Central Coast Trip 12/29/2009 - 1/1/2010: Huell Howser Made it Look Easy

[Natural Lefty]

This is a mega post about the fishing trip I took last week with my wife. I wasn't sure where to put it, but since it's not SoCal or Sierras, I am putting it in NorCal. Anyway, this area needs some new reports, since the last one was in November.

January 4, 2010

Central Coast Trip 12/29/2009 - 1/1/2010: Huell Howser Made it Look Easy

After much consideration, Eunice and I decided to take a trip to the Morro Bay area along the central California coast during my winter break. The deciding factor was when I found out that the Motel 6 in San Luis Obispo was only charging $41.39 per night. (The one in Morro Bay only charged $4 more per night, but being the nearly broke cheapskates that we are, we chose the one in San Luis Obispo. While there, I noticed a sign on the bathroom door which listed the rate as $105.99 per night. I don't know whether the lower rate had to do with the season, the poor economy, or both, but I was glad for it.)

12/29

After driving nonstop from Moreno Valley (with Eunice handfeeding me lunch on the way), and a quick trip back from Riverside to home to retrieve the camera we had forgotten, we made it to the motel around 4 p.m. After settling in, we headed for Morro Bay to do some fishing, hoping to catch some tasty Rockfish or whatever else might be biting. My pier fishing book mentions 2 public piers called the Morro Bay T-Piers, so I followed directions to the embarcadero where those were. First, I found the north T-Pier, walked out on it, and observed that it was virtually surrounded by boats, with people working on a few of them. The book said that they were working piers but people were allowed to fish in between the boats. Nonetheless, the place looked so cluttered at the time that I decided to look for the South T-Pier. When I found it, I saw it was less cluttered with boats, so we decided to fish there. By this time, it was aroiund 5:30 p.m. and getting dark. At first, nothing was biting, but after 15 minutes or so, I had a repeat biter on squid about 20 feet from shore and pulled up a little 5-6 inch Rockfish on the second bite, which I showed to Eunice and put back. A while later, I had a heavier bite only 7-8 feet from shore, also on squid, and pulled up a pretty 8-9 inch Rockfish of the same species, which I kept. A check of my regulations book revealed that most likely these were Grass Rockfish, although there are several similar looking species. After that, I missed a few more light bites, while Eunice went biteless fishing farther out on the pier, before we decided to head back to the motel around 7 p.m. Rockfish of any other species than California Scorpionfish are unusual catches for either of us, so I was happy with my 2 Grass Rockfish. (I think I did catch a small one of these at Oceanside Harbor last summer, so they probably weren't my first ones.)

12/30

The weather forecast called for rain this day, so I wasn't expecting to have much in the way of fishing opportunities. As it turned out, there was fairly heavy rain from about 5-7 a.m., followed by a few hours of light rain. The rain was finished around 10-11 a.m. Since we are, let me say, leisurely anyway, on our vacation, that was no problem -- no dawn fishing trips for us. In fact, all of our fishing was in the afternoons on this trip. Meanwhile, we split the Rockfish I had caught the night before, which was delicious. (Eunice brought electric powered cooking equipment.) We left the motel at 11 something after an early lunch, and headed for Port San Luis Pier first, because I had read something about Crabs biting there. (We were very well equipped for various sorts of fishing/gathering activities.) As it turned out, Port San Luis was a dissapointment (for the second time; we were skunked there a few years ago around Memorial Day). I did encounter a father with 2 young sons who had caught 2 barely legal size Red Rock Crabs in their hoop net, but zero fish. Those were the only Crabs I saw, except for the commercially caught ones on the pier. I tried hoop netting for Crabs and fishing both, to no avail except for 3 pretty red Starfish (2 in my hoopnet, one on my fishing line), which I put back. At least I caught something, which was more than last time. The only fish I saw were 1 Jacksmelt and 1 small White Croaker, among about 25 fisherpeople. Around 3 p.m. I gave up, and decided to try to Pismo Clams at nearby Pismo Beach since the tide was super low (-1.4). As I was leaving, a woman asked what I had caught. When I told her 3 Starfish, she said they were protected, and thanked me for putting them back. She also said they are inedible. The strange thing was that a shop on the pier was selling dried Starfish. Also, I have seen Starfish in soup preparation packets in Chinese markets, so people must eat them. Eunice said the fishing was no good, and she felt tired, so she didn't even try fishing at Port San Luis.

