DATE: 19 Mar 2009, 10:20 pm / MOOD: Disapointed

Fished the Santa Cruz pier over the weekend... and I got nothing, nada, zilch!!!

I don't get to go fishing in the ocean at Santa Cruz that often, but normally the fishing is pretty good. I have never been skunked there before. I actually didn't see a single person catch a single thing the entire time I was there. I tried both squid and mackerel. I was hoping that some big fish would test my Penn Senator Reel and Penn Senator Fishing Rod but it was not to be today.

On a complete side note, but I thought that it was interesting nonetheless, I did a little hiking in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos and I saw a big alligator lizard, a large beautiful ensatina salamander with a bright orange belly and lots of slender salamanders. Pretty cool!

By the way I am moving to Los Angeles soon which is a few hours south of Santa Cruz. So I will be able to fish the pier more frequently, which is great. I found some great Los Angeles Office Movers. Melrose Moving is one of the best moving companies Los Angeles. If you are moving to Los Angeles be sure to check them out. Their phone number is 1-800-431-3920. Call them for a moving quote today.



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DATE: 28 Jan 2009, 6:50 pm / MOOD: Other

I fished the Isleta lakes just south of Albuquerque for the first time over the weekend. It was pretty expensive I thought (like $50 for two anglers and two people who were just watching), but other than that it was okay. Pretty crowded, but still fun. Definitely not the best fishing that New Mexico has to offer but still pretty fun.

There were lots of dead catfish that were floating or washed up near the shore. Does anyone have any idea what could have caused this?

As for the fishing, we had good luck with rooster tail and panther martin spinning lures, available online at Bass Pro Shops. I tried to fish a wooly bugger on fly rod for a while as well with no luck. I weighed the biggest trout on my Norcross Marine Sonic Laser Digital Fishing Scale XP and it weighed a little more than three pounds. I will be looking forward to fishing the ocean in Santa Cruz in a few weeks.

By the way, if you are moving to the Los Angeles, California area than I would check out these Los Angeles Local Movers. They are a great company that I have had success with. So if you're looking for moving companies Los Angeles check them out. Call them toll free at 1-800-431-3920.

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DATE: 18 Jan 2009, 1:33 am / MOOD: Other

Have you ever wondered why FishingRecreation.com displays the current moon phase directly on the homepage? Many anglers have a vague idea that the moon cycle might have some impact on fishing, but few know exactly how or why.

Moon cycle makes a difference! You will likely catch more and bigger fish during the full and new moon.

Here is a good article that I found that goes a bit more in depth about this:

Article



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DATE: 28 Nov 2007, 10:07 am / MOOD: Full of life

Grouper bite has been good... moon cycle might have something to do with it. I don't guess it is going to get cold this winter. I can't complain I suppose. Is nobody else fishing?

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DATE: 01 Jul 2007, 7:35 am / MOOD: Happy

Headed out to the Skyway around 4am on 06/29/2007, Stephanie and I loaded up on fishing bait and patiently awaited the tide change. Right at sun up the tide starts to pull in, and the bite turned on. We landed 5 grouper and missed a couple nice ones. The picture posted of the grouper I am holding was 23" I almost threw her back because I thought she was about 20" but when I measured she was exactly 23". She was a lot smaller than the ones I have been catching. I lost a 25" plus gag on top of the water and caught numerous 20 inchers.

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DATE: 14 Jun 2007, 4:43 pm / MOOD: Happy

Uncle James and I met up at the south pier around 3pm and caught about 40 pinfish. We then hit up a few of our favorite markers. I landed a 23" fish not long after sending the bait down. The tide switched so we moved over to another great spot and I land another grouper measuring at exactly 22". We went shark fishing for a while but no takers. we then decide to move and I popped a 17 incher at around 12am. Uncle James caught 3 more keepers at sunrise, the largest being 25". Overall we took 5 keepers that night and morning. I headed back out the next afternoon and caught 5 more grouper all being undersized. The largest fish was 20".

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DATE: 14 Jun 2007, 4:38 pm / MOOD: Happy

Many fish caught, arrived at the south pier around 5:00 to prepare and catch bait from grouper and snook. I went to a few of my favorite markers and got nothing, we then moved to another marker and I caught a 17" grouper and a 60 lb goliath that I weighed on my Norcross Marine Sonic Laser Digital Fishing Scale. Pictures can be found in the fishing gallery. We finish up grouper fishing and headed to my snook hole. We landed 4 snook and then decided to go snapper fishing. Jeff and I caught our limit of snapper. I called it a night.

