Parking finally opened up at Paradise Pier on June 1 and I decided to stop by on my day off. Got there around 10pm and the pier was actually pretty full, most people staggered about 6 ft apart. The winds were pretty brutal but it was very quiet on the pier save for the howling winds. People actually began to leave around 11am, largely due to how slow the action was and the howling wind.
It's worth noting that the surrounding waters are now filled with algae, something I did not observe coming here last year. The algae is pretty heavy and easily gets caught...on one cast retrieve, I literally probably had 5lbs of algae on the weight and it took me about 10 min to cut it all off. Everyone's retrieve was affected by this.
Ended up using a mix of live perch, live jacksmelt, live pileworms I foraged, and dead anchovy for bait. I was able to catch the perch and jacksmelt at the pier using sabiki and worms. I was told that the perch I got at 1130 was actually the first fish caught all day on the pier. Eventually, I did manage to hook onto 3 bat rays, 2 of which were reeled in. The other ray actually spooled me but was lost using a hi-low with too light of a test line on the dropper loop (which is what i get for using someone else's rig I found on the pier...)
I'm almost positive I missed out on a halibut as one of the larger shinerperch I used had a slow bite and just a slight movement on the drag, but I moved to set the hook too early out of earnest and pulled up an empty hook Oh well, lesson learned for next time.
In all, it was a slow day for the pier. I left at 5pm, and only saw two other bat rays and one striper from all the other fisherman (most were also using live anchovy; some used shiner, some shrimp, few used squid).
Anyone have any insights to the affects of algae and adjusting the fishing approach, or have different luck at Paradise this year?
It's worth noting that the surrounding waters are now filled with algae, something I did not observe coming here last year. The algae is pretty heavy and easily gets caught...on one cast retrieve, I literally probably had 5lbs of algae on the weight and it took me about 10 min to cut it all off. Everyone's retrieve was affected by this.
Ended up using a mix of live perch, live jacksmelt, live pileworms I foraged, and dead anchovy for bait. I was able to catch the perch and jacksmelt at the pier using sabiki and worms. I was told that the perch I got at 1130 was actually the first fish caught all day on the pier. Eventually, I did manage to hook onto 3 bat rays, 2 of which were reeled in. The other ray actually spooled me but was lost using a hi-low with too light of a test line on the dropper loop (which is what i get for using someone else's rig I found on the pier...)
I'm almost positive I missed out on a halibut as one of the larger shinerperch I used had a slow bite and just a slight movement on the drag, but I moved to set the hook too early out of earnest and pulled up an empty hook Oh well, lesson learned for next time.
In all, it was a slow day for the pier. I left at 5pm, and only saw two other bat rays and one striper from all the other fisherman (most were also using live anchovy; some used shiner, some shrimp, few used squid).
Anyone have any insights to the affects of algae and adjusting the fishing approach, or have different luck at Paradise this year?