Venice Fishing Pier

Date: October 4, 2003; To: PFIC Message Board; From: gordo grande; Subject: Danny the Dinosaur scores!

OK, so I took my friend Tom S.II, and his son, Tom S. III fishing at Venice Pier. It was the little guy’s first fishing experience. He’s four, and his little sister is 2. I met the whole family at the pier around 9:15, and we fished until around noon. Amazingly, the little tykes never lost interest or got bored.

We got there, and it was major red tide, at least halfway out the pier. I set up anyway. First I tied a Sabiki on to the Sunny Bear reel, (8-lb line, yellow plastic spincast reel, decals peeled off as my younger daughter outgrew them, #8 hooks on the Sabiki). Unfortunately, I soon found out that ol’ Sunny Bear only had about 10′ of line on it!

Fortunately, we still had trusty ol’ Danny the Dinosaur waiting in the wings. (Same as above, only it’s purple, and still had the Dinosaur decals). Fortunately, Danny the Dinosaur had just enough line to make it down to the water and a few feet under the surface.

Tom and son

Lo and behold, it didn’t take long, and little Tommy connected with his first fish ever… a 4″ smelt. Tommy was extremely happy, even though we forgot to warn him that the fish sometimes die. He wasn’t too happy about that part. He got over it though, and the last I saw, he was walking back to the minivan with Mr. smelt snugly bouncing in a little Ziploc bag.

Oh yeah, I caught two more smelt, one about 12″, and one about 6″.

Date: November 17, 2004; To: PFIC Message Board; From: h2o; Subject: Venice Pier 11-15-04

I took a bike stroll on the stretch of beach on Saturday afternoon. Stopped by almost all the piers along the way. Didn’t see anyone catch anything worthwhile, beside Venice Pier. There were lots of bonitos, mackerel and sardines in everyone’s buckets and bags. The pier was packed with fishermen!

I haven’t caught a bonito from a pier before, so I decided to give Monday morning a try. This way, I wasn’t elbow to elbow with everyone and have some quite time to myself. Got to the pier at 5:30am Monday morning and found the gate closed. I had to wait to 6am for the parking lot to open. It only cost 3 bucks to park? I was amazed! This is 2004 right? I haven’t paid $3 for parking in quite awhile.

It was a pretty chilly morning and made my way to the end of the pier. I stopped near the end where all the sardines and smelt were schooling and tried to make some bait. I brought two buckets, one with an aerator built in and one plain Home Depot one. I tied a rope to the home depot bucket, but found out the rope was too short. I didn’t know what to do next so I filled the aerator bucket from the fishing cleaning station with water. I was hoping it was saltwater, but it wasn’t. There was big school of bait, but I only managed to catch 2 smelt. On Saturday, everyone was catching the sardines by the bucket full. After more than half an hour of trying I decided to just use the two smelt for the time being. On my first catch I managed to get picked up, but I missed him. I used my second smelt and got picked up again, but missed again. That was it for my bait.

Some other fellow fishermen came and were catching the sardines and landed a few nice size bonitos. I was about to give up on the bait approach and just use some lures when a very nice person named Harold joined me. He gave some advice on how to catch the sardines. He told me to not use bait (I was using small pieces of squid with my Sabiki) and jig my Sabiki up and down and what you know, I have sardines!

I let Harold use my bait rod and he caught us bait in a matter of minutes. I offered to let him use of my aerator bucket in exchange. On my first fly-lined sardine, I managed a nice size bonito. After that I was landing the bonito like a pro. I definitely had the hot stick. I landed me double digits in just 3 hours of fishing. I could even see my bait being attacked and desperately trying to evade the little tunas. Harold and I managed a limit of bonito. He only caught one because he was too busy making bait. The bit shut off at around 10am and that is when I decided to call it quits.

