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If it's Sunday, a great place to take a
stroll and watch people fishing is the
Belmont Pier in Belmont Shore, sometimes referred to as Belmont Shores,
though really it is "Shore", a community of Long Beach, California.
Located south of downtown Long Beach, you can see the city skyline from the
pier and watch the large freighters head for the port to unload their
shipments of products that clothe and bring cars and merchandise to the
mainland US. And while you're strolling on the scenic Belmont Pier, chances are pretty good
that you'll see two cousins out fishing at a Southern California pier.
Thanks to their grandma who takes them fishing and often neatly baits their
hooks while their casting a line, the Lozano cousins are doing what they
love...fishing.
Maybe you can even watch them as you
zip by on the Aqualink high-speed Catamaran boat that sometimes
passes close to the pier, as
seen in the video.
It's a family tradition for these
teen boys
who know tell us that the best fishing is often before the sun comes up or
after the sun goes down. They started fishing when they were young,
and have been out at the California piers catching fish ever since. A
skilled angler in her own right, their grandma drives them from their homes in
Whittier and Montclair to Long Beach's pier, Seal Beach, Redondo
Beach....and just about any place in Southern California where the fishing
is good. Not just about bonding, the family exemplifies a lifestyle.
Many Californians who love fishing go to a pier with their easy chairs,
books, radios and kids to spend a relaxing day outdoors by the sea.
On the day we met up with our budding
correspondents, they caught a shark and assorted fish ideal for bait. We
asked them lots of questions, which they answered. Here's a sampling:
Q. Can you eat the fish?
A. This year you can't eat them. Listen to the news and ask people on
the pier who will tell you that the fish are poison right now. You'll get
very sick if you eat them.
Q. How do you know when you have a
fish on the line?
A. You see the line begin to tighten a little, but you can't touch it then
or you'll scare the fish away. You have to wait to till it starts to move a
lot.
Q. Why doesn't the fishing pole fall
over the pier when a fish tugs on the line?
A. There's a big ring on the pole that runs into the pier rail and is
stopped.
Q. Where is the fishing best?
A. The best pier fishing is at Belmont
Pier and Redondo Beach most of the time. When a boat comes by (which is
fairly often in Long Beach), it scares the fish and they come toward the
pier where we catch them.
Q. What's your biggest fish?
A. Once we caught a shark that took about an hour to pull in. Our grandma
was holding on, too, so we wouldn't get tugged into the water.
Q. What do people need to know about
fishing?
A. It takes a lot of patience...a LOT of patience!
While these local anglers are able to
drive to the pier, fish, then go home in a day, not every fun-seeker has
that option. Many of us drive quite a distance to see the local sights and
for us, there are many options for overnight stays. Why not book an
affordable hotel room near the harbor? While the hotel is in need of
renovation as of this writing, we like the price at the
Best Western Golden Sails hotel. Be sure to click on the Packages option
to see if there are any specials going. Many opt to pay more and stay
at more of a full service hotel, which we've done as well. In so doing, one
of the best options is the
Hyatt Regency Long Beach Hotel, overlooking the harbor, aquarium and
Queen Mary ship. If you're mobile and want more options, you should consider
beach vacations along the Orange County coast, or head on over to Disneyland
theme park area in Anaheim for
over 100 hotels to choose from.
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