Santa Monica Pier 11/3 and Huntington Pier 11/4

[EgoNonBaptizo]

Short trip to Santa Monica from 6 pm to 8 pm. Very slow action - only managed one tiny sargo on a sabiki rig. Other anglers had marginally better luck, catching (and keeping!) short spotted bay bass and calico bass. One person was hoop netting, and managed one short lobster, which they kept after making a huge ruckus about "lobster tacos" and such. Not exactly a pier I want to visit again - too many tourists, poachers everywhere, and a general rough environment.

I had some bait leftover from the night before, so I went to Huntington the next morning. Fished 6 am to 10 am and caught 15 topsmelt, a walleye surfperch, two barred surfperch, a yellowfin croaker, five lizardfish, on round stingray, and three mackerel. There were some big corbina in the surf area, but they were (as usual) spooky. One angler caught (and thankfully released) a short white seabass. Otherwise slow action overall.

 

[Makairaa]

There are usually far more guys snagging lobsters than using hoopnets at santa monica. DFW is aware of the problem but choose to not do much as they consider it not safe to cite people there with gang issues and usually single wardens

 

[Ken Jones]

I remember a visit to the Paradise Cove Pier once when Hashem and I were there. He was hooping and I was fishing when a lady warden came out to check our licenses (since it's a private pier). No problem with that but it seemed she spent considerable time there but rarely ever visited the Santa Monica Pier. Given that Santa Monica has probably 500 times more anglers than Paradise Cove, and the limited number of wardens, it seemed a little ridiculous. But, she admitted she didn't want to visit Santa Monica unless she was part of a team. Simply too big and too many anglers to handle for one person. It wasn't gang issues, simply the numbers and the speed at which the word would go out when a warden showed up. Plus, the multi levels and way the fishing areas are constructed made it hard to get a good overview of what was taking place. Too bad.

 

[Makairaa]

I remember a visit to the Paradise Cove Pier once when Hashem and I were there. He was hooping and I was fishing when a lady warden came out to check our licenses (since it's a private pier). No problem with that but it seemed she spent considerable time there but rarely ever visited the Santa Monica Pier. Given that Santa Monica has probably 500 times more anglers than Paradise Cove, and the limited number of wardens, it seemed a little ridiculous. But, she admitted she didn't want to visit Santa Monica unless she was part of a team. Simply too big and too many anglers to handle for one person. It wasn't gang issues, simply the numbers and the speed at which the word would go out when a warden showed up. Plus, the multi levels and way the fishing areas are constructed made it hard to get a good overview of what was taking place. Too bad.

Gang was not quite the right way to phrase it. Meant more groups of people that could be quite intimidating and possibly dangerous for one warden to handle.

 

[Ken Jones]

Gang was not quite the right way to phrase it. Meant more groups of people that could be quite intimidating and possibly dangerous for one warden to handle.

Agreed, there can be some intimidating people there, especially at night, and especially if they've had a few drinks.

 

[natemeister]

I have family down there, been there 3-4 times, mostly late at night and I saw my share of lobster poachers. Really obvious when it's not in season and they're looking suspicious as they hid their catch. As for me, caught a small ray which I didn't know how to handle and it got me on the palm of my hand. I've never felt pain like that and luckily, wasn't bad enough to have to go to the ER for. Just hot water for couple of hours plus making sure it didn't get infected.

 

[Ken Jones]

They used to say use hot water — or hot urine if you were in a pinch.

 

[Makairaa]

The poison is a protein. Soaking the wound in as hot of water as you can stand without burning yourself for as long as possible will break down the protein. The sooner you do this the less reaction you will have.

 

[ARCADIAN]

Yeah I got stung by a sting ray on marina del rey Jetties, WOW!!!! I googled it and said hot water or hot towel,
i also used a heat pack on the wound, taped it over the wound slept really well at night.