Had a great time out there. I still would have enjoyed it even if I didn’t catch anything. Met some nice people and got to pull on some fish. It was a beautiful day. Rod Used: Shimano Calcutta Conquest 400 w/ 12lb test and a 9′ Calcutta rod, Shimano Stella AR2000 w/ 6lb test and a 7’6 Fenwick rod.

Bonito

Date: July 18, 2005; To: PFIC Message Board; From: grammar police; Subject: 7/17 Venice Pier

The Long: After a long night of booze, dancing, family fun and only 3 hours of sleep, my brother and I headed out to Venice Pier. Picked up some Lug Worms, Squid (for the Rays), and frozen ‘chovies and set up shop by 7am. Was a slow day, the first 3 hours only things caught were small jigged up fish (White Perch, Smelt, Herring, Mackerel). Bait-tipped Sabikis worked OK, and most herring (Queenfish) seemed to be snagged vs. taking the bait. All too large IMO for live bait.

Later we moved from the end of the pier to the surf area/base of the pier. Must have been a nice sand bar built up near the pier. It was no more than 5′ in most spots and this is past the first roller. At the foot of the pier, this old gentleman and what looked like his handicapped grandson, maybe son were nailing the yellowfin croakers and corbina while trying to hook a surfer. Speaking of the surfers, I was yelled at for casting next to them with the Abu C3. I was launching 2-oz like a pro and getting awfully close to them. But in turn, the other side of the pier, surfers were asking us to pull our line in so they could come within 25′ of the pier to catch a wave. I bit my tongue and ignored them. Even though my brother was taunting me itching for a fight… Back to fishing. We caught two corbina (~12”) and one croaker (~11”) that we gave to the couple on the opposite rail.

It was funny the handicapped kid (maybe young adult) was having such a blast. His fishing mojo was really with him. He couldn’t keep either of his three poles in the water. Bait, cast, fish on… His eyes lit up every time he’d start to reel. Grandpa sat close by and supervised him and gave a few pointers. I saw him land a 6” “dinner fish” as he would call them coming over the rail!

A little later a Hispanic lady was creeped out by the baby bat ray on her line. After getting the ~12” WS ray over the rail and hook removed, she started asking if anyone wanted it. I informed her they are live born with about 12” wingspan and he was probably a newborn yielding almost no meat. She asked if I would throw it back for her. Pay-it-forward if you will, I gave a quick class on proper handling (lipping) of bat rays and let her hold it for a quick photo op. After a gentleman passing by gave it a shot, I smiled at the baby and returned him to his home.

Then overcast skies burnt off around 11:30 and by noon we called it quits. I still had to drive an hour to see grandma and pick up rods, then drive home to the Bay area.

The Short: 2 rods: —7′ Rainshadow GDude special Abu c3 laced with 20# mono rigged with surf leader (hi/lo) #6 bait holder hooks with lug worms. – 10′ Sealine Okuma CD90 30# mono with hi/lo and mixed bait ‘chovie and lug worms. Overcast skies, warm air temperature with no red tide in sight. Fished from 7am-noon: (‘Chovies, squid, lug worms (Look like pile worms from our area)) Chris — 1 Big Eye perch, 1 Corbina, 1 Smelt; Me — 2 Herring, 2 YF Croaker, 1 Smelt, 1 (Unknown) Perch — Joey3

Date: December 21, 2005; To: PFIC Message Board; From: gordo grande; Subject: Part of Venice Pier is gone

You can’t pee in the bathroom at the end of Venice Pier anymore. It’s gone! Our chopper at Channel 7 was flying overhead, and there is no trace of what used to be the bathrooms…. just an empty space where they used to be. I’m sure the pier is going to be closed for sometime while they check it for structural damage. Sadly, the pier has only been open for three or four years. Prior to that, I think it was closed for over a decade. Half of the beach north of the pier seems to be gone too… I bet there are going to be a lot more holes and troughs. Up until now I considered Venice to be one of the flatter beaches around… not anymore.

Date: May 25, 2006; To: PFIC Message Board; From: gordo grande; Subject: VENICE PIER IS OPEN!