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DATE: 30 May 2007, 12:31 am / MOOD: Full of life

So Stephanie and I arrive at the south pier around 6pm and meet up with Jason Shawn and Bill, Jason and Shawn soon left after we arrived, they had been there early and caught a couple snapper. I meet with Bill at the end of the pier and we catch a few pin fish, we stop at a grouper marker and fish for about 10 minutes. Has anyone ever caught a 400lb grey grouper? They swim pretty fast. After we feed our fishing baits to the dolphins we move to the shallows were we anticipated some fun night fishing. Tarpon and cobia was what we were fishing for. I slowly let back my JUMBO shrimp and soon get a big thump, I hear quite a few guys tell me that the Shimano Torium 30 won't have enough torque for grouper and the gear ratio is too high.

Well we landed a 70lb plus goliath on the torium and it handled it pretty well. Is that a big enough grouper to prove itself? Well I get the fish to the surface at first thinking it was a tarpon and was wondering why it hadn't jumped. I was pretty tired so Bill helped escort the fish to the rocks were he also fought the fish. Thanks Bill! We both get in the water for a few fishing pictures, Bill revives the fish and sends him on his way. Stephanie has to work early so we called it a night shortly after. I will be back tomorrow to beach another poon. Until next time. Goodnight!

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DATE: 30 May 2007, 12:20 am / MOOD: Full of life

Ok, so my report is a little late from last week, I do apologize Stephanie and I arrived at the North pier around 5pm, we started fishing for what would be shark bait. I drifted away to go fishing for pompano and got one hook up with a nice pomp but not long after he got away. Jason and Shawn soon arrived; the sun was starting to descend. The ladyfish bite really turned on and between Jason and I, we probably caught 60 plus ladyfish. So we get the largest shrimp we can find and we are waiting for complete darkness to site cast to the silver king. Pucky arrives at around 8:00 and ready to fish. Jason sends out a lady on the 12/0, we had no larger baits so we had to do what we had to do. Pucky balloons his bait and so do I. The 12/0 starts to rip, Jason then runs to the rod and waits; there was an eerie silence that filled the air. All of a sudden the rod starts to rip again and Jason sets the hook to what seem like a beast.

 

Well he was a beast but a 3 foot beast  (No hard feeling sleepy) I had my heart set on landing a tarpon that evening. So I get the Penn Senator Rod ready, 100lb fluorocarbon leader on my Penn Senator Reel and set out on a mission. I reach in the bait bucket to get the largest shrimp I can find. I get to my tarpon wonderland and all I could see were hungry feeding tarpon. I fling the shrimp 10 yards in front of the first one I see sitting perpendicular to the bridge and as the shrimp passes BAM! He nails it fish on, one jump and he spits the hook. The adrenaline is flowing like you wouldn't believe, I run and get the next largest shrimp and send him on his way, the tarpon inhales him but I prematurely set the hook and he got the shrimp. Third one is always a charm, I see the largest tarpon of the night and didn't think I would hook up as I told Pucky "watch me hook this one" I get the thump and yell "Fish on" the battle rages on, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, under the bridge jumps and more jumps, 20 minutes pass, as I think the fish is subdued he makes one more run to the pylon, I lock it down and pull him out.

  

I then drag him to the rocks were I got photos and properly dehooked and revived the fish. He swam off into the dark cloudy water. Jason and Shawn finally call it a night and me and pucky were grouper hungry. So we load up and go down the way to catch some pin fish for the infamous grouper, we catch a couple dozen and head to the south pier to one of our honey holes. Marker number ###3, you thought I was going to tell you huh? Well we fish at this marker for about 20 minutes and Pucky gets rocked. I get a hit and then I am rocked. I let out a little line and the grouper is free, I start reeling like a mad man, probably looked pretty amateurish from a distance but I had to do what I had to do to get him out of the rocks. Apparently the grouper was attached to someone's power pro that they had cut because they were to week to break it. I finally can see my grouper surface at about 20 yards. Every time I would pull the fish would come out of the water. So I gave it a few good yanks and the braid cut through my monofilament line. That was pretty much the trip in a nutshell.

 

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DATE: 04 May 2007, 8:15 am / MOOD: Happy

I arrived at the Skyway around noon on Wednesday, first to get there. Pucky quickly arrived shortly after. I threw the net and got a bunch of small greenbacks. We then moved and tried to sabiki up some pinfish with no luck, the local guys are selling off all of the pinfish, and they are almost non existent it seems. Bill arrives with about 2 dozen pinfish form the north side and we are back in business. The tide is slowly shifting to go out and Lihn and Hoang then arrive with a bucket full of mullet.

I am thinking the conditions, the tide, winds etc... Are perfect for grouper. We then decide to split up and fish different rock piles. Lihn, Hoang and I get to our rock pile and within 10 minutes Hoang gets a hookup but it breaks him off.40 minutes later Hoang is on another fish, this time it just gets off. Something takes off with my mullet just to kill it and leave a bunch of holes in him ;) Mackerel were eating squirrel fish and pinfish, very weird. Overall it was a great day but no keepers for me.

 

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