North to South.......So Much FUN!!!

[bones]

Well.....This week has been a rough one since my outing on the "Spotted Fever" with Arthur and Steve. No more relaxing while there are fish to be caught. So I decided to dedicate a few mornings to recon some new areas since the MLPA is going to take some prime fishing areas from us. The bite has been very rough at times and no real patterns have settled in. The ratio of short halibut to legals for me has been about 50/1 this season. Sooooooo many shorts it's incrediable. Now I'm not complaining but damn...........If it was all high spirited shorts at 21" it would be one thing but it's been pancake heaven all along our coast.I think I went on a long run with over 60 shorties before I finally stuck a 24" halibut and a 22 1/2" the other day. A few here a few there ....... high tide......low tide.........morning bite......evening bite........no real pattern. Water temps and clarity have been good but there has not been much bait this year all along our coast. What has been very noteworthy is that if there is a hot spot today.....It will be gone tomorrow. If there was bait in an area today.....It's not there tomorrow. They havn't been really stacked up ANYWHERE along our coast. Nobody has ever said it is easy to hunt flatties but this season has overall been a rough one to say the least. I'm very fortunate to have a job that I don't have to get really involved in before 9am every day so I made a decision to hit up the greylight all of this week and fish for only a few hours every morning. Besides...........It is always nice to enjoy the sunrise at the beach to start off your day. I only live 30 minutes from the beach but some of the areas I've been scouting are up to 1 1/2 hours away so it meens that I have to be on the road anywhere from 4 to 5am to really be on the beach when the sun is just peeking it's head out. A couple of times I headed far north but for the most part I focused my efforts on Santa Monica bay. SM bay has had the most reliable conditions as far as clarity and the small swell. This time of year most of our swell comes in at a steep angle from the northern pacific so I'm constantly looking for protected areas where the bait and the flatties can get a break from the swells.
I know I've been driving Wingnut CRAZY everyday with ANOTHER fish report but hey.........Somebody has to do the midweek SWAT recon !!
Keep in mind that these pics are NOT all from the same day of fishing or the same spot but rather a compilation over the last week. Primarily I have been tossing my lucky craft hardbaits just because it's more fun and I can cover more area in a shorter amount of time. I've only dropshotted certain areas after I covered it completely with a hardbait attack.
I really dislike fishing boring flatwater like places in longbeach so the mission has been to look for boilers and kelp fields .......Structure baby that's what I'm talking about !!!!
The rugged snaggy areas are the only places that have been consistantly holding a variety of fish that are willing to chew.

First of all........ Greylight in SB county and the reason I love the dawn of a new day at the beach.....











Low tide provides some really cool sights......







Hey Troutonly!!!
I found a spot where the Natives are SO BIG that they fly through the trees !!!







Allright Time to FISH !!!

Shorties.....And more shorties.....







MMMM......Getting kinda hungry and found this little hidden Cafe' so it's time for a quick bite to eat.Boy this place is deserted during the morning hours.



Tri Tip Beef Dip w/AuJus,Fries and a water and I'm good to go!



Oh CRAP.....Time to work!

The next day I decided to keep it a little more local.
Santa Monica bay has alot of structure if you are willing to look for it and scramble a bit. Some of these spots are quite a walk.

Sunrise.....








Boilers Baby!





Shorties,barely legals and a few decent small Calicos thrown in.......















Some Kinda Bass!



Finally a decent legal and Yeah.......This is the SECOND legal I've kept this year but released many others. She went 24" and provided me with about four meals.





As I waded back out into the water with my "Keeper" on a dive clip that was hanging on my side........... My thoughts turned to the Leos that were within 5 ft of me as the halibut thrashed about and bled into the water. MMMMMMM......Time to back up......LOL



A 24" short WSB made for a nice little bonus....



Apparently there are some really big bugs in this area as well.....



Don't ya hate it when you hear one of these fly through your guides on a spinning setup...........



Make sure you pin on those dropshot baits straight so that they don't spin on the retrieve or you will get that screwed up line twist that will waste line.It's that last few feet of your retrieve when you reel in your bait and it's not straight that causes the line twist from hell so watch it!


A few more shorties.......an unlucky kelp fish.......a few jack smelt aka "Torpedos" and finally a few nice checkers to finish up the week!





















I believe this is my PB Calico from the surf.....





Parting shot.........One TOTALLY worn out LC baby. I'm working on a way to repaint these babies right now....LOL



You would think that $20 hardbaits would be designed to be a little more durable in the surf enviroment especially when they are sold as a "saltwater series". The flashy finish is always totally destroyed by the hooks. The front and middle hooks get fouled on each other all of the time and sometimes you have to swap out the hooks to stronger ones. Definately something that the LC designers have to work on for sure. But hey..........The fish really love them and they cast like missles.

I was just chilling by the water in a tidal area when I saw some action along the shoreline. At first I thought it was bait being pushed up to the rocks but it was actually a small octopus hunting sidewinder crabs......Kinda cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYHC6mNFXtg


If any FNN members recognize some of these spots PLEASE don't mention them on the board. Feel free to PM me for any details but let's NOT help the lurkers who only take and never contribute to this forum.

Hope you all enjoyed the pics and report.........Tight Lines to everyone and let's make it a Happy Holiday Season!!

[ztugs]

awesome report. i love seeing calicos in the surf. good job out there.

[bsp]

Dang Mike... I'm jealous. While I've been stuck at home with the swine flu, you've been racking up an impressive total on the halibut and other surf fish! You did some good recon too since very few of those spots look familiar. Thanks for the report, and let's hit the surf again before the winter puts the fish down.

[troutman27]

Very cool report....i haven't had much luck out in the surf....I think I need to try harder.

[Wingnut]

Nice report Mike... the format looks so familar.

Damn right you're killing me! There I am at work, in a meeting or whatever and get a call from you "out in the field."
I wish that my schedule is flexible enough to allow me to join you on a weekday excursion once in awhile. But you know my boss, he's a jerk... I hope he's not reading this.

Very nice weekday solo recon buddy, you got some quality fish there. Where's the pic of your monster surf Mackerel? Yeah, the short Flatties count is high this year, but at least we're catching. The Fall bite seems to be picking up so hopefully that will continue for a bit until the weather really deteriorate.

Let's firm up plans for this weekend's assault... in itching to get back out there on the front lines again.

[whate]

Awesome report. Nice variety. Hope that I'll find a honey spot like that... someday :
Thanks for taking the time to post.

[victor101]

...............WOW.............is about all I can say.

[SHAD MAN 09]

Talk about a nice day of catching. Its awsome what you can get out of the surf. Really great post and those LCs really do the job. very nice.....

[Fire Ball]

I really want to go surf fishing again! Someone needs to take me surf fishing and teach me how to catch a few halibut.

The hunting octopus is pretty awesome.

[murrieta angler]

Very nice report and pictures. I am looking forward to getting alot more surf fishing in real soon here. I really enjoyed the octopus and was waiting for him to get some food, but alas, nothing...
Look forward to your next report.