Trout Fishing in Long Beach Harbor

[Ornery Bob]

I’ve been a trout fisherman all my life, but I recently moved to Long Beach and I wanted to see if I could have some fun with the gear I already own, so I decided to see what I could find.
Obviously, I wasn’t going to be looking for trout, but I figured small bass might be fun on ultralight gear…. turns out I was right!

Long Beach harbor is ginormous, but easy access to the water is limited, so I had to find somewhere with parking (always a problem anywhere in Long beach) and easy access to fishable waters. And I wanted to do it for free or as close to free as possible (limited budget).

So I bought a couple of 2” anchovy looking swimbaits with 3/16 oz jig heads and off I went with a trout pole and 6 lb test Spiderwire Ultracast braided line. I tie the swimbait directly to the end of the line with a palomar knot.

The place I found is called Shoreline Village and there is metered parking along Shoreline Drive, but they don’t start enforcing the parking regulations until 9:00 am and so far I’ve been going early in the morning around 5:00 am so I can get 3-4 hours of fishing in for free.

Google Earth

There are mostly private docks here, and even if the gates are open, it is trespassing to go there, so I make sure that I stay on the public docks. There is one along the back wall of the marina and one on the ocean side of Parker’s Lighthouse restaurant, and there are three “piers” (actually built for fishing and not boats) along that portion of the breakwater.

I stay on the docks as the piers are usually full with people doing bait fishing with regular saltwater gear.

My usual technique is to cast out as far as I can and let the bait sink to the bottom and then I retrieve a few feet of line, let it sink again and repeat the process of bumping the bait along the bottom. So far I’ve been catching small sand and kelp bass, yellow fin croaker and a few sculpin. The croaker are good fighters and definitely manage to take line and give a decent fight.

Below is a bad picture of a recent catch showing the relative size of the fish and my gear. If that was a trout taken from a stream, it would be a respectable fish.

Not too long after I caught the croaker, something big and fast grabbed my bait and took off for deep water. It managed to get half my spool before it broke off, so bigger fish are definitely in the shallow waters.

Anyway, I thought you might like to know that “trout” fishing is happening in Long Beach. The fish may not be "keeper" size, the fun is big on light tackle!

[SP Dan]

Hi ya Ornery Bob,

An excellent re-purpose of your lite trout gear Sir.
I use 4lb - 10 lb Bass rods w/ 8 lb mono line inside the harbors and I've only been broken-off "once" due to a large ray encounter.

YFC ... gives one of the best fights per inch, definitely a fun fish to hook into to!!

Same ol' tricks ... just a different fish.

PS ..... FYI ... there are monstrous fish in the skinny (6" -12" suds)!!

Thanx for the fish report w/ pic,

SP Dan <"))><

[Theos]

Nice report with details, thats refreshing since so many here go to great lengths to protect "their" so called spots.

[TUNAVIC]

Very cool,I've been doing that lately myself,a little south of you though,the other end of Long Beach,you're right,if you just want to enjoy the water,sun,a little excersize it's pretty cool,and you never know what you may catch,I've seen schools of Boni's so far back in some marinas it's hard to believe,enjoy!

Cya Tuna Vic