. The jetties are
pretty much the same situation.
The cost of pier-parking is one of the main reasons that I buy the $195 state park pass and almost exclusively surf-fish the shoreline... Fortunately, if I'm willing to put in the 90 minute drive most of the time, I can make day trips out of it rather than needing a hotel if I hit most OC or LA beaches... I hit
OC more than LA though just because of the parking situation (ie more state parks where I can use my pass). I wish I could find $75 hotels for the occasional overnight trip, but I haven't seen those rates during the summer or on weekends in years. I get campsites when I can (Once again Doheny,
San Clemente, San Onofre, Crystal Cove, never been able to get Bolsa Chica) in OC, and they still run $45/night. Lots of campsites in San Diego area
as well. If you have a camper van or if you enjoy tenting it, it's a cheaper way to stay, and if you have a partner along to split the cost it's even more
economical. I very highly recommend the Sycamore Canyon campground in Ventura near Point Mugu. It's absolutely beautiful with some of the
weirdly grown trees...
best to just turn around and go home. Doheny, which doesn't have the greatest variety of fishing, and San Onofre, which has about a 3/4 mile walk
and a hike down a steep trail to get over the bluff, are the beaches that usually have parking when all others are packed full. Doheny has awesome
picnic areas and the harbor fishing pier is there, but the harbor pier is definitely in the "don't bother after 8 AM" parking situation. The jetties are
pretty much the same situation.
The cost of pier-parking is one of the main reasons that I buy the $195 state park pass and almost exclusively surf-fish the shoreline... Fortunately, if I'm willing to put in the 90 minute drive most of the time, I can make day trips out of it rather than needing a hotel if I hit most OC or LA beaches... I hit
OC more than LA though just because of the parking situation (ie more state parks where I can use my pass). I wish I could find $75 hotels for the occasional overnight trip, but I haven't seen those rates during the summer or on weekends in years. I get campsites when I can (Once again Doheny,
San Clemente, San Onofre, Crystal Cove, never been able to get Bolsa Chica) in OC, and they still run $45/night. Lots of campsites in San Diego area
as well. If you have a camper van or if you enjoy tenting it, it's a cheaper way to stay, and if you have a partner along to split the cost it's even more
economical. I very highly recommend the Sycamore Canyon campground in Ventura near Point Mugu. It's absolutely beautiful with some of the
weirdly grown trees...
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Caught a bunch of sardines, 1 perch, 1 smelt at Oside pier a couple days ago early afternoon. Smallest possible sabiki jigged at the right speed and depth. They were moving up and down the pier so you had to be at the right spot at the right time, using the right technique. Didn't see anything else caught while I was there. Down to 2 1/2 piers in SD so they are too crowded during the day.
As a side note, the pier on NAS North Island has been closed for 3-4 years so no escaping there to beat crowds.
As a side note, the pier on NAS North Island has been closed for 3-4 years so no escaping there to beat crowds.