Ontario Shore Fishing Forum

WOW – that’s what I can say about my August 2012 trip to California.



This report is a long time coming, but I finally got it done before my next adventure in Florida. I want to extent thanks to all at SC Surf Fishing for replying to my numerous pre-departure questions and PMs.

A big thank-you to everyone I corresponded with via PM before my trip! You guys offered me meet-ups, gear to share, and more! Thank you!

Slyfisherman
ngt
Dave Legacy
Surf Fisherman
Morales731
Ironmachin
ocsawdust
pootie-teng

A BIG thank-you to everyone I was able to personally meet and fish with!

KenT
Tombo808
Bigminnowfisher
Rfdesq
kaipo

I was planning on meeting more of you guys, but my timing was changed last-minute and our schedules didn’t mesh any more. Next time!

What a trip! After experiencing such a diverse fishery, it was difficult to get on the plane and fly back home to Toronto. Seriously, it was difficult. Leave me there forever.

Fishing didn’t begin until a few days into the trip. After seeing Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Palm springs my family headed to San Diego where I met up with KenT.
By blind luck, KenT and I ended up in San Diego on the same days!


Nevada

Las Vegas sunset:




Getting stocked up for “some” fishing at the Bass Pro Shops in Las Vegas.



Excellent view of the Hoover Dam from the new bridge. Thank-you to MikeH for pointing me in the right direction before the trip!




Arizona

We made an obligatory stop at the Grand Canyon to view the sunset:



Then, we were off to California! We had hours upon hours of deserted desert to drive through.

Desert as far as the eye can see. Fishing prospects are not good!



Looking for snakes:




Palm Springs

On our way to San Diego, we stopped for a night to see the city of Palm Springs.



Before leaving Palm Springs, we had the pleasure of visiting the Coachella Valley Preserve. Visiting in the extremely hot, summer months gave us the place to ourselves as Palm Springs is usually busy in the tolerable winter.

Oasis in sight, I’m saved!



At the oasis:



I spooked a Great Horned Owl perching on the railing and it flew up to a nearby tree:











A natural oasis and a truly magical place, I spotted the first few fish of the trip: western mosquitofish. Unfortunately, my tackle wasn’t small enough to hook one of these little guys.



Apparently they’re trying to control the populations of western mosquitofish:



After our half-day visiting the oasis, I was off with my family to San Diego to meet up with Ken.

On route to San Diego:




San Diego

Ken’s friend Tombo808, Thomas, had generously offered to take us out on his friend’s boat. This was my first time fishing in the salt!
A plume of greedy pelicans trailed our boat.



We went paddy hoping and they showed me jellyfish, dolphins, and whales. I was in my childhood dream land – no kidding. I saw my first whale up close… I’ve waited all of my 23 years for that day to come. Thank-you Thomas!

After passing over a few paddies without luck, we switched to bottom fishing and I ended up with a few new life-list catches:

Calico rockfish:


Jack mackerel (may be a Mexican Scad, still not sure):




Yellowtail rockfish (or Olive rockfish?):




Another calico rockfish:



Vermillion rockfish:



That evening, after a quick nap, Ken and I headed out for some shore fishing. A handful of solid rips on Ken’s long rod, but no hookups! Ken caught his first lifer Thornback ray and I caught my first barred sand bass.


After nightfall Ken suggested we switch from sand crabs to squid bait, and it worked to get us a few bat rays!





Free fireworks rounded off an exciting night of non-stop action!





The next morning we met up with a group of guys from SC Surf fishing including Bigminnowfisher and kaipo. Bigminnowfisher caught his first corbina! We were all very excited for his lifer corbina!

I caught my first barred sand perch on one of Ken’s plastic grubs:



Ken also caught a baby leopard shark! I was jealous…

We relocated to another beach and it was crawling with corbinas riding the waves in the surf! What a spectacle! We had a blast trying to sight fish the corbinas with sandcrabs, but no more catches.

After a nice lunch break during slack tide we headed to another spot to keep on fishing. Ken and I both got our first round stingrays, nasty little buggers with a stinger they like to whip around!