Eunice said, "You toss the Clams to me; I'll measure and store them." It sounded so easy. After eventually finding the best parking area near Pismo Beach Pier, I headed down to the beach which was far out under the pier with the low tide. Equipped with my pitchfork type device Eunice had scavenged from one of our foreclosed neighbors (with their permission), I started probing deep into the sand, finding nothing but sand. I remember seeing Huell Howser on one of those California's Gold shows standing under the pier with a Ranger and saying something like "That feels like a clam," then pulling up a couple of legal size Pismo Clams that way. I had always wondered whether that was staged. Now, I am pretty sure that those clams were planted there by the Ranger. As far as I could tell, there were few if any clams to be found, even farther under the pier than Huell Howser was. Actually, I suspect that fishing pressure over the years has created selective pressure on the clams, such that the ones which live farther offshore continue to thrive, but the ones living in the surf have been depleted. That may be why I hear of people actually diving for these clams, but not getting them along the beach as they used to. Oh well! I will never think of Huell Howser in quite the same way again.

Eventually, we headed back to Morro Bay for some sightseeing, picture taking, and scouting around Morro Rock followed by more T-Pier fishing. This time, we tried the North T-Pier first, since we found some open spots there. In brief, Eunice missed a heavy bite, and so did I, in the same corner of the pier. My bite came when Eunice asked me to take a picture. (The sunset was really beautiful.) I had left my rod propped up on some equipment. As soon as I walked over to where Eunice was on the other side of the pier, I heard my rod fall down. I ran back there and picked up my rod, only to find my line snagged in a piling. I am pretty sure it was a bite -- probably just some frisky Jacksmelt but we will never know. I had to break my line, but having it tangled in the piling might have saved me from losing the pole. Since the fishing action wasn't exactly nonstop on the North T-Pier, we headed back to the South T-Pier. I had lots of action from small Rockfish there once again, catching 4, but only keeping 1. I was definitely getting the hang of fishing there. These fish really like squid, and hang out not far from shore. I tried mussels, too, but nothing bit. Meanwhile, Eunice got skunked again, but did get a few bites.

12/31

Being the last day of the year, Eunice said she had to clean everything very well. Thus, she spent what seemed like an interminably long time washing her hair and so forth. Eventually, we left the motel. Eunice said she wanted to treat me to lunch. We wound up going to Jack-in-the-Box and spending $9. That is our idea of a fancy date. (The rest of the time, we ate food we brought or fish we caught in the motel room.) Around 2 p.m., we found ourselves back at the South T-Pier. Hey, it was the only place we had caught any fish. Eunice said we should try it during the daytime for a change, and I was agreeable to that. At first, the fishing was slow, but I did get occasional bites. After a while, I noticed a man fishing on the rocks near the pier. We began talking, and he mentioned that he had caught 2 Rockfish. He invited me down there, so after awhile, I went over the railing and down the rocks. My line immediately got stuck in a crevice, and I had to break it. Oh well! The man (whose name I never found out), showed me his two nice size Grass Rockfish, about a foot long each. I was impressed. What really surprised me was that he was dropping his line among the rocks only a couple of feet from shore. It seemed as though, the closer to shore, the bigger these fish were. I tried there for awhile, but had no bites. However, I witnessed my new friend catch a small Cabezon about 8 inches long, which he put back. (Their minimum size limit is 15 inches.) Meanwhile, Eunice's hair washing had gone awry, leaving her hair tangled in several places, so she was sitting in the car, trying to untangle her hair. Eventually, she gave up, and simply cut them off, as I had suggested. Since I wanted to check on Eunice's progress, and since the rocks were very slippery with the low tide, I headed back up.

Eunice headed to the pier along with me, and soon, our new friend did too. He said he was a local who fished there "all the time." He had plenty of Rockfish to eat, so he offered to give his to us. Were we interested? Heck yes! I gladly let him borrow some of my mussels for bait, and some hooks, etc, while we chatted. By this time, he had 3 Grass Rockfish, which we transferred to one of our coolers. (Being optimists, we brought an extra cooler, mainly for Crab.) The local was glad we had mussels. He said that people weren't even allowed to pick mussels in Morro Bay, since it is a nature preserve. No clamming or crabbing is allowed, either. Only fishing for finfish is allowed, and only in part of the bay. When I checked the current fishing regulations and discovered this, I was very disappointed, because we had been planning to hoop net for crabs from the T-Piers. But we behaved ourselves and refrained from doing so. Meanwhile, the Pier Fishing in California website raves about the crabbing from the T-Piers. It was legal to do a few years ago, but no more. The website owner really needs to update his website. The second cooler was what we were actually hoping to put the crabs in. As it turned out, once Eunice started fishing, she kept having good size Red Rock Crab grab her bait. They would let go as soon as they reached the surface, but we got a good, mouth watering look at them. The crabs seemed to prefer the mussels, while the fish seemed to prefer the squid. I also eventually dragged a few Rock Crab to the surface before they let go.

