Barge fishing in the late 60's, early 70's

There's not much for barge fishing these days. Matter of fact, there may not be any left....that I know of anyway. When I first started fishing in California in 1963 there was a lot of barges. My dad used to take me to Malibu Pier to fish. I remember being envious of the guys with long rods that used to fish for halibut. My tackle was an outfit from Thrifty drug store. A Roddy combo sufficient to catch perch. In fishing from the pier, I would hear the announcement over the PA - 'the Way We Goooo!' I think that was the name of the ferry boat taking anglers out to the barge - 'Star of Malibu'. After telling my dad how much I just had to go fishing on the barge - he took me out there. While I don't have any detailed memories of the fishing, I do remember hooking large bonito. By the time I went to the barge - I had a Tuna King rod and an Optimo reel. Thrifty Drug Store used to carry fishing stuff - the line was this bright blue line. I wish I had pictures. I used to also go to Payne's Sporting Goods on Redondo Beach Boulevard. There was a guy named Jerry working there that fished everywhere. I also used to go to Yo's. All via a skateboard I made in Mr. Creasy's wood shop at Peary Junior High School. By the late 60's I was fishing a lot. At Pierpoint Landing, there was a barge tied up at the end of the docks - 'Davey's Locker' or something like that. Matter of fact, I think it was parked by Dearden's Fish Market. Lots of tomcod and bonito, and lots of fun. I also fished a lot in King Harbor (Redondo Beach) - riding my Schwinn Stingray from Gardena. The bonito fishing was awesome in the harbor. I'm almost positive there were three (3) barges you can fish from Redondo. The Sacramento, California and danged if I can remember the third one. There were two ferry boats taking anglers to and between the barges - Cutty Sark and Voyager. I think the Voyager is still at Redondo. Fishing on the bottom you could catch these slimy icky things called black cod. Man, if I only knew. I love eating those things today. Quite the delicacy. The Sacramento was the nicest barge - I think it was a converted gambling ship - so there was lots of shady areas to fish from. The other two were all open - so on hot days, you got cooked. I didn't really catch anything particularly interesting - bonito, mackeral, various rockfish. I remember hearing about bluefin tuna being caught - but never saw one. The only tuna I saw were on the half day boats out of Redondo. That was a lot of fun. Barge fishing was fun - but once I discovered fishing from open party boats, I did not fish much from barges. I think there were a lot of barges to the south - Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and even further south. I recently got a book describing barge fishing in California. I think I caught the tail end of this type of fishing. I wonder how they would do now?