Redondo Beach

Headed out of King Harbor around 8:30am with Oscar. We tried to find the reef, but my battery ran out so no GPS, depth, or structure readings to help guide our way. We looked for the reef marker (yellow pole) but it turns out they temporarily removed it. So we went ahead and just started fishing... Caught a mac on a 4" BH green sardine swimbait and a walleye surfperch on dropper loops with squid strips. Decided to try the outer jetty but got no love. Headed back in to fish the marina and came away with one short calico. Out of the water by 11:45am.

Foggy morning


Walleye Surfperch


Short calico

Avalon, Catalina Island

Report from Pierfishing.com:

Mina and I enjoyed our first PFGT which was also our first trip to Catalina. Just wanted to thank Hashem and Leslie for being sweet to Mina--she had a rough morning (throwing up twice on the boat, nipped by the pelican, admonished by Hashem--haha, just kidding). Also, a very special thanks to Dora and Amanda for taking Mina to the playground and treating her to ice cream! She mentioned Amanda several times to my wife when we got home. :)

The fishing was all too brief (ended up with 2 short calicos and 2 bonitas in 4 hours) but it was nice to be fishing amongst friends. My only regret is that I didn't spend more time greeting everyone. Gyozadude, jimbojack, greybeard, and ark, it was nice to meet you. Also good to see Ross, Ben and his wife, and Ken again.

Congrats to all the winners and hope to see you next year (or sooner)!

Boarding the boat... nasty runoff from the LA River after the rains


Delicious food prepared by the G-dude clan


Ben's brother (I think) navigating a nice calico through the kelp


James helps Warren reel in a bonita


Amanda reeling in her sheephead


My first bonita of the year

Marina Del Rey

Report from Baytubers.com and Fishingnetwork.net:

Hey guys, fished MDR with some fellow yakers yesterday. We got there around 7:30am and were greeted with light winds and clear skies. Started out the day catching a bunch of small barracuda. I was using 10# test with a 3/4 oz. mackerel kroc--got lots of hits but only one hookup in the early going. Some of us headed to the jetty, although the wind picked up and made it a real tough paddle. Picked up a short sandie using a 5" bleeding mac swimbait paired with a 3/4 oz. jig head. Decided to head back because the wind was too much, but with it blowing at our backs it was an easy drift. I think a couple others picked up a short halibut and a turbot (?) on the way back in. Fished the bait barge for some more barracuda, but this time in 20"+ range. They put up a good fight (in and out of water--lol). It was already 1pm and I was tired and hungry so I was the first to head back. I was turning around a corner when my kayak basically did a 180 turn. I'd been dragging my swimbait all the way from the jetty and I figured it was snagged since there was no bounce in the rod--just heavy bendo. So I picked up the rod and gave it a good yank to see if I could free it... NOPE! Line starts pulling immediately. I tighten up the drag a bit and start going for a ride. Halibut? The others were still pretty far away and I definitely needed their assistance so I just tried to tire out whatever was on the end of my line without having it surface. I held that thing for about 20 minutes, getting a glimpse of it every now and then. Oh yeah, halibut! The guys finally got around... lip gripped it, gaffed it, and finally pulled it aboard.

My first legal hali ever--36" and 19.6 lbs.

The funny thing is that I just bought a new fillet knife the day before. It was a little bit bigger than I wanted at 9", but I jokingly told my wife that the extra inches would help out if I caught a big hali. Oh yeah. I went to town on that thing.

Note: You can see a pretty good reflection of my kayak on the sandie below--kinda neat.

Note: Hali's Stomach contents revealed a half-digested fish.

Started the day off with a 12 in. barracuda


11 in. sandie along the jetty


Caught 21 in. & 22 in. barracudas


The guys


Oscar waiting for the hali to surface... with a lip gripper!


Close quarters


Me with my hali and Oscar's bloody deck


36 in. and 19.6 lbs.


Filleting


Filleting part 2


Chomp

Redondo Special, Redondo Beach

My buddies and I rode the Redondo Special Friday morning for a 1/2 day trip. It was pretty slow and we had to move a few times before finding fish. There were plenty of tangles and many folks muttering under their breath. I believe we were the cause of some of that because we lost our 10 oz. sinkers and had to resort to using 5 oz. which would get caught up during the drift. I had only brought 2 spinning outfits with 20 lb. & 25 lb. test so one of my friends had to rent, but they handed him a conventional reel which he'd never used before. I was the most experienced with it (and hardly at that) so I swapped with my friend. It took a little bit to get used to and I ended up with a couple minor bird's nests, but got the hang of it quickly after that.

Note: One of the passengers became very seasick and was having panic attacks. When the captain announced we'd be heading back early, more grumblings occurred. But a few minutes into our trip back, he announced that the Coast Guard would meet us halfway. It stunk that we had to stop fishing for awhile, but I certainly felt for the poor lady.

Another note: I broke the law by keeping two bocaccio (DFG allows just one per person). It was my ignorance but I'm not using that as an excuse because in the end it still affects the fishery. I've since contacted DFG and turned myself in so we'll see what they have to say. Crazy? Maybe, but if I want to be a proponent of conservation and defend the regulations, I must be able to man up to my own mistakes. Update: DFG said it's at the warden's discretion to give me a citation or issue me a warning. I have received a warning.

First catch for our group--redbanded rockfish


Another buddy's speckled rockfish


Coast Guard about to board


Assisting the sick person


Group photo


My two bocaccio (I know, over one is illegal)


Fat bocaccio


Gutted and cleaned


Whole fish dinner

Malaga Cove, Palos Verdes and King Harbor, Redondo Beach

Not much to say except that Mother Nature played a cruel, cruel April Fool's joke on me. Started out from King Harbor around 8:15am and made it to Malaga Cove in about an hour. As soon as I get to my destination and stop paddling, I immediately feel the waves. I can get seasick pretty easily and this was the worst for me in a long time. I read the forecast the night before and it said swells around 3 to 5 feet. I guess that's medium? Still learning how to read the forecasts... Anyway, it was enough to send me packing immediately, but not before I unceremoniously chummed the waters--not once, not twice, but three times. I was so exhausted.

Getting back into the harbor was a joyous occassion... LOL. After recuperating a bit, I licked my wounds and decided to throw swimbaits from the rocks. Skunked. Insult to injury.

Lesson learned: Never feel too ashamed to wear the patch.