KenT caught his first Eastern Pacific Bonefish! Then Bigminnowfisher proceeded to catch 3 more bonefish! All the while I was waiting nervously for my rod to go off with the distinctive fast run. Had the school moved on? Had I missed my chance?
Luck was on my side after waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I managed to hook and land one. For their size, these fish put up an immense fight. I am impressed by the strength of all saltwater fish, they all just pull harder than their freshwater equivalents.



I had a handful or solid bait takes after this, but I missed my hooksets on almost all of them. I have worked on my hooksetting technique since then, which had previously involved running backwards and flailing around in excitement.

I finally hooked another fish and it was my first spotted sand bass!



It was finally time to leave KenT and Bigminnowfisher as my family had relocated to Point Loma. Bigminnowfisher generously offered to give me a lift to my family’s location. Thank you!!

Ken’s report for the two days we fished in San Diego: http://ontarioshorefishing.com/forum/Thr...to-Toronto

Our hotel in Point Loma was close to the beach. The next morning I woke up early to fish the surf on my lonesome. Fishing in Point Loma is heavily regulated and I double checked to make sure I was fishing a permitted location. I caught a lot of kelp and lost a lot of line, bummer.

Then a big wave caused a surge much higher than I had anticipated. It dunked two of my reels and all of my gear. I ran back to the hotel to super-soak my stuff. I am happy to report that I was able to save the better of the two reels.

On our drive towards Los Angeles, we stopped off at Hunting beach. It was a bit too crowded for surf fishing….



… so I tried my luck off of the nearby pier while my family enjoyed the beach.



I was fishing the very end of the pier looking for a shark or something big. I also dropped my sabiki rig near the pilings and didn’t find anything. Eventually, my squid was swallowed by a cormorant that thankfully regurgitated the hook without setting it. Made me re-think my rigging strategy LOL. After that we decided to move along.

I asked a few locals where I could find a less crowded stretch of beach towards LA. We settled on checking out Sunset beach where I would have room to fish.



The washed-up kelp situation wasn’t as bad as my horrifying experience at Point Loma, but I still lost quite a bit of line. It was all worth it though for my first two Shovelnose guitarfish!



Great fun on 8lb gear in the strong surf. I shared the catch with some curious children:



Happy to finally get my first fish on my own, we packed it up and finished our drive to LA.


Los Angeles

In LA I tried my hand at fishing the beaches in the area at night and early in the morning. I was soaking sand crabs and caught nothing but kelp. For my entire stay, the surges were strong. Loose kelp was thick.

Fishing early one morning in LA:



Frustrated with the kelp situation, I moved to the pier and spotted several schools of small fish I failed to catch on my number 8 hooks.



Later that afternoon, I was back on the beach with a more mobile strategy. Still, I didn’t hook any fish….



I met up with rfdesq, Robert, who so generously offered to take me out fishing in LA. I learned a lot from Robert’s extensive surf fishing experience – knowledge that’ll stay with me for all of my future trips. Thank-you Robert! The strong surge had shut down the fish, but the conversation and company was fantastic. We finally landed a barred surf-perch as the sun set.



Robert’s report: http://www.scsurffishing.com/forums/view...hp?t=85957

Before leaving LA, we visited the La Brea Tar Pits. We had the unique opportunity of seeing the tar in action on this poor pigeon.



Luckily for the pigeon, it was rescued. However, future civilization will never learn of the feral pigeon.



Some more fishing on my way out of LA. Standard sand crab soaking yielded another shovelnose guitarfish to share with interested by-standers!









King’s Canyon National Park

After our time in LA was up, we headed out to Visalia to check out King’s Canyon National Park. We saw everything I had hoped for and more. Giant sequoias, a cave, dear, tarantulas, and a mother bear and cub playing just yards away from a parking lot.








"I didn't do it, I swear!"







With great trees, come great pine cones!!!




Dad’s shot of a mother bear and cub playing:



Dad’s shot of a grazing elk:



Tarantula trying to cross the road. It ended up following my hand around instead! A great experience I’ll never forget!



And finally, the best view of my life:




Just a short walk away from the General Sherman tree, I snuck up to what looked like brown trout parr in a small mountain stream just a foot across. Getting the drop on these beautiful little fish in the wilderness was nothing short of magical. Too bad I had left my rod in the car!

