SoCalSalty – Trip Report: Christmas Week Roundup

Monday, December 23rd

Went surf fishing with my buddy Mike of USA Sportfishing. He took me to a stretch of beach south of the Santa Monica Pier that I’d never been to before. Mike’s done a lot more surf fishing than I have, so I went along for the ride and let him kind of lead the way. On this trip, Mike weened me off the “crack” (Gulp! camo worms). We fished various plastic grubs on the same Carolina Rig setup that I previously described in Surf Fishing 102.

I’d always kind of theorized that these surf fish relied primarily on smell to locate their prey. I thought their use of sight was limited to flash and movement. Boy was I wrong. We started out the day using Smelly Jelly, on our plastic grubs, but before too long didn’t bother with it and continued to get bit. More surprising though, was the fact that getting bit was reliant on the color of the grub. High tide was around noon, and we got there around 11:30. During the primetime from when we got there until about 2, the color of choice was the dark green/orange color matching the Gulp camo worms. As the tide ebbed further, a clear with red flake bit better.

Christmas Day

The kids spent the night Tuesday, and I got to enjoy Christmas morning with them. I returned them to their mom’s at 12:30 and headed to the beach. Monday’s weather was sunny and low 70’s. Wednesday was sunny and well into the 80’s. I LOVE living in SoCal!

I went to the Instant Karma spot north of Dockweiler. Given the experience of Monday’s trip, I didn’t want to regress to using the crack again, so I decided to throw the Lucky Craft Flash Minnow that Graham mentioned in his Surf Fishing 101, as did Nate in his Jetty Fishing Basics guest posts. The Metallic Sardine pattern seems to be the one of choice if you were to buy one. I can never seem to find it, so I bought a similar looking one with bluish sides and a black back (Zebra MS Aurora Black). First throw and BAM! I thought I actually had a small hali based on the fight and how it was coming in, but it turns out it was a big perch that hit the tail of the lure and then got stuck in the side of her head which is why she was coming in sideways. I didn’t get as many hits on the LC, but each one was slab sized. Good to know you can still catch BSP on the Flash Minnow, while having a bait in play that could catch you a halibut. Later on, as the bite died down, I did go back to the crack and caught a couple dinks to end the day.

: 1st LC BSP

: Dink on crack

Thursday, Dec 26th

Facebook friend Glenn Allen Jr. invited me to ride with him on the Pursuit out of 22nd St. Landing. I’ve been wanting to fish with Glenn all year, I’m looking for a new ride to SCI and Cat (see Freedom’s Last Run), and the boat has caught some yellows this month.

Quick and dirty…if the ride was a whale watching/nature trip – wildly successful. Dolphins going in and out, couple gray whales spouting and fluking, a golden eagle and a buffalo spotted on a hillside of Catalina (HUGE!).

Fishing-wise…another story. See highlights below. When we finally quit the morning rockfish spot to move into the kelpline, we metered yellows, but didn’t stop to give it a try. Seriously…not much more to say other than it was good to finally meet Glenn live and his buddies Todd and Jeff. Glenn recently got turned on to a new jetty spot, so we’ll try to reconnect soon to fish it. Always a silver lining. Tight lines!