Well, I went for a walk on Venice Beach today, and as I was walking back to my vehicle I began counting all of the dead fish that I came across. In the short distance that I walked, about 1/2 mile, I counted a total of 58 mostly large Mullet, 123 small Pinfish, 2 Blowfish, 3 small Catfish, 1 very small Sheepshead, and 1 Cormorant.
Keep in mind that these are only the dead fish that I saw. I’m sure there were some others that I missed since they could have been hidden under clumps of seaweed.
Also, the last time I went fishing on the south jetty, last Thursday, I caught a total of 18 fish. Three keeper Sheepshead, one of which I lost at the edge of the rocks, and one White Grunt. The rest were tiny Pinfish and undersized Mangrove Snappers.
All were caught on live shrimp and cut squid. I’m hopeful that the fish will be larger as time passes, but at the same time I’m doubtful that things will get much better due to the Red Tide.
Good luck and tight lines. 🐟🎣

Most times I go to the far end of jetty, but I’ve fished many spots along the entire length of the jetty. I’ve fished both sides of the jetty too.
One of my fishing buddies and I are going to try surf fishing at Venice Beach or maybe even Casperson Beach. It will be our first time fishing the surf.

Sheepshead are very good eating fish. I enjoyed them.
Buddy209 we’ll get together another time.

Thank you for your kind wishes

Thanks

👍🎣🐟

I haven’t done any surf fishing yet myself. I’m used to the surf up in New Jersey and down to North Carolina. You can read the water and know where the sandbars are along with troughs and cuts. Here there’s barely any wave action to give you a clue of where to fish.
I would be game to go out and explore.
Let me know if you’re able to get some info on where to get started.

I went fishing on the south jetty in Venice yesterday with a couple of buddies. The day didn’t start out good. My alarm didn’t go off at 6am so I felt like I was behind the curve. I discovered that it was set to go off at 6am next Monday.😤 Anyway I wake up and look at the clock and I jump out of bed mumbling expletives to myself.😂 I get ready to go and I’m out the door in 20 minutes. I stop and get some live shrimp and squid and head over to the jetty. It’s close to 7:30am by the time I make it out to the far end of the jetty. My buddies are there and have been fishing for over 30 minutes already. Luckily they were only catching small fish so far. I get set up and get a line in the water and nothing. ☹️ I can feel the little fish pecking at my shrimp. I change tactics and put on a tiny #12 hook and little bits of squid. Right away I start catching little Pinfish. The first one I caught I took it off of the hook and immediately put it on a large circle hook and cast it out to see if a larger fish was looking for an easy meal. No such luck. ☹️ around 11am I finally get a really nice bite. I could tell right away that it was a much nicer fish. I put another shrimp on cast it out. I’m only using a little split shot to get the bait to slowly sink to the bottom. 20 seconds later and I’m hooked up with the first Sheepshead. I get it to the edge of the rocks and grab the line to lift it up and it falls off the hook. It lands on a rock that is two feet deeper than the surrounding rocks and my heart sinks. Lucky for me it just lays there. I was able to reach down between the rocks and grab it before it was able to flop itself off the rock and into the water. What a way to get the adrenaline pumping. I finally caught my first keeper in months. I get baited up again and a few minutes later I’m hooked up with another nice fish. It’s another Sheepshead. I try to lift it out of the water and the same thing happens. The fish falls off of the hook. I’m not so lucky this time though. It hits the rocks and with one flip it’s back at home in the water. I’m now cussing 🤬 at myself for not having the net handy. Well, before I do anything else I get the net and position it so that I can easily get it if I hook another nice fish. About 20 minutes and several rigs later I hook another nice fish. I get it up close to the rocks and grab the net. I guide the fish into the net and I now have two keeper fish. Then all of sudden the bite turns off. I’m not getting any bites except for little fish pecking at my bait. Thirty minutes and several more lost rigs goes by before I get another nice bite. It turns out to be a White Grunt. That was the last keeper size fish that I catch. I did manage to catch about a dozen small Mangrove Snappers before I ran out of shrimp. I caught a few more small Snappers on squid but nothing of any size to keep. It’s now a few minutes after 3pm. I’m wiped out from all of the activity. I pack up all of my gear and head home. After I finish washing all of my gear I fillet the fish and head into the kitchen. I like most of the fish I eat breaded and fried. And I have to say it was nice to finally have some fresh fish to eat.
I hope to get out there again in a couple days. It takes me that long to recover after a long day of fishing.
I also want to give a shout out to Buddy209. It was nice to finally meet up. I’ll definitely let you know when I’m heading out to the jetty again.

A bad day of fishing is always better than a good day at work.
Tight lines everyone 🎣🐟.

I fished off of the south jetty in Venice about a week ago. The only thing my buddy and I caught were Pinfish that were about 2 1/2” long.
I also had my kayak out almost three weeks ago now. I had one nice Snook on my line for a few seconds before it spit the hook. The trip before that we were out on the jetty again. All of the fish we were catching were small, Mangrove Snapper and Pinfish.
I hoping to get out again this week.

Everything likes shrimp. Use a 2/0 hook and hook the shrimp in the head or tail. In the head of the shrimp you’ll see a dark spot, that’s the brain. Avoid hitting the brain when putting the hook through. The shrimp will stay alive longer that way. If you find that your bait is being stolen, try either a smaller shrimp or cut the shrimp into two or three smaller pieces.
If you’re fishing from a pier try dropping your bait down by the pilings. If you’re on a jetty you can cast your bait fairly close to the rocks, but be careful, it’s real easy to get snagged. If you hook a fish by the rocks and it swims into the rocks, give it some slack and a lot of times the fish will swim out of its hiding spot. When it does that reel it in quickly.
Weather you’re fishing from land or on a boat, keep in mind that fish like structure.
Good luck and tight lines. 🐟🎣

I was able to find this but that’s about it.

https://merv.tripod.com/index-4.html

Anytime. Hopefully others that see the post will share it with their friends. Pass it along.

I confess that I sort of cheated. When I can’t identify a fish I snap a picture, or in this case a screenshot. Then I bring it up in google photos and there’s a symbol at the bottom of the screen that looks like a square with rounded corners and a dot in the middle. When you click on that symbol google will search for pictures that resemble your picture. I find that most times the first picture that it shows is the correct one.
I find myself using it often since I moved down to Florida three years ago. I lived up north in Pennsylvania and I had never seen or heard of most of the fish I started catching down here. I find it to be a very handy tool for IDing fish and other wildlife and things in general. So it’s not just for IDing fish.

Maybe a bluespotted cornetfish???
The first one is a smallmouth buffalo.

I’ve eaten them. They’re not bad. I definitely wouldn’t starve if that’s all I was catching.