fish_sauce
08-05-2008, 01:41 PM
in all honesty, i have been debating to myself whether i should even bother writing up this report, because afterall, who really cares about a slow fishing report, right? Wrong! As is the nature of the sport and the luck of the draw, fishing can be WFO on one day and completely dead the next...and in my case, it was more like four consecutive days of tough, humbling experiences on the surf, but there are, nonetheless, photos and memories to be shared, so here goes...hope you guys enjoy the pics!
Our plan was to drive up along the coast and spend two days and two nights at the Pismo dunes camping by the beach, stopping along the way in Ventura and San Bernardino county to sightsee and surf fish the beaches up there. My day started out early at 4:00AM on Friday. With my things packed from the night before, we made good time departing OC, but managed to run into traffic and didn't arrive at our first spot in Ventura until well after 8:00AM!!!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy001.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy002.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy004.jpg
Water was relatively cold, light swells, outgoing high tide. Although visibility was excellent, there was plenty of loose vegetation floating around. Everything i threw out came up with half a pound of salad. There was, however, largeeeee beds of sand crabs along the shoreline, so we tried soaking some, but got absolutely no takers! Fearing that conditions would get worse and it would render our lures ineffective on the surf in the comming days, i collected some soft shell sand crabs and kept them as a back-up bait. This proved to be a wise decision!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy008.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy009-2.jpg
We made a few more stops along Highway 101 at El Capitan Beach State Park, Refugio Beach State Park, and Gaviota Beach State Park, but conditions were just like they were at our first spots...fished around for a few hours and landed a large smelt on a 5/8oz megabait.
We finally got to Pismo around 5-ish and found that our reservation had somehow been canceled!!! On top of that, we found out the hard way that we had no business being on the sand with a 2WD Chevy. :Sad: Luckily, A buddy's friend happened to be in the area and although they didn't know any us, they welcomed us to camp alongside with them, and helped pull us away from the incoming tide! I haphazardly fumbled around with my tent gear and eventually managed to set up camp despite the strong ocean breeze. Made it down to the water within half an hour, but the swells picked up and it seemed like all i could do was practice my casting and hope for the best...the sand bar at Pismo is very different than most of the SoCal beaches i've fished before...The flat stretches so far out, i was able to wade out a good thirty yards from where the water ends and still be only up to my knees in water!!!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy010-1.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy011.jpg
Saturday morning, conditions were still windy. We had a window of about an hour when the swells died down for a bit, and my friends managed to land a few BSP's with the sand crabs i had collected the day before from Ventura. I tossed around some sand worms for no luck. Our truck being stranded, we couldn't drive to the nearest tackle store to pick up fresh bait--so we had to settle with what we came with. I met another fisherman from Vegas on the shore, and we talked for a bit...i told him that i had actually wanted to target a leopard shark on the surf...so he gave me a perfectly sized perch to get me started...not wanting to disappoint, i brought out my heavy surf gear and fished with the perch for a good three hours...even smeared and injected the perch with a good helping of my calico cocktail juice and let it soak....there were no takers. Judging from all the foamy white water that was being thrown up, i knew my chances was bleak...
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy019.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy018.jpg
I did some fishing saturday afternoon by myself, eventhough conditions were still tough. We were camped right next to the wildlife reserve area, and i noticed that there was a large flock of birds circling the water about a hundred yards out...the water actually momentarily boiled with some kind of bait fish...and they were diving/attacking the bait ball from above...it was quite a spectacular sight! I snapped a quick photo of it, but it didn't show up very well on camera....
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy031edit.jpg
Sunday morning, things looked like it started to get a little better, but we had to pack up, helped our new friends clean up the camp site, and got our truck pulled back out. On our way out of camp, we saw people pulling out some nice football sized BSP's. Just our luck, right? We stopped by two Santa Barbara beaches, but the water was so dense with surfers and beach goers that we didn't bother to fish it. Made a final stop at a Ventura county beach and fished it for about an hour...the water was great, with the exception of the salad problem...my buddy landed his first legal halibut on a megabait....after snagging and losing a few lures, he decided to call it quits, and we headed back to OC.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy036.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy037.jpg
Completely unsatisfied, I woke up the Monday morning at 5AM and decided to hit a few of my "better" hali spots with a buddy...starting from Long beach, we worked our way down the coastline towards huntington beach (skipping bcsb) and back again at Long beach for the afternoon high tide...Saw plenty of fish jumping around, but there was also plenty of baitfish in the water. No fish wanted to come out and play :Sad: The wind started picking up, so we called it a day with a score of one measly plier fish, but a skunkbuster nonetheless!
Went to get coffee with the guys and finally got a chance to go online and check out FNN---and to my pleasant surprise, i saw this:
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy040.jpg
It made me feel a lot better knowing that there was in fact decent fish in the water despite the poor conditions, and let me tell you, it coudn't have happened to a more deserving person! Thank you Wingnut, and others who've shared info specifically on the Ventura/SB/Pismo area with me. The fishing was tough, but i still managed to enjoy my time out with friends and away from work...I was disappointed, worn out, and beaten up by the pounding waves for almost four consecutive days...but you'll surely see me back to the surf again this weekend...hopefully, the weather will cooperate. :Wink:
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy026.jpg
"There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to 'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid."