After a long day of sightseeing, I fished a dry fly on the surface of a nearby river for rainbow trout. The location was unbelievable. A dragon fly attacked my dry fly mid-cast. Bats emerged at sunset to eat hatching insects.

Fishing the scenery of a dream:







On route to Monterey

Leaving Visalia, we followed the Pacific Coast Highway on route to Monterey. The vistas from the highway were spectacular. Never did I ever want to go back to Toronto.



Lotus Elise, my dream car, sighting 1 of 2:




Fishing a pier on route to Monterey, no takes. My parents reported that the water was much muddier than it had been on their last visit two years prior. They also reported seeing more kelp this time around. Something was up with the water this summer, lots of dying kelp!



Elephant seals:




On a brief stop, I noticed a small mountain stream leading to a rocky beach. I walked down and found a few trout I was unable to identify.




So I fished for them to find out what they were!



(I would have loved to fish the surf in the background, but there was no time!)

More rainbows on the dry fly!





Monterey

Our timing in Monterey couldn’t have been worse. There was an exotic car show going on the weekend of our stay. Hotel rates were astronomical and everything was crowded. Offshore, there was a system of ongoing high winds that would limit my planned party boat fishing options.

The presence of the exotic car show wasn’t all that bad… I had my first chance up-close-and-personal with a dream car of mine, sighting #2 of 2 for the trip.



I checked out the pier and found out that the mackerel were in. I spent my three nights in Monterey at this pier trying to catch a mackerel while soaking bigger bait for a shark or ray. The first night on the pier, I left one rod soaking on the bottom with a small piece of squid and ended up with a this cool critter.

Pacific staghorn sculpin:



My make-shift mackerel bobber, then upgraded with a glow stick!





Pebble beach. Yup I fished there very briefly! I tried soaking squid during nightfall. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any bites... more about this at the end of the report. . Nonetheless, the scenery was breathtaking:



The second-last day in Monterey, I placed a whimsical booking with the Bamboo Reef dive shop. Finally a chance to put my PADI certification to use! Amazingly, the site for the dive was the small pier right behind our hotel room!

Fishing recon in order to find a better spot:


The dive was nothing short of fantastic. Beams of sunlight poked through lush kelp forest with schools of rockfish overhead. The rock shelf of the pier was loaded with fish of all different sorts! I crept up beside what I would later learn was a big lingcod and attempted to feed it a crab. Man, I really wanted to catch a lingcod! I also had the opportunity to swim over a massive halibut, biggest one I’ll ever likely see. The guide found two small octopi for me and placed them in my hands. Truly, a dream come true.

As Ken would later call it, I had performed fishing recon. As soon as I was checked out of the dive shop, I was racing back to fish that exact spot! And right behind my hotel room… all this time… had been the most diverse and productive fishery in Monterey! And I had wasted all this time on the pier chasing mackerel!

The most productive fishing hours of the California trip were at hand. I had a blast on this particular jetty casting over a row of sea lions to reach between the rock wall and kelp forest. I tipped my Sabiki rigs with small bits of squid and left-over shrimp from the pier in order to pull out a whole slew of colourful critters. Quite a few other anglers were fishing here, but none seemed to be catching anything. Examining their tackle, I noticed they were all using hooks of at least 6 in size. A young child came up to me and had a look at the fish I was catching and said "Hey! You're so good at this!". I told him "I'm not good at this, I'm just using small hooks!". I gave him some smaller hooks and sent him back to start catching fishing!

Fishing recon was successful!



Painted greenling:





A kelpfish of sorts. Perhaps it is a crevice kelpfish, I’ve asked Steve Wozniak for help on this one (http://1000fish.wordpress.com/2010/06/27...atic-park/ ):






Juvenile blue rockfish:


Adult blue rockfish:


I had wished to continue fishing this productive and diverse spot, but it was time to pack it up and re-join the family.

For the last day in Monterey, I had booked a half day of rockfishing with Randy’s Fishing. I was originally booked for an Albacore ¾ day trip, but this was switched to a rockfishing trip due to a persistent system of high winds off-shore. When I had phoned other companies looking for an alternative Albacore trip, they all reported cancelling all their trips for the day I wanted. I should have taken the hint…



The boat was rocked wildly for the duration of the rockfishing. It made fishing quite difficult, as our rods were jigging up and down almost 5 feet due to the high waves. Half of the customers, including me, were quite sea-sick. Many were too sick to fish.

