Fishing

The West Basin is located from Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro, out the breakwater to the San Pedro Light, then across the harbor to the west end of the Navy Mole in Long Beach.The Port Authority has filled in an area with sand from a starting point one mile out the breakwater to the San Pedro Light. The area called the Shallow Water Habitat was filled into the harbor in a three mile arc to replace many shallow water areas that were filled in by the landfill operations. The entire area is 15 feet deep and shoulders a mile long lip on the dredge channels that are 83 feet deep. Another Shallow Water habitat was built on the East side of pier 400, the pier that takes up most of the outer harbor. This spot is only about 1/2 mile square. These areas are almost automatic halibut catching areas because the great expanse of shallow area lets more bait swim closer to the hiding "butt". Both of these areas are meant for the artificials. The water is very shallow and there is lots of it which lets an angler work rubber swim baits without a lot of line off the reel.

The West composition is mostly mud with streak areas of hard sand. These areas of hard bottom are located where the currents flow the heaviest. It's also a wide area of uneven bottom textures created by the dredging operations that took place to fill the recent landfills and the new Pier 400. Most predominant though, are the large channels that were carved out of the bottom to accommodate the passage of the large container ships to the loading and off loading piers. They extend through the entire harbor like a freeway.

The West Basin bottom composition is mostly mud with streak areas of hard sand. These hard areas are located where the currents flow the heaviest. It's also a wide spread area of uneven bottom textures caused by the dredging that took place to fill in the recent landfills.

The West Basin is also the mooring of two bait receiver barges. One is the operated by the "LA Bait Company" and the other by "Bills Bait". The two receivers are stocked with live bait from their bait catching seiner boats. They hold anchovies, sardines, and squid for sale to the boat fishermen. They are found just adjacent to the fishing pier off the breakwater. For this story though they are chum stations for every fish that swims in the harbor. It¹s a seasonal thing for many of the fish, one of which is the white sea bass. Starting in early spring and lasting through the summer and fall they sometimes gather around the receivers in such numbers that anglers tire of catching them. Mostly they are under the size limit of 28 inches but sometimes an angler will find himself chasing a 20 pounder across the harbor. Many 30 pound fish have been landed around the receivers but most aren¹t landed with light harbor tackle. The receivers are built to hold large quantities of live bait and the holding nets are filled daily with tons of bait from the company seiners. The nets are large capacity with about 20 foot scopes. They can be pulled up and down with winches for ease in dip netting of the bait. The receivers also sell bait to the commercial sportboats who take on tons of the bait for their sportfishing customers.

During these transfer operations many live baits escape into the surrounding harbor; creating a unique chumming situation. Sea Lions also continually pound holes in the net where the live bait escapes into the open water. All of this creates a continual chumming situation that really attracts the predators. In the spring and throughout the summer, barracuda are "thick" around the receivers, but like the sea bass, most are under the 28 inch limit. Year round the schools of mackerel are so thick they are bothersome when you are fishing for other more desirables. But the bill fishermen find it very convenient to catch these live mackerel baitsl in the calm harbor situation before they head to sea.

A popular technique for the halibut fishermen is to drop a live bait to the bottom as far under the barge as they can get it. Big halibut lay in the shade and ambush the bait well under the receiver. In the summer you can catch a halibut on every single bait that goes down but most are "short" of the legal 22 inches, yet, 20 pounders are not unusual.

The channel entrance to the City of San Pedro, near "Reservation Point" has a very hard bottom sand composure. The currents are accelerated by the narrow entrance and create great halibut gathering places. The other side (east) of reservation is the location of the other Shallow Water Habitat . Small jigs and rubber tails work very well in the habitat but small sand bass can drive you insane though, so prepare yourself with large jigs too. The little ones will peck away at them but the larger ones will get hooked.

The Navy Mole is a line of rocks that support an interesting fishing situation. There are many places like this in the Long Beach section coming up. Once in awhile sand spits project out from the rocks about 50 yards into 45 foot drop-offs. They can be only 20 feet deep in a surrounding area of 45 feet. They are tremendous halibut areas but like the sand bass be prepared to go through 20 illegal halibut before a legal over 22" is caught. I like to sit directly in the middle, drop a hot smelt bait straight down and pull a swim bait lure up the sharp drop off in all directions.