Anglers See Best Fishing in Years

A cold water cycle might be contributing to the abundance of rockfish along the Southern California coast, anglers said after some large catches over the weekend. 

"It's rare to catch so many reds (vermilion) in such shallow water along the coast," said Don Ashley from Pierpoint Landing. "I think it's a combination of a cold water cycle, which rockfish thrive in, as well as anglers' conservation efforts."

This is the best local fishing for the bottom grabbers Ashley said he's seen in 30 years.

Larry Moore, of Westminster, and Sergio Fainsztein, of Costa Mesa, were on board the Enterprise out of Long Beach Marina Sportfishing and reported excellent fishing.

"Drop after drop produced big fat reds," Fainsztein said.

Moore said he had some great catches.

"We were fishing in 150 feet of water and catching reds that you would normally have to run 40-60 miles to catch. Great fishing," Moore said.

Will Ebersman was on the half-day boat Southern Cal out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach on Sunday where he took the jackpot with a 6 1/2-pound red.

"Depth averaged about 150 feet," Ebersman said. "Bottom current kept changing, so we had to make very short moves to reposition the anchor to keep us over the spot. Not much in the way of the very small 'aquarium' fish."

Boats fishing out of Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach, near the Palos Verdes Peninsula and elsewhere are all reporting some of the best bottom fishing seen in many years.

Besides excellent catches of rockfish in the Santa Monica Bay, there has also been some good lingcod fishing.

Southern Cal skipper Mitch Christenson said the fish have been biting like this for several weeks now.

The rockfish season closes Jan. 1.