jplee3
08-25-2007, 08:11 PM
Woke up at 6am, got all my stuff together, and headed out. Wanted to stop by Rick's bait & tackle shop before meeting with friends to carpool. So I get there around 7:15am in anticipation of picking up some fresh ghost shrimp, frozen squid, and Gulp shrimp. I totally forgot my Gulp stuff rushing out of the house this morning. Brought along some old squid/mackerel though. In either case, I get there and the store is closed. I park, and walk up and read the schedule of daily hours: "Saturday 7am-6pm" - uhh, it's 7:30am now. I call my friend to see if he knows of any other bait shops that might be open. He calls Quality bait & tackle and they're not open either. By 7:50am, I head to my friend's place to carpool. Ricks STILL wasn't open :evil: Maybe he was out sick or something. Or pumping ghost shrimp... :roll: I guess they don't anticipate business on Saturday mornings, even though every other day of the week they're open at 10am :roll: :roll: :roll: I should have called before anyway, so my fault. If I had known all these bait stores were closed, I would have stopped by trusty ole BigFish off Seal Beach & PCH.
AAAANYWAY, got to the PV Cliffs with a bunch of friends around 9:30-10am or so. Mainly just a time for us to chill out, relax, explore the tidepools, snorkel, swim, etc etc etc. Of course, a trip to the ocean cannot ever go without a fishing rod and reel (or two or three) in hand. I brought three but only ended up using two. The hike down the mountain and over the rocks to our spot was hard work but well worth it (plus, I needed the exercise).
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4540-2/img_1718.jpg
It looked like we hit the spot at the right time as it was a pretty low tide with no major currents or huge waves. Last time I went it was way more rough than it was today. Weather was perfect with the sun out but not excruciatingly hot.
The biggest (and tastiest) catch of the day:
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4544-2/img_1719.jpg
Anyway, I tied a dropper loop and started fishing off the edge of the tidepools and caught a few small guys: tons of opaleye and senoritas around. So I caught a few of each and threw them back. I saw 4-5 garibaldis swimming around and could not believe it. I couldn't hook a single one of them! I was using mussels most of the time. Tried some squid and old mackerel, but not much action there. Also brought some peas and mixed vegetables for the opaleye but got robbed. My buddy caught a small opaleye off one of the peas towards the end. He also picked up a nice grass rockfish off mussels. At one point I caught a small smelt.
Me and my Senorita:
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4559-2/img_1724.jpg
LOL, at one point one of my friends who was snorkeling did some cheat fishing: grabbed my line in freespool, swam over to where the fishies were, and dropped it down... I felt a HUGE hit (probably a baldi) but my buddy was HOLDING onto the line! lol... funny stuff.
Needless to say, we were all getting robbed most of the day. Good thing there's an abundance of mussels out there. A couple friends swam over to the 'island' and brought back some HUGE mussels! Perfect for threading onto the hooks, but we still got robbed anyway.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4562-1/img_1725.jpg
Look at those teeth!
One of our friends who we were teaching how to fish ended up catching the biggest fish of the day and taking us to school: close to 10" senorita:
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4571-6/img_1728.jpg
My other friend who I was trying to show how to use a baitcaster with skunked out. He was trying hard to get one of those TASTY garibaldis :D :D :D
My two setups:
- Avet SX 20lb test & Basspro travel rod (Avet now has a few dings... stupid me for even bringing it - but considering I already put an 'expensive' ding in my custom acoustic guitar, this is nothing I to fret over)
- The trusty ole Daiwa 153h 12lb test + Basspro travel rod
... tried using sz 1 and 2 J & baitholder hooks as well as some sz 18(I think) treble hooks. This didn't work on a dropper loop too well. But at least I didn't lose too much tackle. Tied on a reverse dropper at the end and almost picked up a baldi(I think) and lost a couple opaleyes.
Anyway, TONS of nibbles and pecks. But very very few hookups. I think reverse droppers and sliding sinkers work better over there, but with the risk of more hangups. Reverse dropper probably being the safest. Next time I know... Also wasn't sure I was using the best hooks for this kind of fishing. Oh well, it was still fun just being outdoors and at the ocean. Two things that take my mind off everything else :D
Sorry I didn't get more pics (i.e. of the opaleye and rockfish) - just forgot my camera at a couple points.
AAAANYWAY, got to the PV Cliffs with a bunch of friends around 9:30-10am or so. Mainly just a time for us to chill out, relax, explore the tidepools, snorkel, swim, etc etc etc. Of course, a trip to the ocean cannot ever go without a fishing rod and reel (or two or three) in hand. I brought three but only ended up using two. The hike down the mountain and over the rocks to our spot was hard work but well worth it (plus, I needed the exercise).
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4540-2/img_1718.jpg
It looked like we hit the spot at the right time as it was a pretty low tide with no major currents or huge waves. Last time I went it was way more rough than it was today. Weather was perfect with the sun out but not excruciatingly hot.
The biggest (and tastiest) catch of the day:
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4544-2/img_1719.jpg
Anyway, I tied a dropper loop and started fishing off the edge of the tidepools and caught a few small guys: tons of opaleye and senoritas around. So I caught a few of each and threw them back. I saw 4-5 garibaldis swimming around and could not believe it. I couldn't hook a single one of them! I was using mussels most of the time. Tried some squid and old mackerel, but not much action there. Also brought some peas and mixed vegetables for the opaleye but got robbed. My buddy caught a small opaleye off one of the peas towards the end. He also picked up a nice grass rockfish off mussels. At one point I caught a small smelt.
Me and my Senorita:
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4559-2/img_1724.jpg
LOL, at one point one of my friends who was snorkeling did some cheat fishing: grabbed my line in freespool, swam over to where the fishies were, and dropped it down... I felt a HUGE hit (probably a baldi) but my buddy was HOLDING onto the line! lol... funny stuff.
Needless to say, we were all getting robbed most of the day. Good thing there's an abundance of mussels out there. A couple friends swam over to the 'island' and brought back some HUGE mussels! Perfect for threading onto the hooks, but we still got robbed anyway.
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4562-1/img_1725.jpg
Look at those teeth!
One of our friends who we were teaching how to fish ended up catching the biggest fish of the day and taking us to school: close to 10" senorita:
http://jermdawg.com/gallery/d/4571-6/img_1728.jpg
My other friend who I was trying to show how to use a baitcaster with skunked out. He was trying hard to get one of those TASTY garibaldis :D :D :D
My two setups:
- Avet SX 20lb test & Basspro travel rod (Avet now has a few dings... stupid me for even bringing it - but considering I already put an 'expensive' ding in my custom acoustic guitar, this is nothing I to fret over)
- The trusty ole Daiwa 153h 12lb test + Basspro travel rod
... tried using sz 1 and 2 J & baitholder hooks as well as some sz 18(I think) treble hooks. This didn't work on a dropper loop too well. But at least I didn't lose too much tackle. Tied on a reverse dropper at the end and almost picked up a baldi(I think) and lost a couple opaleyes.
Anyway, TONS of nibbles and pecks. But very very few hookups. I think reverse droppers and sliding sinkers work better over there, but with the risk of more hangups. Reverse dropper probably being the safest. Next time I know... Also wasn't sure I was using the best hooks for this kind of fishing. Oh well, it was still fun just being outdoors and at the ocean. Two things that take my mind off everything else :D
Sorry I didn't get more pics (i.e. of the opaleye and rockfish) - just forgot my camera at a couple points.