Fishing Forum

Since New Year's it seems that my normal ice fishing haunts (Hyrum & Mantua) have been less than optimal. I decided I needed to chop a bigger hole in the ice so I tweaked my work/school schedule and decided to take the family on an impromptu whirlwind trip to Southern California to visit family, pay homage (and exorbitant ticket prices) to the Disney racket and also wet a few lines from the pier.

Three years ago we visited my wife's grandpa in San Clemente and I found out that you can fish from any public pier in CA for free. That sounded good to me and with the spare hour we had I took my oldest daughter fishing and she caught a barred surf perch and I caught a yellow finned croaker.
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I thought on this trip we'd give it another try because hey... it's fishing, it's fun, it's free. Not to mention that they freakin' caught a great white shark off of this same pier on Jan 18th. I packed enough rods for the family and a few extra for the California nephews.

We hit the pier after lunch on Thursday and I baited up my youngest girl's pole first with a small piece of squid. Before I could even get another pole baited she reeled in a barred surf perch. My other two girls had a couple of bites but soon the siren song of playing on a sandy beach with grandma lured them away.
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I kept fishing with my wife and her sister. My wife was able to catch what i think is a jacksmelt and I helped my sister in law get a little croaker. For me, however, the smell of skunk stayed in the air.
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Friday we did a marathon 13.5 hr day at Disneyland but I was most excited because I was planning on getting out on the pier before sunrise Saturday morning. Plans had to change when dadgum Mickey Mouse's $9 corndogs came back up to pay me a visit at 4:00am. (Seriously, $8.75 for a corn dog & chips...NO DRINK!) I was mad. Not only was I out $9 but if that would have happened off the pier I could have at least been chumming for baitfish. I still planned to fish even if I was sick but I didn't make it out until 8:30 or so. I caught a walleyed perch right off the bat but he was camera shy and released himself at the pier railing before I could get a picture. After another hour or so I caught a croaker and as I was releasing that fish I saw my heavy rod (baited with a whole squid head on a 3/0 hook) make a couple sharp bends. What ever was on the other end gave a couple good tugs as I set the hook but the line went slack after a couple cranks on the reel. All that was left on the hook was a miniscule piece of squid. As I stood there trying to figure out what I did wrong my cousin sent me a pic from Bear Lake that rubbed salt in my wounds; a 30" laker!
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I responded to him with a terrible selfie of me with my monster catch of the day. You know, to make him jealous.

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Before lunchtime my young California nephews showed up and I got their hooks baited. Almost immediately we caught a croaker that they helped reel in. They all touched it and took a picture with it. After that, and checking out a stingray caught just down the pier, their little attention spans had maxed out and they wanted to go play.
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Later that evening I took my two older girls back out in the rain to give it one more go. My oldest reeled in a three pound rock (literally...a rock) and had a couple jacksmelt do a long line release.
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Before the trip I had visions of reeling in leopard sharks, thresher sharks and bat rays. That was not meant to be. I am happy that I helped a few kids catch their first fish, I was able to spend time with family, see whales and dolphins and enjoy some warm weather away from the frigid north.
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Maybe I'll have better luck at Strawberry this weekend!
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Great report, thanks for sharing the fun. Later J
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Fabulous report, good sir.

You should be at Disney when it's raining. They charge $16 for one of those one dollar throwaway ponchos. Really. And they make sure all the wait lines are outside, so you either get cold and soaked - or buy one of those pieces of plastic.

My hope is that the kids remember the fishing longer than they do the theme park. But that's probably wistful.
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[quote RockyRaab]
My hope is that the kids remember the fishing longer than they do the theme park. But that's probably wistful.[/quote]

My girls, especially my oldest, love fishing. It is something we try and do together often. I remember exciting vacations as a kid, but when I really reflect on my childhood it was fishing with my dad, grandpa and brothers that really stands out.

I'm hoping one day when my kids get some size to them that we can go to Alaska (nature's theme park) and make fishing the main attraction. (Or down south for some snook and tarpon....or out for some billfish, tuna and dorado.....or to the Amazon for some peacock bass....man I've got to start saving!!!)
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It always does an old heart good to see youngsters having fun with a fishing rod. Good on ya and,,, Thanks for sharing.
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Amazing post, totally felt like I was there the only thing I missed was the rides at Disney but I've never wanted to go there anyway. Thanks for the report can't wait to go to Alaska hopefully I can make it there for real
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Ok now youve done it. You got me wanting to go pier fishing again.[]. My next planned trip to southern Cali won't be for a year but but I am going to take my two salt rods with me.