VENICE PIER REOPENED TONIGHT! Watch the 6pm News on Channel 7. It’s scheduled to be our last story.

Date: June 4, 2006; To: PFIC Message Board; From: toejamb; Subject: Venice Pier

With Hermosa being closed ’til the 12th, I took a little detour out to Venice Pier. I haven’t fished this particular pier for darn near 8 years and it took me a little while to get properly situated and get started in earnest. Made bait pretty quickly, (queenfish, smelt and 7-11s) and got to work. The 7-11s and smelt went untouched, but once I switched over to the queenfish, I saw some action. I had 3 halibut, all shorts, in the span of about an hour and a half. No exact measurements, just wanted to get the critters back in to the water as quickly as possible, although by eyeballing it, I’d say the biggest of the 3 was close to 20 inches. That was pretty much it for me. As for the rest of the pier, I saw the usual mackerel, big smelt, perch etc. “Mr. Happy” was at the pier as well and he landed a 6′ thresher and several shovelnose. It was a nice little excursion to a pier I don’t usually fish, but if you’ll pardon the expression, “there’s no place like Hermosa.”

Date: September 1, 2006; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Mahigeer; Subject: Stop the world, Mahigeer has caught BONITOS

Short version: caught three (3) 12-14” BONITO. The curse is over.

Long version; Went to the Venice Pier tonight around 6:30PM. As soon as I got there, someone was bringing up a 12” Bonito. I hurried to get setup. I had a homemade Sabiki with yellow and green feathers. Wouldn‘t you know it the darn think was all tangled up. It’s like some of those anxiety dreams I have had in the past. So finally I get it halfway fixed and toss it in the drink. A few casts later and every angler’s delight move happens. The line has its own life. It goes left, it goes right. The shimmering belly of the catch which is now swimming sideways makes you smile with joy. I landed the fish and ladies and gentleman it is a BONITO. Yuppie ya yey. The curse is over; the monkey is off the back, no more “Bonita Blues” for me, etc. etc. etc.

Life is good. I have the right rig, the fish is cooperating; all I need to make it better is to have some Pier Rats to share the moment with. But noooooooooo, few casts later and the homemade Sabiki gets stuck. Is it a lot of fish or some obstacle? I will never know. As I pull on the line, snap, the line breaks. There goes the homemade rig.

Next I tie a Blue Fox in Mackerel color (the one on which I landed many Macs. in Redondo after the Contractors show a while back) to a golf ball rig. I got some flashes but noting stuck. Then I switched to a green short Mega Bait. That one landed me two (2) more nice Bonies. I probably would have caught more but I think in order to make splash I was probably retrieving too fast. I would cast out far but most of the action seemed to be close to the pier. The fish would turn and go belly up and turn but it would miss the lure.

There is no comparison between excitement of lure fishing, and actually seeing your lure being chased by a predator; and the boredom of bait chucking and waiting for the fish to commit suicide. So tomorrow, I will be having BBQ Bonito for lunch and will raise a few in honor of the prey who gave its life to provide joy to this old Mahigeer (Angler in Farsi). Happy Labor Day everyone.

Date: July 24, 2007; To: PFIC Message Board; From: Mahigeer; Subject: Venice Pier

Went to the Venice pier tonight for three hours. Top of the high tide, but still a slow bite. Not much being pulled with the exception of one giant sea bass, which was properly released. One horn shark was also pulled up. There was a family where the father was new to hoop netting but he had great luck. He pulled up one 3-lb bug plus several spider crabs… For me the count was one queenfish with the Buzz Bomb and one lizardfish with the bait. That’s all folks.

Potpourri— Perhaps more than you want to know about the Venice Pier

<*}}}}}}}}}>< —  I received an interesting e-mail message one day from famed fishing writer Steve Carson. The note was in response to a discussion on the Pier Fishing In California message board concerning favorite bands of the members.