Catch and Release of a juvenile giant sea bass
The Pier Rats Speak
Date: March 29, 1998; To: Ken Jones; From: Robert K; Subject: Goleta/Malibu
Hey Ken, How’s it going? We managed to get out to Goleta on Thursday before the main part of the storm came in. Fishing the shallows was a guy who I used to always see and chat with way back when Malibu was open. He is a dedicated halibut fisherman and he told me that he visited Malibu and fished the shoreline on both sides of the pier and caught three halibut (one keeper) and a couple of perch and croaker. He said that he talked to a couple of guys with poles who said they were on the pier all night (jumped the gate) who caught 15 or so dogfish and smoothhounds and they lost a couple of huge sharks.
Date: January 9, 2001; To: Pier Fishing In California Message Board; From: Sport Barbless; Subject: In Reply to Pelican Solutions posted by captdevo
I was fishing at the pier (when Malibu was open), and an elderly gentleman and his wife were filling this bucket with all the macks they could catch. Here comes this pelican walking by and steps up to the bucket. I watched the whole thing from beginning to end. I did not want to shoo the bird from the bucket. What for? So, I’m watching this cute little bird, huff down “a bunch” of fish. No one is watching this…”act to snack” except me. Not once did anyone look back at the bird or the bucket! Everyone on the pier is fishing away. Not even a tourist walked through. I was ready to pounce on any human who would do harm to the bird. That bird ate so much it just filled itself up and walked away satisfied. Now, here comes the wife with a mack to plop in the bucket. She does this double take, looking in the bucket? Behind the bucket? Looks back in the bucket? Picks the bucket up and looks around again. Calls the old man over, and they start looking all over again. I’m in tears. I’m holding it back, feeling my gut splitting. I’m looking at them and then, turn my head, as soon as they look at the people around them. Who took all their little fishes? I’m holding in any kind of sound that may burst out. Because, here I am, witness to the theft. I said nothing to them at all. I’m an animal lover and it was so much fun to watch the whole thing unravel. If only I had a video camera! Something I hope I see again…when Malibu reopens.
Date: July 15, 2001; To: Ken Jones; From: Don Dube; Subject: Malibu Pier
Well, the long awaited reopening of the Malibu Pier is now a reality. As of Sunday, June 24, 2001—although not completely open (the tackle shop and other building are closed as well as the last approx 80 feet of the pier). I had the pleasure of fishing the pier while on a camping trip at LEO CARILLO State park and while there on Friday July 6, 2001 can give an account of the catch for my duration—eight sand sharks, one 4-ft California grey shark, one calico bass ( threw him back), plenty of corbina, one large lobster—egg heavy. I also threw back many small leopard sharks and a small stingray. It’s good to see the pier open again after such a long closure. I’ve been fishing Malibu Pier for 24 years and now live in the High Desert and look forward to many more years of fishing Malibu Pier.
Headed out to Malibu Pier at 10AM this morning as I was meeting up with Thresher (Frank) and Catfish (Tom) since Tom was in town from Hawaii. I made a stop at the MDR bait receiver and picked up a half scoop of sardines for bait. Made it to the pier and only about half had rolled (I need to make sure I take less bait next time). Frank and Tom are set up and I drop my rigs down with a dine on each. Not much action going on for the first hour.
One of the guys down the pier hooks something nice and is reeling it in. We look over the rail and it looks like a short halibut but we will never know as it spit the hook right at the pier. I decided to start dragging a smelt across the bottom along with Tom. He gets a solid strike and the fight is on!!!! Then the fight is off as it gets off almost as fast. I had rubbing sounds coming from my reel so I decided to take the side plate off after I cast it out. I finally get it cleaned out and start reeling. The line goes tight and wham I’m on. After a short fight we see it’s a hali and it looks like it might just be legal. We finally get the net under it and hoist it up to the pier. After 2 tape checks it comes up 2 inches short so back in it went.
A little while goes by and I look down to the end of the pier and this guy has a bend in his rod and looks like he’s fighting a fish. Since it was slow, Tom, Frank and I head down to watch the fight. As we get closer we can tell this thing has shoulders. It’s taking lots of drag and the guy was having a tough time reeling it in. It would swim towards the corner of the pier and the line would touch the pilings. He would slow it down and get it turned and away from the pilings. This tug of war went on for a while with all the onlookers giving their two cents on what it might be. “Bat Ray maybe? Nah, its not swimming right.” “Leopard? No it really doesn’t have the headshakes of a leopard.” “Big shovelnose? That is possible.” “It must be a huge halibut. Hopefully.” The fight goes back and forth with the angler gaining line and the fish taking it all back. We stood there watching as the line would touch the pilings and the drag would scream, waiting to see if at that fateful moment the mussels would cut the line. I was as nervous as the angler was. Luckily he was using 50-lb braid so it gave him a chance where mono would have been useless.
After 24 minutes of us standing there we see a spot of color, Silver! Then the fish comes fully into view and it was an enormous Black Sea Bass! It was tired and came to the net easily. It took about two people to hoist it to the pier. It was laid down, a few pictures were taken, the hook was removed and we tried to weigh it. The 50-lb spring scale bottomed out before I even had the fish off the pier in the lobster hoop. I would estimate it to be about 75-80lbs easy. Three of us gently eased the hoop over the railing and lowered the fish back to the water. It lay there on its side for a minute or two not looking good.
