Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California

[regulator70]

I've always wanted to fish the pacific ocean, and i finally got the chance yesterday. I drive truck cross country, so i always keep a rod with me. I was so pumped about fishing the pacific ocean, even though i was warned not to get my hopes up if fishing from shore around Los Angeles. I was told that the water was really dirty and you had to go out deep to catch fish. Well i fished from the Santa Monica Pier, which is a giant tourist trap and not geared toward the fisher. Talking to the locals they say all the southern Cali piers are geared toward the tourist. The main thing i notice was a large sign stating multiple fish not to consume. Then there was a 2nd sign saying don't consume mussels and how to remove the dark portion meat on clams if you consume them. The few fish i saw being caught were small flying smelt. They look like a cross between a spanish sardine and a finger mullet. So all in all my trip was nothing to write home about.

[opiato]

Bummer. Im plannin on an LA trip next year and was lookin forward to playin around on the santa monica pier. Guess I wont bother fishing it now. So theres not really any good places to fish from land near LA?

[linh]

I never fished the pier up in santa monica but did fish bolsa pier once. Caught a halibut but it is pretty much elbow to elbow fishing. Not worth it. Your better off hitting the surf. Check out fishingnetwork.net

[westcoast]

grew up in Cali. there used to be fish at the piers, now just bait and the occasional shark or ray. get on the party boats. even half day trips have live bait. use 12-15 lb test, and get ready to purchase a california fishing license (only negative). you gotta try it just to see how different their style of party boats are

[Ken+]

Don't have to go on piers to fish in SaMo or other places in California...fish from the beach much like you would in Florida.

They have a species called California Corbina is a close relative of the Southern Whiting and Gulf Whiting that you get in Florida. There is a species called Yellowfin Croaker which behaves much like the Atlantic Croaker. There are Barred Surfperch and Walleye Surfperch also right at your feet in the first trough. You can also find California Halibut which is a relative of the Gulf Flounder and they can be found in the surf zone. As for surf big game, you can catch Shovelnose Guitarfish and Bat Ray (up to 100+lb) from the surf using squid or mackerel.

Yeah...I fished the piers before and they're just a tourist rip-off...I won't be doing that again next time I'm in California.

BTW, the baitfish you saw I think are Topsmelt. They are good bait for halibut.

From land near LA, you have beaches in Marina del Rey, Santa Monica, Huntington / Long Beach, and down toward Newport Beach. Newport area also have Newport Bay where you could catch Spotted Bay Bass, Barred Sand Bass, Calico Bass, Halibut, Corbina, Yellowfin Croaker, Bat Ray, Shovelnose Guitarfish...and very rarely even White Seabass.

[regulator70]

I had a few slow freight days on the truck, so i took off to go fish the pacific again. they have light rail in socal which make sit great to get from the Inland Empire down to L.A. I caught the train down to union station where i got another train toward San Diego. The cool thing about the train is that it rides on the coast line, so close that the only thing that divides the beach and railroad are bolders to stop the tracks from being washed out.My fishing destination was San Clemente pier which is in San Clemente, Ca. it reminds you of Palm Beach, not W. Palm Beach. The cool thing is the train station is in front of the pier, so all you do is cross the track and you're on the walk/bike path and pier entrance. I keep and light action rod spooled with 20lbs proline and a tackle bag that needs to be stocked. I tossed out a few goofy jigs to see what action i would get, the answer was none. I tossed gotcha plugs, and nothing. I tossesd spoons and nothing, so i went to dead anchovies and i started landing kelp bass and to end it off a 5 foot guitar shark gave me a 40 min. fight. So in the end it was a good day and the pacific finally produced for me on the 3rd try.

[westcoast]

please tell me you have pics to post!

[linh]

For bait I use to go down to the marinas the day before I would fish and get mussel. Just go down there during high tide and grab them off the pilings.

[regulator70]

please tell me you have pics to post!

sorry know pics. i have a new smart phone and i havent mastered the camera on it yet.

[regulator70]

I hit the bass pro shop out here and picked up a few new jigs i havent seen back east. I hope to try them out when i get back.

[Ken+]

If you are catching kelp bass on dead 'chovies, you are out too far to be working the goofy jigs, unless you are after spotfin croaker. From what I gathered on here, goofy jigs are meant to imitate sand fleas (or sand crabs on the left coast). It's best to fish them right tight to the surf zone. The fish are not that far off the beach. A lot of times they are within 20-30 yards from dry sand...and very often they are within 20 feet from the hard pack.

There was one day I was fishing for corbina on the beach in ankle deep water and there were a couple of corbina that were BEHIND me. They come up on the incoming waves to feed on the sand fleas. Apparently this is very common occurrence. We were sightfishing corbina in 8" of water on the flat stretches of beach where the corbina would come up from the first trench to cruise the flats and feed on sand fleas the the base of the shore pound.

Similarly, other species such as barred surfperch, yellowfin croaker and spotfin croaker can be right up on the beach in shallow water. The bigger predators like California Halibut (most likely target to hit your spoons), shovelnose guitarfish, bat ray and leopard sharks are usually sitting in the first and second trench preying on these unsuspecting smaller fish.

I'm not just making this stuff up, you know.

http://boatlessfishing.com/forum/viewto ... 59&t=29736

http://boatlessfishing.com/forum/viewto ... 59&t=29737

[regulator70]

thanks for that info. i'll take that approach the next time that im out there. i plan to get on a boat when i take time off in december out in san diego.

[Ken+]

thanks for that info. i'll take that approach the next time that im out there. i plan to get on a boat when i take time off in december out in san diego.

If you are taking a boat, may I suggest that you visit Oxnard and take a boat from Channel Island Sportfishing?

Winter time is prime time for rockfish and lingcod fishing in the Channel Islands. 3/4 day or full day trips will be much better than 1/2 day boats (due to the distance to the islands). Party boat fishing from San Diego's landings in December is very, very slow. It may be okay going to the Coronado Islands fishing for rockfish (and you would at least require a 3/4 day or full day boat...overnight is even better)...but nothing close to what you would experience at Channel Islands.

There is a train to Oxnard...but you may be better off either getting to Oxnard in the early afternoon to hop on an overnight boat, or stay there one night for a 3/4 day or full day boat. If it was me, I'd do the overnight boat...since you may about the same cost in total for your boat trip + overnight motel/hotel...but the overnight boat gives you much more fishing time.

Here, visit www.scsurffishing.com and ask the guys on the board. Great forum with a lot of very nice and knowledgeable anglers. They'll help you with the pier and surf fishing too.