Nevertheless, I accomplished my goal of catching lingcod! I had been mesmerized by a large specimen of this gorgeous fish up-close yesterday during my dive. I ended up with 2 lingcod, one of which was not hooked, but held on to the 10oz sinker all the way up from 300 ft down!



I caught exclusively yellowtail and olive rockfish. Most of the rockfish I caught were either olive or yellowtail rockfish (not sure which are which yet). Speaking with Ken later, I learned that this was likely because my bait was not hitting bottom, but was suspended. It was difficult to keep the bait on bottom with such big waves.

The 7 rockfish I caught. I have not identified them yet, any help is appreciated!

#1


#2


#3




#4




#5




#6




#7






I have one major complaint with Randy’s Fishing. Randy’s had no sign of deep-water release clips on board, so every endangered Canary rockfish that was caught was quickly gobbled up by trailing pelicans. Thumbs down! =(



Pacifica

After the half day of rockfishing, it was time for us to begin our drive towards our departure point of San Francisco. We arrived in Pacifica after dark, where we spent our final night of the trip at an ocean-side motel. I attempted to fish behind the hotel, but a strong surge and cold wind made it difficult to do so. I ended up getting my feet soaked and didn’t want to risk my gear so I called it a night. On my computer back in the hotel, I pleasantly stumbed upon the Pacifica Municipal Pier and decided to wake up early the next day for my final California fishing attempt.

Pier fishing the finial morning of the trip begin with non-stop crab action. Locals informed me that crabs were out of season, but they would constantly pick up my bait after no more than 5 minutes of soaking each and every time. Frustration at crabs ensued.

Finally, a few more anglers arrived at the pier and I watched them catch walleye surfperch from the pilings using sabiki rigs baited with fresh shrimp. I made friends with one angler and he let me dip my rig in the exact spot he was pulling walleye surfperch out of, but nothing bit my bait!

This is where I learned I lesson I had wished I had learned sooner in the trip… bait has to be FRESH!! He kindly let me use some of his shrimp and I soon hooked up with both barred surfperch and surf smelt.

Surf smelt:



Shiner surfperch:



Sadly, by this time, the walleye surfperch had vacated the area. But that’s OK because surf smelt was a fairly unique catch!

In retrospect, I now understand a few factors that may have led to my unproductive outings. Firstly, the weather on the days I had for fishing usually produced strong surges in the surf that would shut fish down. Secondly, and very importantly, I was frequently fishing with old, somewhat rotten, bait. Every free hour I had went towards fishing, and not buying fresh squid and shrimp. I had not understood the importance of FRESH bait until this very last day! Lessons learned to make my next trips even more productive!


A few from behind our hotel:



And with that, we headed north in a rush to catch our flight from San Francisco. Fog was thick in San Francisco, so I failed to capture the scenery… next time!



Dear California,

I’ll be back for you!!!

-Michael

SO IT DOES EXIST!! ...... Amazing report Mike!

Those were some awesome fish! That must have been one unforgettable experience. My mom said we might be vacationing to Cali this Winter and after seeing this report I really hope I do.

Just Awesome,
Giuga10

Great report MA, plus some great photographs I'm sure you'll enjoy many times in the future.

Thanks for sharing.

Your new avatar?:

[attachment=378]

.....smile

Cheers,

OldTimer

(12-26-2012 07:32 AM)OldTimer Wrote: [ -> ]Your new avatar?:

OldTimer

YES!

(12-26-2012 01:48 PM)Giuga10 Wrote: [ -> ]

(12-26-2012 07:32 AM)OldTimer Wrote: [ -> ]Your new avatar?:

OldTimer

YES!

Of course that isn't me... it's somebody else! Can't even recognize the face....

Awesome pictures and report, thanks for sharing.

Wow, trip of a lifetime!

Cool report, Michael.
I like those guitarfish the most. Also, neat to see a great horned owl a palm tree. I had no idea they ranged that far south.