I was getting ready to take off the shirt and dive in and help resuscitate the fish when with a mighty kick of its tail it righted itself and was gone. It was the largest BSB I have ever seen caught on rod and reel. It was an unbelievable sight. So those of you fishing Malibu Pier, when you hook into something on light mono and can’t stop it you have been warned. There lurks a monster in the pilings. Marcus
Date: June 8, 2008; To: PFIC Message Board;From: riorust; Subject: Malibu Pier 6/8
I had planned on going out on one of the two boats (yes, there are two now) from the Malibu pier. I woke up too late to catch either boat so I decided to fish the pier. The tide was pretty low at 7:15 am and the pier was fairly crowded. A couple of the regulars told me four threshers were landed yesterday, and a 7-footer broke off at the pilings. One of the lifeguards confirmed this later on. The water looked good and the temperature was up. No live bait to speak of for most of the day. I was fishing shrimp and frozen sardines. Other people soaked mussel and squid.
It was pretty dead until early afternoon. I ended up with a thornback ray and a couple of small sculpin, all on sardines…nothing touched the shrimp. Between 1:30 and 3:00 pm the place went nuts with the guys on the end nailing bat rays like crazy. Most were in the 25-40 lbs range, I saw one monster ray that was probably 5 feet across the wings get broken off at the pier (I told you not to tighten the drag!). Another angler fishing 65-lb power pro got totally spooled and almost had his rod yanked out of his hand.
The highlights of the day were the crew at the south corner landing a 5 foot thresher, and the guy that set up next to me and got a 25” halibut on his first cast (on a 1/2 squid). It was great to be out! I can’t wait for Ruby’s to open up at the end of the pier.
Date: July 26, 2008; To: PFIC Message Board; From: riorust; Subject: Malibu 7/26/08- a bit long but fun
Looking for a change of pace I went down to the pier in Malibu yesterday. I arrived at about 7:30 am to find street parking just about all taken up by surfers. Not willing to pay the $14.00 for the lot, I found a spot about 1/3 of a mile south of the pier. Walking out on the pier I could see why all the surfers decided to play, nice sets with some big models rolling through. Great for surfing but probably not too good for fishing. While setting up I noticed this guy [picture of pelican] walking from bucket to bucket looking in each one. Every once and awhile he/she would scarf a smelt if one could be found.
The high surf had stirred up a lot of salad all up and down the pier making the fishing less than productive. Baitfish were scarce and mostly small perch with an occasional smelt in the mix. I brought some squid as well as some frozen, cured sardines just in case.
After a few very slow hours of ebb tide the tide started coming in again, as did a fresh crop of kelp salad. I dropped a half sardine down straight and a few squid strips on the other side of the pier. Got a fat little Yellow fin croaker on the sardine. Action on the pier was pretty much dead all day with the exception of one guy down on the end fishing with big chunks of mackerel he had brought. I watched him hook up and get broken off 3 times, most likely sharks judging by the way they took off when he set the hook. He finally brought a nice sized Bat Ray, which was released.
Now for the “Pier Drama” section of this report. While talking to a fellow pier rat we noticed our rigs on the south side of the pier going nuts. Thinking our efforts might be paying off we ran to the other side of the pier. It turned out to be a highly intelligent couple on a rental kayak tangled in our lines (remember—straight down) while attempting to paddle under the pier, in 5 foot swells. As they got themselves untangled, I took the opportunity to inform them that they should being staying 100 feet away from the pier. The response was being flipped off by the male at the bow and called a jacka$$ by the female at the stern. (I wonder who wears the pants in this household?) Wow…didn’t expect that!!! I bit my tongue and remained silent, but thought of continuing the conversation on the beach. A cooler head prevailed and I was content to keep my day peaceful and continue the conversation with my rail neighbor.
Now for the really cool part…. Remember that five foot swell I mentioned?… Well the delightful couple in the kayak didn’t. My neighbors and I lined the rail as said couple set up for a landing on the north side of the pier (the surf is always bigger north of this pier). Watching them, thinking that they should probably look behind them, they paddled the last few strokes to the sand… just as a good 6-7 foot wave broke and flipped them, washing the couple and the kayak up above the high tide line with the kayak on top of them!! Train Wreck!!!
They got up and seemed to be unhurt (a good thing) but humbled (another good thing), while my rail neighbors and I laughed it up and watched them attempt to remove sand from parts of their bodies that may never have been seen by a doctor. Mother nature served up some Karma salad and shortly thereafter I was rewarded with my second fish of the day a large 20 or so inch jack smelt (I told you the fishing was slow).
Throughout the day I watching more experienced kayakers landing the safe way… coming in backwards, watching the swells, landing safely with 4-6 rods still in rod holders and fish finders still mounted. I have spoken with the rental place and found out, they do give launch and land directions, as well as directions to stay away from the pier. It seems most renters just glaze over it and want to hit the water before it hits them. As Gordo Grande says “Lets be careful out there.”