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By Sean Fenner, August 31, 2009

The California Department of Fish and Game has posted the list of the fishing spots that they will be stocking this week for Region 5-South Coast Region. Remember to practice catch and release as much as possible, pick up trash when you see it, and respect this resource so that everyone can enjoy it!!!

PLEASE NOTE THAT FISH PLANTING MAY BE SUSPENDED BECAUSE OF FOREST CLOSURES DUE TO THE FIRE!!!

(Rainbow Trout)

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By Dan Zambrano, August 27, 2009

Got a call from an old friend last week inviting me, my fishing buddy Sean and anyone else we cared to invite out for a Saturday morning of fishing off of Cabrillo Beach pier.

Now right off the bat, a lot of guys would immediately say thanks but no thanks to such an invite.

Pier fishing in SoCal doesn’t always have the greatest reputation: The fishing can be painfully slow and tedious, the catch isn’t usually safe to eat and many piers are dirty and lacking in amenities.

But Sean and I already fish the L.A. River as well as some other questionable locations so a quarter mile walk down a slippery pier while dodging a gauntlet of hooks and hardware to get to a graffiti covered porta-potti isn’t that big a deal.

Besides, the inviting party just happened to be Larry Fukuhara – Programs Director for the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

For those of you who don’t know it already, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium is one of the oldest and definitely one of the coolest public aquariums in SoCal and has educated several generations of Angelenos about Grunion, Gray Whales, tide pools and more from its humble beginnings as a card table filled with shells next to the lifeguard tower to its current state of the art facility on Cabrillo Beach.

Likewise, for those of you who don’t know Larry, he is a dynamo of creativity, adventure and plain ol’ fun and while he isn’t one of the oldest, he certainly is one of the coolest — and best — saltwater fisherman I know. Over some twenty-five odd years he has, literally, taught me more about saltwater fishing than anyone I’ve ever fished with; so when he asked me if I wanted to participate in one of his “Fishing with Uncle Larry” events, I was only too ready to say yes.

Thus, on the appointed day, Sean and I drove over to Cabrillo pier and made the long walk to the large shade covering at roughly the center of the pier where there were already several tables set up under some large banners, a library’s worth of info and a rack full of a couple dozen pre-rigged poles.

Besides Larry and a couple of Aquarium staff, I was surprised to see an army of enthusiastic volunteers from United Anglers of Southern California.

Turns out, this particular event was being co-sponsored by United Anglers and they were providing gear, manpower, information and a ton of raffle prizes for the kids.

Within seconds of arriving, it was obvious that the primary focus of the event was kids and teaching them to fish.

The next several hours was a blur of cutting bait, untangling bird’s nests, re-rigging terminal tackle, helping kids haul Tom Cod up onto the deck and…having a great time doing it.

Several kids caught their very first fish ever and there was plenty of fanfare and encouragement no matter what the size of the catch. Each kid got a picture to take home, thanks to some innovative technology, and every volunteer worked extra hard to make sure every kid caught something. I really enjoyed the positive attitudes and upbeat spirit that permeated the day.

There were plenty of great moments and smiles that keep things moving along even when the bite slowed down. I had a blast teaching a mom and her six year old how to fish and then later congratulate them on their first catches.

I even got to dust off my training in invert. Zoo. when, during the gross out moment of the day, a rather large fish louse fell from the gill cavity of a white croaker and then started giving birth — think the movie, Alien –right in the middle of a circle of kids. We couldn’t have planned it better.

Anyway, all that to say, it wasn’t flyfishing and it wasn’t a mountain stream but “Uncle Larry” came through again and likely increased the rolls of the fishing fraternity by a couple of dozen this past weekend.

I love this addiction called fishin’.

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By Sean Fenner, August 26, 2009

The California Department of Fish and Game has posted the list of the fishing spots that they will be stocking this week for Region 5-South Coast Region. Remember to practice catch and release as much as possible, pick up trash when you see it, and respect this resource so that everyone can enjoy it!!!

(Rainbow Trout)

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By Sean Fenner, August 20, 2009

This a a photo of a wild Rainbow that I landed on Bear Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains. We drove out about 15 miles on one of bumpiest dirt roads that I have ever driven on in my life. My wife and I got to the spot and followed the trail down to the Creek. We Fished a couple of holes, but did not spot a single fish. So, we decided to walk a little farther down the creek and low and behold the fishing hole of all fishing holes. I looked down off the ledge on the side of the creek and I could not believe my eyes, I saw over 50 Rainbows and Browns in this 6 foot deep pocket. I pulled out about 5-8 fish before they got spooked and unfortunately this one was the smallest, but he is the only fish that would cooperate with my camera. Maybe next time the bigger fish won’t be so camera shy.

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By Sean Fenner, August 19, 2009

The Wilson’s Hula Diver takes me back to the days when I would get out of bed at the crack of dawn, not really having ever went to sleep to be out on the water as the sun came. I would be standing at the bank readily throwing my infamous Heddon Hula Popper, in anticipation of that big bite from the 10 pound Bass that I knew was lurking around the lake. This is the fly version of that popper, and let me tell you it works just about as well. Start catching a few bass of your own on the fly by picking a few up at Orvis today.