Eventually, our friend went to another spot he liked to try for more Rockfish. He came back around sunset with 3 more Grass Rockfish to give to us. If you see this, Thank You my friend! At this point, we still hadn't caught a fish, but soon afterward, Eunice caught a decent size Grass Rockfish. I caught 3 of them after that. I discovered that they bite better after dark, and what worked best for me was casting parallel to shore, within about 20 feet from shore, using a jig with a strip of squid for bait. After going home, we dined on some of our Rockfish. Strangely, one of the large ones was very fibrous and chewy, while others were soft and delicious.

1/1

After a breakfast of more Rockfish (including another chewy one) and more morning cleansing activities, we headed south. We decided to go to Lopez Lake, which is in that area. When we got there, we first bought our annual fishing licenses. There were a good number of people there buying fishing licenses, trying out their new fishing equipment, and taking their boats for a spin on the lake. Being the winter off-season for fishing, I had my doubts that anything would be biting. After scouting out the possibilites, we decided to try Cottonwood Cove, which is where we fished the only other time we had gone to Lopez, a few Augusts ago. The problem was that suddenly, a heavy wind came up. I went down there to try it, while Eunice waited in the car to find out if anything was biting. I headed down to the little fishing pier there, only to see a family of 4 (mother, father, grown son and daughter) get there just ahead of me. No problem -- I just fished from the right side of the pier while they fished from the left side. I put on a minicrawler, with one of my eco-weights (non-lead, environmentally friendly), cast out as far as I could at an angle, and crawled the bait along the bottom. After only a few minutes, I felt a sort of heavy thud on my line, so I pulled my pole up, and sure enough, a fish was on the line -- a big fish. After several minutes of excitement, doing my fish-playing dance around both sides of the pier, and under the pier, immersing the end of my pole in the water while the fish made its runs to the other side -- and wondering whether it was a huge Redear, Bluegill, good size Bass, Catfish, or holdover Trout -- the fish came into view. Wait a minute! That wasn't what I was expecting. Why, it's a... What is it? My gosh, it's the biggest, most colorful one I have ever seen, I realized as I pulled my auspicious, prized first fish of the year onto shore. It's a Sucker! One thing I can say is that I really nailed that Sucker. Actually, it was barely hooked in the front of the lip with my tiny size 18 worm hook, but I caught it. I took the fish up to the car to show Eunice, laughing all the way. Since Eunice says she actually likes to eat Suckers, we kept it. She said I was specially blessed and God loves me extra specially. A check of the internet yesterday revealed that this drainage has Sacramento Suckers, so that is what I presume this fish was. It must have weighed over 2 pounds, perhaps closer to 3.

After that, I caught one frisky, 10 inch Largemouth Bass along the shoreline nearby, which I promptly released. Eunice came down and tried fishing, but was unable to catch any. In fact, I was the only person to catch any fish as far as I could see, out of perhaps 25 fisherpeople. We fished until about 4 p.m., then finally gave up. We did reel in a couple of lines which looked like the minicrawlers had been bit, but we had detected no bites at the time. One really cool thing we saw was a gathering of Raptors of some kind (as in Hawks or Eagles, not rappers). At first, we saw 5 of them, but other ones kept flying in from the east, until there were 11 of them circling over the woods near the lake. I have no idea what they were doing. The only other time I saw a gathering of Raptors such as that was many years ago, above the Owens Valley.

Next, we headed for Santa Barbara. We arrived there around 6 p.m. or so, and decided to eat dinner there at one of the restaurants by the harbor. By the time we were finished, it was almost 8 p.m. Nonetheless, Eunice wanted to go fishing, while I was thinking about how late it would be by the time we got home. We had fished this spot last year, the same time of year, and had pretty good luck with small fish on our poles, and a couple of large Red Rock Crabs in the hoop net. As it turned out, fishing was good, but the Crabs were a no show. Eunice had the touch with the Grass Rockfish, catching 3 of these critters, keeping 2 and releasing one. Meanwhile, I caught 2 Jack Mackerel and a relatively large Lizardfish, nothing to get excited about but lots of bites. All but the first Rockfish were caught on squid, once again. The only fish we caught on mussel the entire trip was Eunice's first Rockfish that night (and her first fish of the year). Eunice really likes that spot, which is on some public, "working docks" in the harbor, so much so that I practically had to drag her away from there.

