Natural Lefty
12-14-2010, 12:08 PM
My wife had made a hot date with me yesterday to take her to the Redondo Sportfishing Pier, where she wanted to catch Senorita or whatever. She has been staying in Rowland Heights all fall for the most part helping her daughter remodel her new house, leaving me here in Moreno Valley. Now, the remodelling is almost done, but her daughter is afraid to be there alone and looking for renters.
I made it to Rowland Heights around 11:30 a.m. to find an empty house, which was a helpless feeling. A while later, I was relieved when my wife and Isabella showed up with some groceries. AFter lunch, I figured we would head for Redondo Beach, but my wife said a woman who wanted to rent a room was supposed to show up at 1:30. So I waited. The renter showed up at 2 -- and I waited while she ate lunch. And again, I waited while the others talked. They finally had a rental agreement at 3 but Isabella asked me to make grammatical corrections and print it out on her computer. As I brought the contract to the dining room, I saw the renter leaving. Eunice said she had to go to get some stuff and return later. At this point, she told me that I might as well go to Redondo Beach by myself, so I left my daughter's house around 3:30. So much for our "hot date." However, as soon as I got in the car, and checked the map for how to get to Redondo Beach, I had a change of heart when I thought of how much driving I would be doing in bad traffic. I thought of just going home and forgetting the whole thing, but I decided to head for Puddingtone since it wasn't too far and sort of on the way home.
I got to Puddingstone at about 4, and decided to head for the walk-in pier over on the left since I have had some success there catching Crappie, Redears and even a Catfish a few times in previous Octobers or Novembers. I was hoping the warm weather (which is supposed to turn cold and rainy soon) would bring out some biters, and I was correct.
There were a couple of friendly guys there when I got to the pier, and they were giving me the "we rented the end of the pier" routine, then laughing. I told them I didn't need the end of the pier anyway. :LOL: I put a redworm on a salmon egg hook on one pole and casted out, and put one of those Chartreuse Power Grubs I have on the other. On my second cast with the grub, I was talking to the other guys when suddenly I had a good hit and a really good pull on the line. I got the fish about 2/3 of the way to the dock but it came off before we could see it. I was thinking big Crappie or Trout but they were saynig Bass maybe. I casted to the same spot again, and lo and behold, I got another good hit, and I was ready for it. I hooked up solidly and it was another good one, or maybe the same one. (Good thing Crappies are so incredibly gullible.) It was a big Crappie of about 12 inches, which I walked to the shore and one of the other gentlemen kindly went down to shore to grab it for me. After that, he went to get their net which was a hoop style net designed especially for pier fishing. As he was returning a few minutes later, I hooked another one, and this one was even bigger. We went through the same routine again, and this thing was a real slab, if you know what I mean. :EyePop: My technique with the jig was basically to bounce and jig it along the bottom a few inches at a time, which usually works for me when I fish jigs without a bobber.
After that, however, fishing slowed down considerably. I managed 2 or 3 more strikes, one of which resulted in a 5 inch, baby Crappie which I put back, but that was it. One of the other guys tried a jig to no avail, and their baits went untouched, as did my redworm. I finally went to the middle pier and made five casts there with the jig to no avail, so I headed home. By then it was about 6 p.m. and totally dark. When I caught the fish, the sun was still up but near the horizon. Perhaps it got too dark for the fish to see the jig later on. By the way, since I had only brought saltwater fishing poles and not my ultralight, I was fishing the jig on 6 pound line but the fish didn't seem to mind. The light was fairly dim and the water was murky which probably helped. I was using my new pole that was the replacement for the one which a fish pulled into Lake Perris a few weeks ago.
I kept the two large Crappies and took them home to Moreno Valley. Here is a picture of them with yardstick. They were still alive and flopping from time to time when I took the picture.
I made it to Rowland Heights around 11:30 a.m. to find an empty house, which was a helpless feeling. A while later, I was relieved when my wife and Isabella showed up with some groceries. AFter lunch, I figured we would head for Redondo Beach, but my wife said a woman who wanted to rent a room was supposed to show up at 1:30. So I waited. The renter showed up at 2 -- and I waited while she ate lunch. And again, I waited while the others talked. They finally had a rental agreement at 3 but Isabella asked me to make grammatical corrections and print it out on her computer. As I brought the contract to the dining room, I saw the renter leaving. Eunice said she had to go to get some stuff and return later. At this point, she told me that I might as well go to Redondo Beach by myself, so I left my daughter's house around 3:30. So much for our "hot date." However, as soon as I got in the car, and checked the map for how to get to Redondo Beach, I had a change of heart when I thought of how much driving I would be doing in bad traffic. I thought of just going home and forgetting the whole thing, but I decided to head for Puddingtone since it wasn't too far and sort of on the way home.
I got to Puddingstone at about 4, and decided to head for the walk-in pier over on the left since I have had some success there catching Crappie, Redears and even a Catfish a few times in previous Octobers or Novembers. I was hoping the warm weather (which is supposed to turn cold and rainy soon) would bring out some biters, and I was correct.
There were a couple of friendly guys there when I got to the pier, and they were giving me the "we rented the end of the pier" routine, then laughing. I told them I didn't need the end of the pier anyway. :LOL: I put a redworm on a salmon egg hook on one pole and casted out, and put one of those Chartreuse Power Grubs I have on the other. On my second cast with the grub, I was talking to the other guys when suddenly I had a good hit and a really good pull on the line. I got the fish about 2/3 of the way to the dock but it came off before we could see it. I was thinking big Crappie or Trout but they were saynig Bass maybe. I casted to the same spot again, and lo and behold, I got another good hit, and I was ready for it. I hooked up solidly and it was another good one, or maybe the same one. (Good thing Crappies are so incredibly gullible.) It was a big Crappie of about 12 inches, which I walked to the shore and one of the other gentlemen kindly went down to shore to grab it for me. After that, he went to get their net which was a hoop style net designed especially for pier fishing. As he was returning a few minutes later, I hooked another one, and this one was even bigger. We went through the same routine again, and this thing was a real slab, if you know what I mean. :EyePop: My technique with the jig was basically to bounce and jig it along the bottom a few inches at a time, which usually works for me when I fish jigs without a bobber.
After that, however, fishing slowed down considerably. I managed 2 or 3 more strikes, one of which resulted in a 5 inch, baby Crappie which I put back, but that was it. One of the other guys tried a jig to no avail, and their baits went untouched, as did my redworm. I finally went to the middle pier and made five casts there with the jig to no avail, so I headed home. By then it was about 6 p.m. and totally dark. When I caught the fish, the sun was still up but near the horizon. Perhaps it got too dark for the fish to see the jig later on. By the way, since I had only brought saltwater fishing poles and not my ultralight, I was fishing the jig on 6 pound line but the fish didn't seem to mind. The light was fairly dim and the water was murky which probably helped. I was using my new pole that was the replacement for the one which a fish pulled into Lake Perris a few weeks ago.
I kept the two large Crappies and took them home to Moreno Valley. Here is a picture of them with yardstick. They were still alive and flopping from time to time when I took the picture.