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By Dan Zambrano, August 18, 2009

Wikipedia defines Recreation as: “the expenditure of time in a manner designed for therapeutic refreshment of one’s body or mind.”

Presumably, this is why I fish.

After a week (or several) of nose to the grindstone, hittin’ the bricks running, full speed ahead activity necessary to maintain a roof over our heads and food in the larder, the ol’ body and soul simply need a break.

My chosen form of recreation is fishing, usually with a fly rod. However, the older I get and (theoretically) the more experienced I get at my chosen addiction, the more gear and the more technique I acquire such that a quick trip to L.A. River or a local park often ends up resembling a commando raid with highly specialized, mission specific gear, top-secret notebooks of info, and maps marked in an alien code indecipherable to all but me.

Alas, even in leisure, my type-A personality creeps in and organizes a day on the water into a task-oriented blitzkreig.

So it was a real eye-opener yesterday when I had the good fortune to take my seven-year old god-daughter fishing for a couple of hours while her Dad got some well-deserved rest and her mom and “aunts” did the girls afternoon out thing.

I had already opted to use the spinning gear for this little venture and had already rigged one of my back-up poles for some sunfish action when my little fishin’ buddy showed up decked out in protective booney hat, her favorite hiking clothes, old shoes and…a three-foot Barbie pole.

Now, there is no way I would ever intentionally squelch the passion of an aspiring angler or bad mouth her shiny, new gear (so enthusiastically wielded) so I quietly stowed my pre-rigged rods behind the door, made a slight re-arrangement of tackle packs in my bag and formulated a detour in my plans to pick up some bait.

When we arrived at our selected lake, I was happy to note mostly clear water, an abundance of floating algae, only a few anglers and a slight breeze to keep things cool as we fished.

My fishin’ buddy, on the other hand, noticed the dancing ducks, lots of benches for eating snacks, the bridge for walking across the lake to get to the other side quicker and the bubbles (from the aerators) which “probably meant that there was a giant fish sleeping on the bottom”.

As we set up shop along the bank where I knew there were always some sunfish, we happily discussed the need for bait and why it smelt so bad and how we would get the “monster fish” onto the shore if my net wasn’t big enough and whether we would eat the monster fish or let him go. (We decided we would let him go).

I have to admit, I was caught off-guard.

Me – the one who generally hits a lake with military precision, carries minimal gear in carefully balanced and easily accessible packs and rarely talks while fishing. Here I was forced to slow down, engage in meaningful, albeit seven-year-old appropriate, conversation and notice things from a long suppressed point of view.

We admired the color of the bait, speculated on the purpose of red and white on the plastic floats and plotted more strategy on how we would catch the monster fish when it finally woke up.

I had to explain why ducks pick on each other and how they eat without teeth.

We tried to figure out if there was some way to make money from all the algae we had to keep pulling off of our rigs. We day-dreamed about what we would spend all that money on.

We watched a kid in a yellow shirt drive his remote control boat around the lake and wondered if THAT would awaken the monster fish. We giggled at the antics of the tiny sunfish along the bank as they tried to steal the bait from our hooks and we just sat in the grass and watched the ripples on the water.

Soon it became time for snack. I knew this because my god-daughter clearly said so. We pulled in our lines, walked back to the car and fetched the big, blue lunch bucket and smaller snack bag that her mom had packed and we went over to one of the shore-side benches to sit and eat while we soaked more bait.

This was a drastic change from my usual fishing meal of beef jerky and canteen water eaten while on the move… and I kind of liked it.

I experienced (or rather re-experienced) how much better cheese and crackers taste when you scribe a happy face in the cheese and I remembered how much fun it is to pull Oreos apart before eating them.

And for the first time in a long time I smiled at just being out on the water. Not about the trophy fish I just hooked, or the new, secret spot I just discovered or the way my cast laid out in a perfect loop or the path my fly took as it rode the current – I smiled because I was having fun with someone who thinks fishing is mostly about doing cool stuff outside with someone you want to be with.

We watched the dragonflies zip around just above the surface and we laughed as they hovered in front of us, eyeing our bait as we got ready to cast it out.

We kept this up until close to dinnertime and then just as I had given the “ten more minutes” call, she saw him — cruising about a yard from the bank, a twelve to fifteen-inch Largemouth Bass – the “Monster Fish”.

Much to my delight, my god-daughter, uncoached by me, made a perfect cast in front of the Bass, using the Barbie pole.

Now, I would like to say that the Bass hit the bait and we landed it for a grand photo-op that would provide Christmas portraits for the grandparents, but it was not to be.

Instead, the fish rushed the perfectly presented offering, bumped it and then swam off.

You’ve heard of the expression, “jaw-dropping”? Well, it’s true. I saw a seven-year old do it, though I did not expect it to be followed by a squeal of delight.

So, although we did not bag the “monster fish”, we did stand and stare him in the eye… and he blinked first.

And as I drove home, with a certain someone chatting happily and animatedly in the back seat, I felt completely refreshed. 

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By Sean Fenner, August 17, 2009

The California Department of Fish and Game has posted the list of the fishing spots that they will be stocking this week for Region 5-South Coast Region. Remember to practice catch and release as much as possible, pick up trash when you see it, and respect this resource so that everyone can enjoy it!!!

(Rainbow Trout)