gavin310
06-01-2010, 12:54 PM
No pics, so the illiterate folks can move along. :Wink: Last night I was thinking about what to make for dinner, and wanted some fish for my pasta. So I figured I'd go catch a nice fat perch. I drove through Malibu and a little past the Ventura county line. It wasn't a good timing for the tide. It was still about 5 hours before high tide, but I fished anyway because the sunset was only about an hour and a half away. I was using a carolina rig with 2 inch pieces of a gulp camo sand worm. I got a nibble or two, but that was it for about an hour. As I was wading out, there was a quick 2 ft. dropoff that I slid down. The receding water was pulling me out towards the waves as I was trying to climb back up to avoid a wave going over my head. Luckily I managed to scurry up the slope before a wave reached me. But, knowing this dropoff was there changed my game plan. When the waves would have a calm period, the dropoff was close enough to walk right up to. I just let out about 6 feet of line and walked about 3 feet from the dropoff and hung my bait down into the trench. Instantly I got a small perch, but next I got a fatty. About 13". I checked for any babies coming out and didn't see any, so I dropped him into my little ice chest for dinner and continued to fish, releasing everything else. One little guy was bleeding and I don't think he made it. Sucks. I threw the lure for a bit, but when some larger sets would roll in the water would get too murky. Catching the perch on light gear was fun so the halibut can wait. I got home and filleted the big perch and had a nice meal.
Oh, I filled my little ice chest with water from the ocean and when I looked inside later there was a big oily puddle floating on top. It was golden colored and pretty clear, but had a very light rainbow shimmer to it. Anyone know what this is? Was it gas or oil leaking from a boat? It must have been all over because I just quickly scooped some water.
One other thing that just came to mind, this beach doesn't have much structure aside from the trench, and in my experience the best way to find fish on a beach like this is to find the sand crab beds and fish right out from those. You don't need to use sand crabs. I tend to have good luck with halibut in these areas, probably because it attracts the smaller fish like perch.
Oh, I filled my little ice chest with water from the ocean and when I looked inside later there was a big oily puddle floating on top. It was golden colored and pretty clear, but had a very light rainbow shimmer to it. Anyone know what this is? Was it gas or oil leaking from a boat? It must have been all over because I just quickly scooped some water.
One other thing that just came to mind, this beach doesn't have much structure aside from the trench, and in my experience the best way to find fish on a beach like this is to find the sand crab beds and fish right out from those. You don't need to use sand crabs. I tend to have good luck with halibut in these areas, probably because it attracts the smaller fish like perch.