I do find it rather peculiar that all the Rockfish we caught, plus the ones the Morro Bay local caught, all appeared to be Grass Rockfish, since there are many Rockfish species which inhabit the area. Without Grass Rockfish (if my species identification is correct), we wouldn't have caught much. Thank God for Grass Rockfish -- and Sacramento Suckers.

We finally left around 9:30 p.m. and made the long, night drive home. We got home at 12:12 in the morning. Eunice said it was an auspicious number. I just thought it was a late number, which in part accounts for the lateness of this report. Well, that is what we did on our winter vacation. Tonight, it's back to school, teaching, that is. All in all, it was a really good trip -- a beautiful, romantic get away with my wife -- and we did bring home a good number of fish on ice (including 8 Grass Rockfish), largely compliments of our new friend from Morro Bay.

[Troutman65]

Great read. Thanks for taking the time to share your Winter vacation with FNN.


I have seen that Huell Howser show many times. The Ranger put the clams for Huell to catch for the camera. While you were at Pismo Beach you get any of the clam chowder ? Its really good. Check it out next time when your up that way .

[diamondbear]

REALLY GOOD POST , You must of been tired of all the typing ,ha but the pics look like you had fun , thanks .

[steelhead]

Always enjoy reading your detailed report Lefty, almost feel like i was there. You two are hardcore fisherman. I will have to take a trip up there for fishing when it gets warmer.

[Mondo21]

Nice pics of you and Eunice. One day I'll find a fishing partner and be like you and Eunice. Good stories. Thanks for sharing. Cindy

[Natural Lefty]

Troutman65, that is what I concluded about that Huell Howser show too. I think I said so in the report. I did not have any clam chowder. We only went to Jack in the Box, and some restaurant at Santa Barbara Harbor where I ordered Calimari.

Diamondbear, yes, it was a lot of writing. That is why I did it in the morning after a good night's rest.

Steelhead, it is remarkable how well Eunice puts up with me. We have so many similarities in our attitudes and habits; I think that is why we are so compatible. Plus, did I mention that she is a wee bit eccentric?

Cindy, I suppose that would make you a girl. I see no reason why you couldn't find a compatible fisherguy. Good Luck, and hope you "catch" one.

By the way, my favorite part of the trip was catching that big Sucker just as I started my 2010 fishing adventures. It seemed like some sort of humorous cosmic message.

[Ambassadorhawg]

Yup, I can see clearly that the fish in one of the pics is a Grass Rockfish. I've been fishing Morro Bay/Avila for years. Next time you go up there, fish in the rocks next to Morro Rock. There's alot more fish and variety to catch there. Besides Grassies, you'll commonly catch Kelp & Copper rockfish along with Cabezon and Monkeyface Eels from within the rock crevices in Morro bay to mention a few.

As far as Avila/Port San Luis, never had much luck on PSL pier but on Avila Pier, I've caught Halibut, Brown Rockfish, Mackerel, Salmon, Big Skates, Spiny Dogfish, Bat Rays and the list goes on and on.

Thanks for the report, makes me feel like I am up there! I recognized the background of your pics... fun!!!

[Natural Lefty]

Ambassadorhwg, those are some excellent suggestions. I thought of fishing by Morro Rock, but we didn't get around to it. Do you mean the rocks placed near the Morro Rock road, or some natural formation, or both?

For some reason, the descriptions I have seen of fishing at Avila Pier seem more ho-hum than Port San Luis, but I have driven by Avila Pier twice in order to go to Port San Luis Pier, only to be dissapointed. Next time, I think I will go to Avila Pier instead. I suspect it actually has better fishing as you say.

It's strange that the only fish biting in Morro Bay where we were fishing seemed to be the Grass Rockfish. Perhaps it had something to do with the low tide and the time of year. The rockfish Eunice caught in Santa Barbara were also Grass Rockfish. It was our goal to catch rockfish, though, so we were happy, and became familiar with at least one species of rockfish (in addition to Socal's "Sculpin" -- California Scorpionfish).

By the way, somehow there is another copy of this post, which is totally unintentional. I tried to delete it but could not find a delete button. If anyone knows how to delete a post, I would appreciate it if yoiu would tell me how.

[smokehound]

Awesome post, that rockfish is a FATTY.


Suckers are badass fighters, man. I used to catch flannelmouths in arizona, those things get HUGE. In lakes, the fight is so-so. But if you hook one in a river, its gonna kick your arse!


Good to hear you two had a nice time!

[Natural Lefty]

Smokehound, I thought I had something really "good," you know, when I hooked that sucker. And I did -- my personal best sucker, and a good laugh.