goin to california salt water fishin

anyone fish salt water im going to california in april and would love to get a line or 2 wet any info would help alot i have never fishied salt water  thanks

I went out with Capt Calvin from La Jolla Charters  January 2007 he has two boats a small skiff and a 23 cc. He does spinning and bait casting and trolling. We went out on his skiff and I fly fished. He put me on Bonnita and Black Bass. Had a good time with him.When I get back there again will definetly use him again.

Where in California are you going? Back in '01 I fished on a charter on the Pacific out of San Fransisco for Salmon. That was pretty decent. Since then, I've been to California twice. San Diego in '03 and Anahiem this past November. Couldn't hook up with any charters for what I considered to be a reasonable rate on those last two trips (San Diego and Anahiem), so for the San Diego trip I rented a Buell and did a 250 mile motorcycle trip, and in Anahiem I just drove down to the Balboa pier. Didn't catch anything worthwhile off the pier, just a few skate. But it was cheap. I take a Cabelas telescopic rod with me (as well as reel, pliers, knife, and some basic tackle) when I travel. No problem putting that stuff I just mentioned in your checked bags.    

That's a little far north for Balboa or Newport beach piers. Depends on how far your willing to drive. Might take you an hour (or more) to get there. And I don't know if you've ever driven on the So Cal freeways, but they are quite an experience. I do believe there are some piers up the LA way though. Here's a site that has some good info on California piers: http://www.pierfishing.com/
 
The price for charters in So Cal was too much for me (from what I found, typically in the neighborhood of $1,000 to $1,500) and I was only going to be fishing by myself so I didn't have anyone to split the cost with.