Theodore Roosevelt “An Autobiography”, 1913
Our plan was to drive up along the coast and spend two days and two nights at the Pismo dunes camping by the beach, stopping along the way in Ventura and San Bernardino county to sightsee and surf fish the beaches up there. My day started out early at 4:00AM on Friday. With my things packed from the night before, we made good time departing OC, but managed to run into traffic and didn't arrive at our first spot in Ventura until well after 8:00AM!!!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy001.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy002.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy004.jpg
Water was relatively cold, light swells, outgoing high tide. Although visibility was excellent, there was plenty of loose vegetation floating around. Everything i threw out came up with half a pound of salad. There was, however, largeeeee beds of sand crabs along the shoreline, so we tried soaking some, but got absolutely no takers! Fearing that conditions would get worse and it would render our lures ineffective on the surf in the comming days, i collected some soft shell sand crabs and kept them as a back-up bait. This proved to be a wise decision!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy008.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy009-2.jpg
We made a few more stops along Highway 101 at El Capitan Beach State Park, Refugio Beach State Park, and Gaviota Beach State Park, but conditions were just like they were at our first spots...fished around for a few hours and landed a large smelt on a 5/8oz megabait.
We finally got to Pismo around 5-ish and found that our reservation had somehow been canceled!!! On top of that, we found out the hard way that we had no business being on the sand with a 2WD Chevy. :Sad: Luckily, A buddy's friend happened to be in the area and although they didn't know any us, they welcomed us to camp alongside with them, and helped pull us away from the incoming tide! I haphazardly fumbled around with my tent gear and eventually managed to set up camp despite the strong ocean breeze. Made it down to the water within half an hour, but the swells picked up and it seemed like all i could do was practice my casting and hope for the best...the sand bar at Pismo is very different than most of the SoCal beaches i've fished before...The flat stretches so far out, i was able to wade out a good thirty yards from where the water ends and still be only up to my knees in water!!!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy010-1.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy011.jpg
Saturday morning, conditions were still windy. We had a window of about an hour when the swells died down for a bit, and my friends managed to land a few BSP's with the sand crabs i had collected the day before from Ventura. I tossed around some sand worms for no luck. Our truck being stranded, we couldn't drive to the nearest tackle store to pick up fresh bait--so we had to settle with what we came with. I met another fisherman from Vegas on the shore, and we talked for a bit...i told him that i had actually wanted to target a leopard shark on the surf...so he gave me a perfectly sized perch to get me started...not wanting to disappoint, i brought out my heavy surf gear and fished with the perch for a good three hours...even smeared and injected the perch with a good helping of my calico cocktail juice and let it soak....there were no takers. Judging from all the foamy white water that was being thrown up, i knew my chances was bleak...
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy019.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy018.jpg
I did some fishing saturday afternoon by myself, eventhough conditions were still tough. We were camped right next to the wildlife reserve area, and i noticed that there was a large flock of birds circling the water about a hundred yards out...the water actually momentarily boiled with some kind of bait fish...and they were diving/attacking the bait ball from above...it was quite a spectacular sight! I snapped a quick photo of it, but it didn't show up very well on camera....
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy031edit.jpg
Sunday morning, things looked like it started to get a little better, but we had to pack up, helped our new friends clean up the camp site, and got our truck pulled back out. On our way out of camp, we saw people pulling out some nice football sized BSP's. Just our luck, right? We stopped by two Santa Barbara beaches, but the water was so dense with surfers and beach goers that we didn't bother to fish it. Made a final stop at a Ventura county beach and fished it for about an hour...the water was great, with the exception of the salad problem...my buddy landed his first legal halibut on a megabait....after snagging and losing a few lures, he decided to call it quits, and we headed back to OC.
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy036.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy037.jpg
Completely unsatisfied, I woke up the Monday morning at 5AM and decided to hit a few of my "better" hali spots with a buddy...starting from Long beach, we worked our way down the coastline towards huntington beach (skipping bcsb) and back again at Long beach for the afternoon high tide...Saw plenty of fish jumping around, but there was also plenty of baitfish in the water. No fish wanted to come out and play :Sad: The wind started picking up, so we called it a day with a score of one measly plier fish, but a skunkbuster nonetheless!
Went to get coffee with the guys and finally got a chance to go online and check out FNN---and to my pleasant surprise, i saw this:
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy040.jpg
It made me feel a lot better knowing that there was in fact decent fish in the water despite the poor conditions, and let me tell you, it coudn't have happened to a more deserving person! Thank you Wingnut, and others who've shared info specifically on the Ventura/SB/Pismo area with me. The fishing was tough, but i still managed to enjoy my time out with friends and away from work...I was disappointed, worn out, and beaten up by the pounding waves for almost four consecutive days...but you'll surely see me back to the surf again this weekend...hopefully, the weather will cooperate. :Wink:
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii79/quandary01/Fishy026.jpg
"There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to 'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid."
Theodore Roosevelt “An Autobiography”, 1913