Seal Beach Pier 7/25 and 7/26

[CoffeaRobusta]

Went to seal Beach pier on 7/25 and tossed out a drop shot set up with cut mackerel. Saw a small fish jump out of the water and I thought hmmmmm....somethin' chasin that one. Sure enough one minute later WHAM the pole goes all bent and i fight like mad to bring something up. I was using some cheapass light pole that i probably bought from walmart too...you know the kind that comes bundled with some lures and stuff....i don't even know what the line test was. Anyway so i'm drawing a crowd and someone goes that's a shark and sure enough it looks like a smoothhound of some kind. i get one of the bystanders to haul up my crab hoop (i'm beginning to think there are no crabs here in summer) and use it to bring up my catch. The thing was longer than my arm. Biggest thing I ever caught....oh boy that was fun! No pics...i need to get a digital camera but some guy got video on his phone. Nothing else the rest of the afternoon.

The next day armed with more mackerel and sardines i head out to the same spot and caught a couple of mackerel and a yellowfin croaker. But like the other report from Hunington Pier the water was boiling with some kinda baitfish. They'd swirl around and jump and occasionally i'd see something bigger flash underneath them...i figure mostly p. mackerel. i watched a swarm of them moving along the pier, as indicated by the their jumping and they came into the vicinity of someone using a lucky lura or something like that and he caught four fish at once! I could literally see thousands of the little guys in the water just outside the breakers. It was funny it seemed that most other people didn't see them (i did have my polarized glasses on), didn't see them jumping, or just didn't care. Me I got excited like a kid in a candy store.

Dunno what they were...maybe grunion? The tide is susposed to be just right for grunioin starting Monday.

Anyway i'm going out tonight or tomorrow...hope to continue the fun.

[smokehound]

Those flashing coppery fish were either bonito, barracuda, or large mackerel. Mackerel and other hard hitting fish are really fun on light tackle.

Try tossing a small mackerel-pattern spoon in there when you see the macks boiling like that again.

[SanDimasLMB]

Went to seal Beach pier on 7/25 and tossed out a drop shot set up with cut mackerel. Saw a small fish jump out of the water and I thought hmmmmm....somethin' chasin that one. Sure enough one minute later WHAM the pole goes all bent and i fight like mad to bring something up. I was using some cheapass light pole that i probably bought from walmart too...you know the kind that comes bundled with some lures and stuff....i don't even know what the line test was. Anyway so i'm drawing a crowd and someone goes that's a shark and sure enough it looks like a smoothhound of some kind. i get one of the bystanders to haul up my crab hoop (i'm beginning to think there are no crabs here in summer) and use it to bring up my catch. The thing was longer than my arm. Biggest thing I ever caught....oh boy that was fun! No pics...i need to get a digital camera but some guy got video on his phone. Nothing else the rest of the afternoon.

The next day armed with more mackerel and sardines i head out to the same spot and caught a couple of mackerel and a yellowfin croaker. But like the other report from Hunington Pier the water was boiling with some kinda baitfish. They'd swirl around and jump and occasionally i'd see something bigger flash underneath them...i figure mostly p. mackerel. i watched a swarm of them moving along the pier, as indicated by the their jumping and they came into the vicinity of someone using a lucky lura or something like that and he caught four fish at once! I could literally see thousands of the little guys in the water just outside the breakers. It was funny it seemed that most other people didn't see them (i did have my polarized glasses on), didn't see them jumping, or just didn't care. Me I got excited like a kid in a candy store.

Dunno what they were...maybe grunion? The tide is susposed to be just right for grunioin starting Monday.

Anyway i'm going out tonight or tomorrow...hope to continue the fun.

Highly unlikely as grunion are photophobic (sensitiveto light) which is why they only show up at night.

[CoffeaRobusta]

Went back on saturday to try out my new sabiki but only caught two top smelt with that. My hook size is small so that's probably why i wasn't getting p. macks and bonito. Switched to cut mackerel and didn't get any hits. Got restless and started moving around the pier. The only other thing I caught that afternoon was something that looked like a little bass with orange/brown stripes. Made me think of striped bass but there are no striped bass down here me thinks. Looked in my fish book and found out it was a Salema. A pretty little thing about 6 inches long. Aparently they are quite tasty but don't get too big (10 in) so most don't bother with eating them. Had what sounded like bloack oystercathers flying just above the water too. Went back that evening to try fish at night, which i hadn't done there yet and caught a small SNGF. All i had to show for threes hours effort. Oh well still fun!

[n1ckxlam]

dont give up on those sabikis just yet, i might have been the hook but those rigs will usually knock pier fish right off.

later Canephora :wink:

Nick Lam

[smokehound]

I use tiny hooks, i actually prefer them. Smaller hooks= more bites.

With a sabiki, you cant let it sit idle and expect fish to get hooked.


First, let the rig hit the bottom, and dont use too heavy of a sinker.

Then you let the rig sit for a few minutes. Use that time to watch the girls in bikinis. After that, reel the rig in very very slowly, until you feel nibbles. When you feel nibbles, stop reeling. while keeping the rod tip down, lift the rod up high- but do it kinda slow, This ensures any fish directly striking the sabiki will get hooked. Once youve got a fish on, just bring the tip up, and it sets the hook better.

DONT set the hook like you would with a c-rig! You will lose sections of the rig if you do this, and/or bend/break the hooks!



So again: When the jig rises, is when fish get hooked.

When it falls it attracts fish. Make sure its not a fluid motion.

When it falls, let it sit for a second, then raise it.


Also stay away from the surface. Unless you want to use smelt as live bait. :lol:

[CoffeaRobusta]

Thanks Nick and Smokehound. I'm heading out to seal beach after work so we'll see how it turns out.