Sounds like you had a pretty good trip.
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Man, I miss catching some good yellowfin croaker during the incoming tide on freshly pumped ghost shrimp! Those and the fat sand bass are my two favorite winter time SoCal fish!
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[quote albinotrout]Ok now youve done it. You got me wanting to go pier fishing again.[]. My next planned trip to southern Cali won't be for a year but but I am going to take my two salt rods with me.[/quote]

I know, right? I'm already looking for excuses to go there again. My wife would be happy to see some of her family more frequently. I've been reading more on California piers and really want to check out Goleta, Oceanside and La Jolla .
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[quote HD7000]Man, I miss catching some good yellowfin croaker during the incoming tide on freshly pumped ghost shrimp! Those and the fat sand bass are my two favorite winter time SoCal fish![/quote]

I was happy to catch anything from the pier to be honest. Those yellowfin croakers are quite scrappy and fight decent for their size. I was secretly hoping for a bass or two and something weird like a guitar fish, scorpionfish or a sting ray. That's the cool thing about the pier; you can expect croaker and perch but end up seriously surprised by what's on the end of the line.

I've also decided that pier fishing is a spectator sport. If the passers by see a bend in the rod you soon have a crowd of 30 people cheering you on. There were tons of people who wanted to take pictures with the kids holding their fish. Kind of different from the solitary stream fishing I'm used to.
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You need to go down in the early summer, that's when pier fishing gets teal fun! We used to kill the halibut, but would get the occasional weird species like octopus, angel sharks, and bat rays...Those will pull some drag out for sure!
Then in October there is always lobster!!!

There are a couple pics below
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You caught that lobster on a pier?
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[quote HD7000]You need to go down in the early summer, that's when pier fishing gets teal fun! We used to kill the halibut, but would get the occasional weird species like octopus, angel sharks, and bat rays...Those will pull some drag out for sure!
Then in October there is always lobster!!!

There are a couple pics below[/quote]

That's awesome! I took a lobster/crab net with me but I didn't use it. I hadn't bought a lobster reporting card. That's a nice halibut. If you don't mind me asking, which pier and what set up are you using for halibut like that?
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I bounce 5" soft plastic minnow type lures with 1/8 oz lead jig heads right off the bottom anywhere from 5-20 FOW. The butts only come in the bays in the early summer to spawn and fishing can be pretty good for a couple months. Live bait works real well too, but Halibut don't move around a whole lot so I can cover more ground jigging plastics. I also only use 6 lb mono because they are sight feeders and tend to be line shy in the shallower spawning grounds.
I spent a lot of time on the pier thats on base out at Coronado. But I have caught good fish at all the piers in San Diego Bay.
And yes that lobster was caught off the pier at night in a net off the North Island pier (aviation base pier)
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Thanks for the info! Early summer...June/July- ish? Did you ever fish in the surf from shore? I know it's free from the pier, but I'd be willing to buy a license if the shore fishing was better.
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Nice report, would be fun fishing but then I would have to go to California. I prefer the other coast.

https://youtu.be/aWla6xpMOp4
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[quote Hazzy_Hazbourne]Thanks for the info! Early summer...June/July- ish? Did you ever fish in the surf from shore? I know it's free from the pier, but I'd be willing to buy a license if the shore fishing was better.[/quote]

[#0000FF]There is a longer learning curve for fishing the surf. I lived in California a major part of my life and have fished virtually every pier and beach from San Diego to Santa Barbara...and a few in northern Cal as well. I thoroughly enjoyed pier fishing...all year long...day or night. Always something going on. But I also spent a lot of happy hours casting from shore...surf or rocks.

Every pier and every stretch of shoreline has its own unique ecology. And that changes through the year. A wide variety of species and a wide variety of tackle, techniques and baits to choose from.

In the olden days I had to learn by doing...or going with someone else who knew the spots. Today we can get timely info on the Internet...for most piers and surf spots. Even some of the smaller bait shops and piers have websites.

It can be tough to decide which direction to point your vehicle at times of the year when there are multiple species available...at multiple spots. If you only have a short time to fish that becomes even harder.


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I agree with tubedude... the surf can be a whole lot harder to figure out and takes years to start getting it down. time of year and location/structure makes all the difference. You can be in kelp at one spot, then sand a few hundred yards down. I fished from the Jettys quite often and did pretty well, but most of my success was from the smaller piers near the mouth of big bays.
If you only have a small amount of time down there, I would just stick to the piers and save my money up for a 3/4 day fishing charter! These can be real good in the summer when the water warms up and the yellowtail and tuna work their way up from Baja. But then again, I really liked winter bottom fishing trips! You can sometimes catch 20-30 rockfish in one trip and they can be twice the size of any Large Mouth Bass you will ever catch in Utah! Good eating too!
Check out H&M Landing or Point Loma Sportfishing, they post their numbers and reports online...
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Nice snook! That looks fun too. Why does there have to be so much water on this planet with so many awesome species to catch... and so little time to fish!?!
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Thanks HD7000 and TubeDude for all the great info. I'll likely stick to the piers and check out some of the charters. I don't envision myself moving to California but this could be an exciting new way to change up the scenery and chalk up some new fish species.
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