Christmas Eve in Venice (Beach)

Jake staking out "our spot" at the Venice Beach Pier

Jake and I are conspirators on developing his sister Juliana into a little salty.  After 6 days straight of rain here in So Cal, the clouds parted and a beautiful day showed itself. It was one of those L.A. winter days where this Seattle boy is just happy to be living here, much less getting a chance to fish.  During these storms,  the boats have been docked.  Now the crews are home for a couple days.  We decided to head down to the pier and just enjoy the day.  If all else failed, Jake could work on casting his new reel, a Silver Avet MXJ lefty (Salty hooked him up early ;-)).  And who knows, maybe Juliana would catch her first fish.  So after picking up donuts and squid, we made our way to the pier.

In the winter, the sand is bermed up so that when you park in the lot, it’s a little hard to see out to the pier.  As we got out of the lot and onto the platform itself, we could see a crowded pier, but few fishing.  When we got out to “our spot” on the end, facing north toward Santa Monica, Malibu and beyond, we found ourselves with the run of the place.

I think she's hooked

So out with the sabikis, and let’s see if we can hook up.  We weren’t there more than more than 15-20 minutes when Juju’s pole gets hit.  Jake and I are cheering her on and she’s reeling up that little baitcaster like it’s Moby Dick on the other end.  I was enjoying this scene immensely.  I’m looking over the edge to see what surfaces and it’s a nice little croaker!  I helped her get it over the rail and her look was priceless.   Less than 10 minutes later, she hooks up again.  OMG, It’s a wide open croaker bite! (lol)  After a couple of thoroughly enjoyable hours, the final tally is Juju 5 croakers, Jake 3 croakers, and Salty got shut out.  I’ve never had a better time not catching fish 🙂