Historic saltwater "Barge" fishing on the CA coast - history

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/colorful-fishing-barges-popularized-ocean-fishing-west-coast-leaving-legacy-anglers?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Very interesting and never heard anything about it.

[Tony Buzolich]

Bill,
Judging by those pictures they may have been around before you were born. Note too that they were mostly around southern California.

[Woodman]

Bill,
Judging by those pictures they may have been around before you were born. Note too that they were mostly around southern California.

They were still around in the late 1960's and early 1970's when I was a kid. You got shuttled out from the pier and found your place at the rail. Back in the day, you could actually catch a fair number of fish from these barges. I remember the newspaper used to have fish reports every day from the barges and party boats. How many fish of each species caught.

For obvious reasons, I never saw anyone fly fishing from the barges ;)

[Mel1c]

Growing up in SoCal as a teenager my friends and I would go out on the Redondo barge.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Growing up in SoCal as a teenager my friends and I would go out on the Redondo barge.

We would fly fish for Bonito in Kings Harbor at Redondo Beach near the bait barges.

In the 1970s we would tow our own aluminum boat down there.

Back then the Bonito were 5#and really screamed.

[Mel1c]

We would fly fish for Bonito in Kings Harbor at Redondo Beach near the bait barges.

In the 1970s we would tow our own aluminum boat down there.

Back then the Bonito were 5#and really screamed.

Yes, I didn’t fly fish yet but we would get those bonito on the surface using conventional gear. A real kick.

[Woodman]

Yes, I didn’t fly fish yet but we would get those bonito on the surface using conventional gear. A real kick.

I used to catch them off the pier at Seal Beach on conventional gear. A big Rapala behind a block of wood to give casting distance. California sure has changed, and mostly not for the better.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We had a lot of family in Santa Cruz so we spent summers there in the 1950s.

At maybe 12 I could buy a handline on the main Santa Cruz pier for 99 cents and a cup of cooked shrimp for 25 cents.

We caught tons of ~8 inch "Tom Cod" which were the young of the larger rock cod.

Old timers would catch small fish (perch) and put them on a big convention rig and toss them under the pier for big fish.




One time, ~30 years ago, two old-timers were demonstrating how they fished off the piers around Santa Cruz before World War II.

They used long cane polls with a long piece of heavy braided line and some silver hooks.

They made up a small bucket of "mash" which was a corn meal or oatmeal with water something in it for scent.

They put the lines down in the water then with a big spoon they tossed the concoction where the line met the water.

Then they jigged the rods up and down and caught some kind of smelt that no longer exists.