Second time out.
 

Today was my second time out. And boy, i'm sore. I fished HH for nothing, nada, zip. The guys at OXE hooked me up with a FF(Lowrance mark-4), but i'm hard a pretty hard time decoding what its telling me. I used Big hammer 3inch swimbaits as my bait. What can i be doing to get on the fish?

Thanks guys

Keep fishing;)

Use scent on your swim baits, try different colors.

Rockfish season opens very soon. Send down frozen squid and anchovies were the lobster buoys are and you will catch fish.

At HH you should try fishing the jetties at the opening of the harbor, I tried it once with strips of squid and got a fat sand bass within like 30 seconds. Just called it a day after that since we were heading in from a 5 hour boat trip. Anyways its worth a shot.

Keep fishing x2 and find people to fish with that are more experienced and are wiling to give on the water advice. I'm an ok angler at best. When I bring someone new out on the water and share advice it helps the learning curve progress faster.


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Gotta check ur tides incoming & outgoing things p/u.Check out the PCH bridge look4 bait fish jumping.Try berkleys vanish 6 lb test.Next time I gi2 Sunset Aquatic Pk I let U knw

I fished HH yesterday before work and not even a nibble. Rain can really shut it down, water was stained. I use the fish finder to stay on the ledges and edges of the grass. I look for the bait more on the surface than on the meter in the harbor.

Some great advise on here, keep switching colors slow speed, increase speed of bait, add some scents some great ones out there.

Fish with anglers that are more experienced then you at your target species never hurts. I learned more today then I can remember, plus a first for me a skunk but still too home fish. Gracias Team Sewer.

Like Iceman said, rain/storms can make things tough. If it's murky in the harbor and close to shore and you can't get out to clear water, try fishing close to any rocks/jettys. There's always fish hanging out there. Keep on fishing.

Halibut A-la sewer.:D

Not only dd you fish with us but you took our fish one and survived hours upon hours of our tasteless jokes.

Not only tasteless jokes...bs stories...
Your make a wish came true! We Filled your freezer! :eek:

I don't think kayaks and paddle boarders are allowed past the PCH bridge.

All good advice here. Fred Hall Long Beach is coming up soon. The seminars alone are worth the admission.

Thanks everyone for the input! I truly appreciate it. Anyone know anything about the long beach break wall?

Fished the outside wall on Friday. Caught a few nice calicos, most wanted the smaller swimbaits in natural colors. Find the holes in the kelp where you can cast to the wall and let your bait fall down the angle of the wall. Halibut were biting real good drifting between the wall and the lobster bouyes.

Hey incxalx,

I assume that was you with the Pirate Flag that my dog and I passed as we were headed in. Sorry I was not able to help with the fish finder as I have never owned one and know nothing about them. It's one of those things on my list to think about getting one day.

As Iceman mentioned, the conditions were not the best for catching fish in the HH. I fish here quite a bit. I knew that for the time period I was fishing, the tide was not optimal. We were out for a short 2-1/2 hours without a bite. However, this is what I expected to find and may have fullfilled my own prophecy. We went out more for the sake of paddling around to get some sun, fun and exercise.

Here is a good site to use for checking tides: http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/sites_uswest.html. You can also get nice apps for your phone, I use one called 'US Tides' on the android. Both show a graphical representation of the tides.

You will get different advice on how best to use the tide charts to increase your catch. This advice from experienced anglers will help shorten up your learning curve as Patrick mentions. Be aware of the tidal movement and note when you have the best luck and you will start to develop your own theory. If you log your fishing success, you will start to see the patterns with time of year, weather/temperature, tide, species targeted, etc. Personally, I have found the best luck when the water starts really moving on both sides of a high tide. During the peak, my luck usually tapers off.

The water looked like a cup of black coffee when I launched. For these conditions, I have usually had better luck with a black spinner (as a reminder, I caught no fish on this day!). One theory is that the vibrations and flash from the spinner have a chance at attracting a fish even though the visibility is limited. I have always heard to use dark colors in murky water. This has worked well for me and also in the evenings or early morning. Perhaps it is because I have had luck doing this and have confidence in what I am using through experience. Until I can actually see and sense as a fish, the explanations are all theory. This is why the guys recommend changing colors often. After much more time casting, you will start to find what works best for you in certain conditions.

The same goes for the retrieve, vary it and you will start to see what works best for you. I have fished my entire life and am happy to still have those moments that surprise me when I change up the retrieve due to a different reason. For instance, on more than one occasion, after an accidental overrun of the spool and resultant delay in the retrieve, I have unexpectedly hooked up a halibut. I then started incorporating the long delayed retrieve as one variation. Another time, I was using the same slow typical, bounce the bottom technique with no success, then due to an approaching power boat operator with no regard to my presence, I reeled in as fast as I possibly could and got a violent hit by a sand bass. That made me more conscious to incorporate the ultra fast retrieve variation.

The forum is a great place to pick up ideas on different things to try. For instance, I only started using spinner blades after tips from Iceman and Landwhale. This has worked so well that now I usually set one rod up with a spinner blade and one with a plastic.

I'd be happy to show you the areas I have had best luck in HH, but again, I did catch a skunk yesterday.

Good luck!

I know there allot of guys on here with much more experience than me, but I can reiterate a few things that have been passed on to me.

Tides are the most important thing to watch in my opinion. They can mean the difference between a skunk and a wide open bite. As stated above the best times for me have been the hour before and hour following peak high tide, the bigger the tide swing, the better. Cast up current because most predatory fish ambush prey and position themselves to pounce on bait moving with the current.

I honestly feel like confidence is more important than color. If you know you have caught fish in a specific color you will probably catch again. I always fish my confidence baits first until I get a strike so I can gage what retrieve they are responding to, then I'll start playing with different colors. My go to colors are anything natural. In the bays I really like bay smelt, sexy smelt, Pacific chovie, or keylime. They have worked for me many times and I have faith in their ability to catch fish. Other colors that have worked for me in the past are orange, chartreuse and fire Tiger. Orange I like because Bay fish have keyed in on exposed ghost shrimp and it really seems to get their attention.

Hope this helps

(1)learn from failure.
(2) learn the seasons
(3) its always better then doing nothing.

Make long casts. You will find more fish this way. Not only will you have to make 1/2 as many casts, but your bait could land in structure that may not have happened with a short cast.

Keep fishing dude. Time on the water and experience with fishfinder. There is no substitute.

I am a big believer in this one! So even if the fish are not biting working on your distance and accuracy will make you a better fisherman.